We’re free people in a free and glorious country.
OMG! That's so novel and astute.. 
Posted on 06/25/2005 7:59:52 AM PDT by baystaterebel
Thank you very much, thank you very very much one and all. Thank you President Williams, trustees, graduates, parents, grandparents, thank you very much. Doreen and Bonnie, I am so happy to be here. I am so happy that this weather is so great. I can’t tell you. I looked out of my room last night and I thought, my God it’s a monsoon, and then, suddenly it cleared up. I love Ithaca. I love the Commons. I love the waterfalls. It’s a fabulous place. I can well imagine why some of us are welling up with tears as we get ready to leave. This woman is my favorite. She’s going to be teaching autistic children. She’s crying because she’s leaving.
Anyway. I want to make it clear that although I am one of probably eleven or twelve republicans at most in this field today, I am not here representing President Bush, I’m not here representing Karl Rove. “I’m representin’ for them gangstas all across the world, hitting corners in them low low's girl, I’m takin’ my time to respect the beat and I still got love for the street.” [quoting from the rap song “The Next Episode” by Dr. Dre] And I also want to say, I also want to say, that…I want to thank all of you for doing the things that make it necessary to use Clear Eyes because you guys have been paying my mortgage for a long time and … don’t stop.
(Excerpt) Read more at benstein.com ...
If you were a Ben Stein fan before, you will be more of when after you read it.
I was just watching Ben Stein a little while ago on Neil Cavuto's show and it dawned on me that not only am I not a fan, but I think he's one of the dumbest morons I've seen in a long time.
save--I like, and usually agree with, the way Mr. Stein thinks--I will enjoy this later...
Excellent article, excellent speech! Ben's great but I'm still surprised he was in Ithaca, the city of evil, giving a commencement address! Maybe he can make a regular appearance there, it would be a start!
Great speech and great lessons for kids. It helps to be apolitical and personal in these matters.
Fabulous article. Thanks.
I used to read Stein's columin in the American Spectator, and he was always going on about his wonderful son Tommy; the kid could do nothing wrong; the sun shone out of his rear end. Stein bragged about spoiling the kid; about showering him with love and affection and all the material things that money could buy. I'd say to my daughter, "I wonder how long it will be before precious little Tommy becomes a serial killer?" I don't know if it will ever come to that, but now that Tommy's 17 it seems I detect a touch of wry irony in Stein's mention of him ... when he mentions him at all.
I can't help but be reminded of Marcus Aurelius and his precious Commodus.
The question is....... what kind of a response did he get from the audience (Ithaca graduates)?
"If we want to we can go out and protest Walmart or Wegmans or the war in Iraq, and we have warm beds and air conditioning in the summer, and we can sleep in late if we want when we have classes, and organize ourselves to get tofu and get organic tofu if we want, and we can go on jet planes to see our parents. And we wake up and there’s no Gestapo chasing us down the street or killing us because we’re Jews or whatever else we are. We’re free people in a free and glorious country.
"We have problems in this country. There’s no question, you’d have to be blind, deaf, and dumb not to realize we have problems in this country, especially of extreme economic inequality. But we solve them with ballots and discussion and debate on CNN and NBC, CNBC and Fox, instead of with bombs and bullets. We are blessed. Blessed beyond…beyond…reason."
Yeah, I see how you'd have a problem with that. You come up with something, expose it to the arena of ideas, and we'll see how you really are...not that we can't already tell.
Bump for later
A great classy speech. Amen to what he said.
Almost impossible to be "more" Ben fan--
He's a great mensch--one of the best.
Let's all hope that he perseveres.
I am sure he really cares what you think. Come to think of it, I don't care what you think.
AntiGuv, you mean anti-American.
We’re free people in a free and glorious country.
OMG! That's so novel and astute..
Bump for an inspiring speech.
I am sure he really cares what I think much more than I care what he thinks. His career is a public persona, mine fortunately is not. What I think can have an impact on him, however minuscule of its own accord. What he thinks cannot have the slightest impact whatsoever on me.
To be clear, I mean what I think of him versus what he thinks of me (probably nothing). What he thinks in general can have an impact on me to the extent that it can influence public policy.
OMG! That's so novel and astute..
Would you rather NOT live in a free and glorious country? (seeing as how that was the only sentence to which you so "winkingly" chose to respond...)
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