Posted on 05/23/2004 5:05:46 PM PDT by 11th Earl of Mar
BY BART JONES STAFF WRITER
May 23, 2004, 7:17 PM EDT
E.L. Doctorow, one of the most celebrated writers in America, was nearly booed off the stage at Hofstra University Sunday when he gave a commencement address lambasting President George W. Bush and effectively calling him a liar.
Booing that came mainly from the crowd in the stands became so intense that Doctorow stopped speaking at one point...
Doctorow, who spent virtually all of his 20-minute address in Hempstead criticizing Bush, told the crowd that like himself the president is a storyteller. But "sadly they are not good stories this president tells," he said. "They are not good stories because they are not true." That line provoked the first boos, along with scattered cheers.
...Those lines provoked an outburst of boos so loud the "Ragtime" author stopped the speech... He attacked Bush for giving the rich tax breaks, doing "a very poor job of combating terrorism" and allowing the government to subpoena libraries "to see what books you've been taking out."
Many parents and relatives were livid over the address... Bill Schmidt, 51, of North Bellmore, shared the outrage. "To ruin my daughter's graduation with politics is pathetic" ...
One Hofstra official said Sunday that while Doctorow had the right to say what he did, he violated the unwritten code that college commencement speeches should inspire and unite a student body. Provost Dr. Herman Berliner said he has been to numerous graduation ceremonies during the past 30 years and "I cannot remember a commencement speech that was as divisive as this commencement speech was."
...
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Well, he's part of the Manhattan glitterati, the New York Review of Books crowd. They always give kudos to each other. Continue reading Hemingway!
The way these creeps become "celebrated" is to get enough leftist academics to require his books for their courses.
I went to a commencemnt yesterday and if I had heard anything near like this, I would have immediately walked out. Period. I don't put up with liberal crap.
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