Posted on 05/19/2006 2:35:59 PM PDT by Unam Sanctam
...a beautiful prose poem to America, national service, and civil debate (congrats Mark Salter, as ever), and gets derided for it, of course.
I supported the war in Iraq. Boos. Explains the war was not for cheap oil. A little heckling: You're full of it! Says he thought the country's interest and values demanded the war. Someone shouts: Wrongly! Someone else: More poetry! (A reference to lines from Yeats McCain had quoted earlier.)
He says whether [the war] was necessary or not...we all should shed a tear for those who have sacrificed in it. Some hissing.
Shouting.
He eventually enters into a Bushian rift: All people share the desire to be free; human rights are above the state and beyond history; we are insisting that all people have the right to be free. Someone shouts: We're graduating, not voting! Lots of derisive shouts and laughter and applause.
As McCain continues with a personal story, a student shouts: It's about my life, not yours. McCain:
When I was a young man, I thought glory was the highest value... Groans from the students. It's not about you! Sit down!
McCain circles back around to the theme of civility: We are not enemies, we are compatriots... Boos, shouts. McCain: It should remain an argument among friends; we should be respectful of the goodness in each other. Literally one person applauds.
McCain goes on to tell his story about his reconciliation with an opponent of the Vietnam War: I had a friend once... Groans, boos.
He talks about forgiving his friend who dissented from the war. Hostile rumblings from the students.
He says after the reconciliation, he and his friend worked together for shared ideals. A shout: We don't share your ideals! As McCain closes there is a mix of boos and applause, and a few people even stand to clap.
If I saw McCain, I would boo and hiss as well, though for different reasons obviously. McCain is a disgrace to the GOP.
What school was this?
The children of the left are so sweet and endearing aren't they? On the other hand I have no love for McCain either.
Sadly, obviously not.
I don't care if Nancy Pelosi is coming to my high school, I'm not going to jeer her unless she starts attacking someone else. She's entitled to her opinion, just like John McCain is his.
New School...the one in Greenwich Village? Those are kids with trust funds who,somehow,couldn't get into Columbia or NYU.
'We're graduating, not voting!'
Thank God! Again we see use of the patented democRATic defense mechanism: sticking their fingers in their ears and shouting "la la la, I'm not listening!"
Although these moonbat kids are validation enough for mandatory sterilization of liberals before they can reproduce, I would have been right there with him with the boo's and hisses
I am not a McCain fan at all...but that was uncalled for.
However, I think these politicians that drag out "personal stories"...turn people off.
Every time I hear one start talking about a personal experience I know I turn them off.
That said...the KIDS obviously have not been taught respect or manners.
I was recently at the U of AZ. commencement, the speaker was Congressmen Jim Kolbe (R-Az.). The reception he received was polite with no audable heckling.
But he did three things that helped him to be well received:
1. He kept politics out of it.
2. He made the subject pertinent to the graduates.
3. He was brief.
It sounds like McCain may have violated both 1 and 2.
You are missing an important point: the Left doesn't believe in free speech as conservatives understand it.
Hate speech and free speech zones are now common on US campuses. Even a goofy liberal like McCain is too far to the right for these bigots.
The left wants speech controlled. If you are not toteing the leftist line you will be shouted down.
They are in many ways, fascists.
I think that "New School" maybe the one that Bob Kerrey runs...but, I may be wrong.
"They are simply TOO STUPID to realize they are playing into the enemies hands. Just too stupid."
Speaking of which, a guy in my computer repair class was making fun of me for being a Republican, and called me a communist! Can't they at least get their political spectrum right?
The New School, in NYC, run by 9/11 Commission member, Bob Kerrey.
I'd let him speak. He has a right to his opinions. I wouldn't shout down Howard Dean. You have to let people speak their ideas, and they have to give you a chance to refute their ideas.
It's called civil discourse.
Thanks for proving that some Freepers can be as ill mannered as the Leftist moonbats.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.