Vice-President Mike Pence was scheduled to speak at a commencement address at Wisconsin Lutheran College in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Saturday. Thursday those plans were canceled when Pence was dropped as the speaker after “careful consideration of the escalating events in Kenosha.”
Wisconsin Lutheran College is an independent private Christian college. It’s a small school with a student population of just over 1200. The commencement isn’t on campus, it is at Franklin Field in Franklin. A substitute speaker, Rev. Mark Jeske of St. Marcus Lutheran Church, has been named. The excuse given for the disinviting Pence is the violent chaos in Kenosha. It’s a convenient excuse, though, given the fact that the selection of Pence has been controversial on campus.
When the college announced it last week, it said the selection was not an endorsement of a political party and “cannot” be viewed as a political event.
“We believe it is possible within our context to leave partisan politics at the door and to celebrate America, our freedoms, Christian servant leadership and our graduates’ immense accomplishments,” the statement said.
Apparently the politically active faculty and students thought otherwise. Obviously partisan politics dictate speakers on campus, frankly, like most colleges today. How many times have you read a story about a well-known conservative speaker being run off or canceled because of that’s person’s conservative political views? Lots of times, we all have. The days of young adults going to college to learn to think and reason for themselves by hearing and studying different points of view are long gone. Just look at the rising generation full of entitled, arrogant socialists, determined to destroy capitalism. Going even further, the Black Lives Matter movement was co-founded by self-proclaimed Marxists.
“The mere invitation of a Vice President of an incredibly divisive and controversial ticket to speak in a swing state months before an election is ignorant and deceptive,” the letter said. “Speaking to young adults months before an election is a political move and not one that WLC can decide is apolitical.”
The alumni went so far as to express condolences to the college’s 2020 class.
“Your commencement ceremony should not have been infected by toxic politics,” they wrote. “You didn’t ask for this, and you should not have needed to ask for this not to happen. Controversial political figures need to stay out of our academic celebrations.”
Did you read that? “An incredibly divisive and controversial ticket”. We are talking about Mike Pence, though. He’s about as vanilla of a politician as you can get. His strong religious faith and belief in traditional values drives the left nuts but, still. This is malarkey. And, the social unrest in Kenosha is just being used as an excuse to cave to the melting snowflake liberals.
One possibility for the sudden cancelation is that a theme of Mike Pence’s speech to the Republican convention Wednesday was one of law and order. Pence included Kenosha in his speech.
“Let me be clear: the violence must stop – whether in Minneapolis, Portland, or Kenosha,” Pence said. “Too many heroes have died defending our freedoms to see Americans strike each other down. We will have law and order on the streets of this country for every American of every race and creed and color.”
There is nothing even vaguely controversial in those words. At the time Pence spoke those words, Biden had not uttered one word against the violence and destruction in the streets of cities across the country. That made his words of support for law enforcement important. This is a cave to a letter signed by 270 students and facility members in protest of the choice of Pence and posted online.
Vice-President Pence’s office released a gracious statement.
Pence spokesman Devin O’Malley said the vice president “understands and supports” the school’s “decision to prioritize the safety and well-being of their students.”
Pence “wishes the students well as they celebrate the accomplishment of graduating from college and as they embark on their next journey,” O’Malley said in a statement.
So, another conservative has been canceled on an American college campus. Even the vice-president isn’t immune from the intolerance of liberals who insist only one way of thinking is allowable – and that isn’t conservative.