Why am I not surprised?
The socialists and anti-American crowd harboring within the US have begun their opposition drive and it will only increase in intensity.
Next will come the certain congresional and media investigations on the intelligence failures (quote) prior to 9/11.
Islamists and domestic muslims will flood the courts with legal action demanding that they be set apart as an oppressed people denied some list of rights and a homeland somewhere with a nice welfare system.
The democrats will, of course, announce that this all would never have happened if Al Gore had been allowed his proper role in the White House.
Someone, somewhere, will trip another fuze or pop a canister of uglyness, and then we'll see how all the patriotic zeal of the past months actually holds up.
If I were a Republican president today I'd be planning for four year tour of duty and getting everything done I could possibly fit into that time frame.
I guess that meant it was open season on lefties.
The thing about most lefties is they are wussies. (After all: If they had grown up valuing martial virtues, they'd be conservatives.) I've always found that they are pretty brave in a bottle and rock throwing mob, but if you start peeling them off and beating them silly one at a time, they go down like extras in a Kung Fu movie.
"Canned Palestinian Children Meat, slaughtered according to Jewish rites under American license."American universities have shown contempt for free speech for many years, and the "Liberal" enclaves, such as the Bay Area, are controlling, judgmental, and neo-puritannical--not at all the liberal, fair-minded, free-thinking societies they imagine themselves to be. But, all that notwithstanding, such anti-semitism as this shocks and frightens the civilized world."This is not civic discourse, this is not free speech, and this is the Weimar Republic with brown shirts it cannot control"
North America and Europe had better wake up fast, recognize "Liberalism" for the decadence that it is, repudiate it, and follow the American Heartland--Bush Country--into the 21st century! This is the greatest bastion of liberalism, liberty, justice, and healthy Western Civilization in the world today. And it had better prevail!!!
A vote for a "Liberal" candidate or a Democrat is a vote for just the sort of thing described in this article.
"Scratch the leftist, discover the brownshirt. "--section9
It's very usual for him to do this. Never happened before.
It might seem like a tepid response but in the past Jewish students and faculty probable would have been asked to "just be patient."
In my 14 years as president of this university, I have never been as deeply distressed and angered by something that happened on this campus as I am by the events of last week. On Tuesday, a pro-Israel peace rally, thoughtfully organized and carefully carried out by SFSU Hillel members, drawing some 400 participants from both campus and community, evoked strong opinions and strong speech -- some from the free speech platform, much from the nearby pro-Palestinian counter-demonstration. But strong, even provocative, speech is not the problem, nor are strongly held opinions on highly-charged topics. Rather, it was the lack of civility and decency on the part of a very few demonstrators at points during the rally, and much more markedly after it, when rhetoric and behavior escalated beyond what this campus will tolerate.
For the most part, the most objectionable behavior occurred after the rally's organizers brought it to a formal close and a group of pro-Palestinian demonstrators who, in keeping with our student event policy, had been held back by barricades and campus police, moved onto the event site, where a few dozen organizers remained. There, some of the demonstrators behaved in a manner that completely violated the values of this institution and of most of you who are reading this message.
Thankfully, I am not speaking about physical violence. The monitoring by University staff throughout the event and the significant police presence we had arranged to have on hand ensured the safety of all involved. Unfortunately, we were not equally able to ensure civil discourse and maintain the sense of security to which every member of this campus is entitled. A small but terribly destructive number of pro-Palestinian demonstrators, many of whom were not SFSU students, abandoned themselves to intimidating behavior and statements too hate-filled to repeat. This group became so threatening in gesture and hostile in language that we interposed a police line between the groups and eventually escorted the Hillel students, and the faculty with them, from the plaza. No one was physically assaulted, but that encounter puts at risk all that we value and represent as a university community.
The demonstrators' behavior is not passing unchallenged. The University's code of student discipline and event policy allow for individual and group sanctions ranging from warning to suspension to expulsion for certain violations, and some of what took place on Tuesday may well fall within that area. Our videotaped record of the event is being reviewed now by SFSU Public Safety to note violations and identify violators so that the University's disciplinary procedures can begin. In one instance, that of a protestor who seized and stamped on an Israeli flag, the case has already gone forward. I fully expect to see other cases presented. If we identify violations of public law, we will refer cases to the District Attorney, with our strong recommendation for full prosecution. We have requested that the District Attorney assign a member of the hate crime unit to work with us, and our Department of Public Safety is contacting individuals who have reported behavior at the rally which would warrant legal action on our part.
I hope you will agree that no love of homeland, no fear or grief for loved ones in the actual area of Middle East conflict, excuses the behavior that has been reported. This is not a war zone. It is a campus, a place where all must feel physically protected even as we engage in the disputation that is part of a teaching and learning environment. But when disputation degenerates into bigotry and hate, we must -- and do -- act. We did so in the case of the "blood libel" flyer (as I reported several weeks ago), and we are doing so now. The anguish and fear that the May 7th events have caused for members of our community can only intensify our active commitment to making this campus a hate-free zone.
We have reviewed, and will continue to review, the policies and procedures that guided our responses during the May 7 event. We may well adjust them. Certainly, we will take steps to ensure that encounters like those I have described will not recur. Nothing justifies such acts of overt hostility, or even the implied threat of physical assault. Such behavior is not an expression of free speech.
The vast majority of this campus community would condemn the hateful speech and threatening behavior we saw last Tuesday. It is a very few individuals who are fomenting this discord. Yet, as we see, their impact can be profound -- if we allow it to be. Despite the claims of some, this is not an anti-Semitic campus. But as history shows us, silence and passivity can at times of crisis be very little different from complicity. All of us -- and I would say especially members of the faculty, who have the greatest opportunity to educate and influence our students -- have a responsibility to help maintain this as a safe and sustaining environment for the expression and exploration of opposing views.
Many of our best faculty are doing exactly that, consciously and powerfully, every day. We need now to find ways to bring good colleagues together to shape a collective effort. The CUSP II strategic planning process offers us one opportunity; I am looking for others and welcome your thoughts. We need to make what has happened on our campus an occasion for learning, for reflection, for growth.
As you know, since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, I have sent frequent messages to the entire University community calling for peace and tolerance and many of you have responded marvelously, both in words and action; I take great pride in the hundreds of very positive e-mails and letters I have received. But now, as the actions of a small band of bigots threaten to tarnish the reputation of the University as a whole and to discredit all our students, I ask you to join me in speaking out for this University's true values. Show in actions well as words that you believe not only that "Love is Stronger Than Hate" but that hateful actions, threats of violence, outrageous slurs and bigoted statements are rejected and contemned by our entire campus community. -- Robert A. Corrigan, President
(I know there are two threads with this article up. I'm posting in both so those who are following this will see the lastest update)
Dear Colleagues and Students:
On Thursday morning, May 23, members of SFSU's General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) are holding an off-campus press conference to denounce what a news release promoting the event describes as "fomenting [of] intolerance" and "accusations by SFSU President Corrigan against Palestinian and Arab students who are members of GUPS." The news release is followed by a lengthy statement that charges "racist treatment of Palestinian students" at SFSU and alleges that recent communications from the president to the campus have evoked a "hate frenzy" against Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students here.
This document includes statements that "... President Corrigan is capitalizing on the atmosphere of fear and fostering intolerance against Arabs and Muslims on campus, thus creating a dangerous and hostile environment... The president of the university issued a derogatory news release last week, attacking the Palestinian students...the statement constructed a hateful, discriminatory and one-sided attack on the students...[We] and concerned citizens are gravely worried by the hate frenzy that the SFSU president stirs up in his letter."
These charges are so totally at variance with the campuswide messages calling for mutual respect, civility, and recognition of "the humanity of those with whom we disagree" that we have sent out since September 11 and the tone we have sought to set -- a tone epitomized by the "Love Is Stronger Than Hate" banners that fly across campus -- that they must be challenged, set against fact and seen for what they are -- extreme statements of feeling.
It is difficult enough to deal respectfully with each other in these highly-charged times; exaggerated language only drives us further apart.
You can view all our messages to the campus since September 11 at our new Web site, "SFSU's Response to Pro-Israel - Pro-Palestine Tensions on Campus." (http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/sfsuresp.htm) You will find there words such as these:
"We will not let terrorism change the eyes with which we view each other, the hearts with which we understand each other, the respect with which we treat each other." "We have an absolute obligation to preserve this University as a safe and supportive community for all among us."
"As we wrestle with the passionate emotions and strongly opposing world views the Middle Eastern situation arouses, I hope that we will work consciously to speak and act in a way that recognizes the humanity of all members of our community, that sees individuals, not enemies."
"The vast majority of this campus community would condemn the hateful speech and threatening behavior we saw last Tuesday. It is a very few individuals who are fomenting this discord."
There is much we should be discussing together, about the May 7 rally and other matters. Yes, ugly statements were made to -- not just by -- pro-Palestinian students at the rally. And the cases we are forwarding to the District Attorney's office emerging from the event recognize that: they represent both sides of the gathering. (See our "SFSU's Response" web site for a news release with details of the legal and disciplinary action we have taken.)
Especially in difficult times like these, we cannot afford to escalate conflict through distortion of each others' positions. Let us disagree, but let us do so honestly. Let us use each others' words fairly, represent each others' views and actions accurately. Only then can we come together to bridge differences and join together in a positive community.
-- Robert A. Corrigan, president
Robert Corrigan's most recent email:
Reports of recent events at San Francisco State University have generated impassioned responses from concerned individuals here and around the world. The University has established a new Web site on which you will find information about those events and the University's actions in response to them. The site, "SFSU's Response to Pro-Israel-Pro-Palestine Tensions on Campus," can be reached through SFSU's home page: http://www.sfsu.edu.
One campus incident, in particular, continues to generate strong reaction. It concerns an extremely offensive flier that appeared briefly on our campus in early April to advertise a pro-Palestine rally. The flier began to circulate on Thursday, April 4. By April 5, members of the sponsoring student organization began to cover up the most offensive part, the blood libel. By the end of the day, all the fliers had been removed from the campus by those students and University staff. The fliers have never been redistributed or reposted by the sponsoring groups. If they were to be, they would be removed immediately.
I was appalled by the flier and sent strong letters to each of the student groups named on it, followed by a message to all faculty, students and staff. The student group chiefly involved with production of the flier wrote me a letter of apology shortly thereafter.
The offices of Student Affairs, Human Relations, and Student Programs and Leadership Development have held many individual meetings with the student groups involved. No tax dollars and to the best of our knowledge no student organization funds were used to pay for the flier.
I have communicated with all SFSU faculty, students, and staff several times in recent weeks around these issues via e-mail. Two of those messages follow. The first is my message to the campus community strongly condemning the flier and quoting extensively from my letters to the student groups responsible for it. The second is my message about the May 7 rally.
-- Robert A. Corrigan, President