Furman University faculty may protest Bush commencement speech.
Furman University faculty may protest Bush commencement speech.
Faculty members at Furman University in South Carolina “have suggested they won’t attend graduation ceremonies because President Bush is scheduled to speak.” Over 200 students and faculty members “signed a statement earlier this month criticizing the Bush administration’s handling of the Iraq war and environmental issues.” But a conservative student group is trying to block the protest:
More than 500 members of the Furman community signed a letter released Monday asking that administrators refuse to allow faculty members to skip ceremonies in protest of the Bush visit. […]
“Some professors seem intent on turning what should be a celebration of their students’ accomplishments into a forum to air their political differences with President Bush,” said the letter, released Monday by Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow.
In defense of the protest, one Furman neuroscience professor said, “At a liberal arts college, we really try to train people to think critically and respect other peoples views…And we have been expressing our views in very civil ways.” (HT: Dan Froomkin)
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I wonder why Furman even asked for Dubya…….. maybe because Barney was already booked elsewhere?
May 21st, 2008 at 5:53 pmSmart and loyal Americans should not have to sit through the chaotic meanderings of our delusional boy-king. Besides showing us how he winds up Laura every morning, what could we possible learn from the dolt?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:00 pmHow do the students feel?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:00 pmmandatory attendence? Only the rabid Reich-wing could be as so low to demand such a thing. They should also be demanding mandatory participation in antiwar rallies then too, just to be fair and balanced.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:00 pmooops — I should have asked, “How do the REST of the students feel?” I wonder how much of the student body is made up of this conservative student group.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:02 pmSounds as if about 500 Furman students failed the “critical thought” part of the curriculum. Wonder if they would prefer that their faculty show up and loudly demonstrate their opinion every time Chimpy says something stupid. I still fondly recall hearing Liddy Dole get booed at a graduation ceremony in 1983 every time she mentioned the “Reagan revolution.”
May 21st, 2008 at 6:06 pm“Some professors seem intent on turning what should be a celebration of their students’ accomplishments into a forum to air their political differences with President Bush,”
…while others decided to air theirs by inviting him in the first place.
May 21st, 2008 at 6:08 pmSo, um, when IS the appropriate time for us to “air our political differences with President Bush”…?
After another 1,000 or so Americans have died in Iraq?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:11 pmIn defense of the protest, one Furman neuroscience professor said, “At a liberal arts college, we really try to train people to think critically and respect other peoples views…”
So, do they think that this Bush fellow exemplifies this thinking critically and is respectful of other’s views? Or, to the contrary, Bush is being used as an object lesson of what becomes of a person lacking those attributes?
BTW neuroscience? That can’t be a real science. Does God know about this?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:15 pmHow about they attend and maintain a respectful silence while wearing T-shirts that read; “Worst President Ever”!
May 21st, 2008 at 6:16 pmDoes anyone remember a single meaningful thing their commencement speaker said? I suggest the students just come up with a drinking game to get through this. Every time he says a word which isn’t really a word, you have to drink double. Now as to fractured grammar…
May 21st, 2008 at 6:30 pmThis is absolutely frightening that this Country has become so divided–even at 23% to 77%–that the threat to our Constitution manifests itself in such a tradition as college Graduation. There is nothing mandatory in our Constitution that requires attendance at the ceremony by anyone, student, faculty, or administrator. It is a ritual, a ceremony, a rite, and a reward for the work accomplished; it is not and NEVER should be a political grandstand for the corrupt vocal minority. Our school system from the earliest grade to the final year of a Doctorate is a demonstration of the workings of our Democratic Country. If someone at the University wants to invite King George the Dumb to lie and mumble for 20 minutes then let them do so but if the majority does not want to attend then they stage their own ceremony and have their own speaker. “We want the fool here so you have to force the “Terrists” to come” just doesn’t cut it! My response would be a very kindly “Up yours, Jack, You kiss his ass and I will have a beer and pizza and celebrate in November when he takes the first step to the stage in Leavenworth.”
May 21st, 2008 at 6:37 pmSooo, the faculty spends half their day making sure we get an education. Bush spends half the day manufacturing a war to get us killed. Who do we celebrate?
May 21st, 2008 at 6:49 pmFurman is a top notch University despite being located in Greenville, SC!!!
I hope the faculty shows the intelligence surrounding the school and tells GW Botch to speak to the silence that is the dead voices of soldiers from his war. It’s the Bush War not the Iraq War, not the War on Terrorism!!
Call it what it is…The Bush War!!!!!!
May 21st, 2008 at 6:51 pm‘Scuse me Chuck, how long have you been using that handle? Did I step on you, or you me?
May 21st, 2008 at 7:08 pmFurman is dead square in the middle of Bush country. The good white folk around here religiously vote straight “R” on their ballots and don’t look back. The faculty “ain’t from around here”.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:13 pmdumbstruck Says:
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Furman is dead square in the middle of Bush country.
Not really, that would be Texass, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi.
The good white folk around here religiously vote straight “R” on their ballots and don’t look back.
Correction. Not “good white folk” but, racist, evil, hateful, white “folk”.
The faculty “ain’t from around here”.
That’s why the students and faculty are so much smarter than the citizens of Greenville, SC!!!!!!!
May 21st, 2008 at 7:24 pmJust where do you claim Dixie blood from….? if Greenville, SC ain’t Bush country there ain’t a cow in Texas.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:30 pmTalk about political correctness.
May 21st, 2008 at 7:32 pmPerhaps the faculty at Furman have decided to take this step because they have had nightmares of this image run through their minds while attempting to sleep.
http://www.macleans.ca/ slideshow/ gallery/ album1/ large/ sept/ bushmain.jpg
May 21st, 2008 at 7:59 pm“200 students and faculty members”
“500 members of the Furman community”
Note the difference in language and then put them both in context: “200 legitimate students and faculty members protested the action of 500 local Red-neck high-school drop-outs funded by KKKarl & Ko to disrupt the graduation ceremony.”
May 21st, 2008 at 8:05 pmdumbstruck Says:
Just where do you claim Dixie blood from….? if Greenville, SC ain’t Bush country there ain’t a cow in Texas.
I was trying to defend the intelligence of South Carolinians over that of Texass, etc. But, if you insist…SC voters are as dumb as the rest of the south…they don’t even vist NC…it would take brains and a map!!!!!!
May 21st, 2008 at 8:13 pmHey Chuck underscore…
Great minds think alike. It’s been some number of months; and, I would be willing to name change, but the profile doesn’t permit editing of the username.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:17 pm…and here in NC we count that as a blessing.
May 21st, 2008 at 8:19 pmI’ve only had mine for about 3 months also so I’m not that attached to it.
I’ll create a new account with a different handle, no biggie.
Take care!
May 21st, 2008 at 8:37 pmdumbstruck Says:
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…and here in NC we count that as a blessing.
As well you should…
May 21st, 2008 at 8:40 pmI think they should bus in Bush-McSame supporters with free beer, wet T contests with a Hannity Sideshow Carnival and dueling banjos . . . I’m sure Bush will have a speech that will inspire America and foment world peace, raise the dollar and create cheap oil . . . then again I could be wrong . . .
Maybe pitchforks, tar and feathers would be a better traditional country welcome . . .
May 21st, 2008 at 9:15 pm#10 pete Says:
How about they attend and maintain a respectful silence while wearing T-shirts that read; “Worst President Ever”!
Even more appropriate Hague Trials/09, that would get a rise.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:28 pma conservative student group is trying to block the protest:
asking that administrators refuse to allow faculty members to skip ceremonies in protest of the Bush visit.
What do they propose? That they be forced? By what means? National Guard? Armed police? Military?
This should be good.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:31 pmWho are the idiots that invite our wonderful fascist occupants of the White House, et al., to speak at commencement ceremonies??
May 21st, 2008 at 9:50 pmFreedom Rebel Says:
Even more appropriate Hague Trials/09, that would get a rise.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Maybe a mix? While it would send a powerful message, to thinking people, I’m not sure that Chimpy would understand the reference. And I doubt any of his minions would enlighten him.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:03 pmMembers of the Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow = Dweebs that couldn’t get laid in a whore house with a fist full of hundreds.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:05 pmAnd exactly how can tomorrow be better when you’re a conservative?
Perhaps the faculty Should show up. Begin applauding loudly, and don’t stop. Have it escalate to catcalls, whoopee cushion farts and New Years Eve huzzah screechers. Maybe the chymp would get the sarcasm, maybe not.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:22 pmI say everybody wear an armband of some sort. And moon his speech.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:39 pmIt’s comforting to see things haven’t changed much since my own college days: Young Americans for Freedom (University of Florida, 1972) were a bunch of mouth breathers incapable of original thought, most of whom went on to become racist hicktown lawyers in some Dixiedorf. If they were especially ungifted they had aspirations to the mayor’s office. Looks like Conservative Students for a Better Tomorrow carries on those sorry redneck traditions.
The above posts have it just right: don’t give these bubbas any ammunition by protesting. Just attend and be obnoxious as hell.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 amI have been to Furman, thought it reminded me of Duke’s campus.
Greenville is not a hick town, great places to eat and shop…even has an opera house and ballet. Granted, SC has only Charleston and Greenville and one needs to skip Myrtle Beach.
All this said, the University is surrounded by a sea of ignorance and bigotry. Usually this is an issue that gets the locals riled up but more and more people have turned against Bush that I could see them participating in the protest.
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:53 amOh, and by the way, who just is “the Furman Community?” Housekeepers, janitors, groundskeepers, food service? My friends in these services are now anti-Bush!
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:56 ampax:
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:04 amDoes SC have Beaufort or “BooFort”. I always mix those two up despite having been to both?
Crusty Old Bastard Says:
Up yours, Jack
HEY….leave me out of this :)~
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:16 amAs a matter of conscience and as a role model for my students, I refused to attend commencement when Bush delivered the so-called commencement address. Attendance was compulsory. I advised my students in advance that I would not be there to celebrate with them; and, I told them why.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:44 pmThere was no consequence, nor could there be. What are they going to do, fire me? Write me up as insubordinate? I think not. Critical thinking, free inquiry, and open discourse in words and actions are a part of the academic scene. And, if they are not integral to an academic community, then it is not a learning community.
Some at FU are saying FU to Bush while others, want to block the right of peaceful protests are saying FU to the Constitution of the US.
May 23rd, 2008 at 9:04 amIf the protest is allowed I wonder if DeMint will threaten any type of government funding they receive.
Maybe they could just seat GWB in a corner and read “My Pet Goat” to him until the ceremonies are over.
May 27th, 2008 at 11:58 pm