What was this guy thinking, giving an anti-US graduation speech to soldiers and their family members? If you're taking classes in Europe, you must be a military ID card holder, so every single UMUC student is connected to the miltary in some way or another. The faculty, however, is a different story altogether, which explains why he got supportive emails from faculty and boos from students in attendance.
Why do these commencement speakers keep using graduation as an open soapbox for talk on the war? All grads want to hear is attaboys and words of wisdom as they leave college. They want Chicken Soup for the Soul, not MoveOn.org at their ceremony.
Posted by Sarah at June 14, 2005 11:27 AMI don't know what he said in his speech, but his quote here irked me “I think in the best tradition of an academic, you tell facts and talk about reality,” he said. “I wanted to tell them because they’re not aware of what’s going on in Europe. I’m deeply concerned about it.”
That's an insult. Basically he is saying those that just graduated are ignorant. Just because someone has a different opinion it doesn't mean, they don't know what is going on. What a jack*ss.
Posted by: CaliValleyGirl at June 14, 2005 12:23 PMI saw that headline as I was leaving the commisary today, and came home to check out the story online. I promptly sent the link to everyone back home - informing them that if they were ever in attendance and something like this happened, that I would expect them to walk out, as well. That is just unreal. And to think that UMUC wouldn't even exist were it not for the Soldiers & their families that support it over here.
Posted by: Susan at June 14, 2005 07:41 PMOne of the more disheartening quotes was from the Golembe (Director of Univ Maryland Univ Coll Eur - saying the speech fell 'squarely' in the college tradition! Sick, sick, sick. I'm getting pretty dang tired of the left wing idealogues and their anti-American crud. They are so ignorant. I know they think they are the elite intelligencia but I think not.
Who is John Galt?
Posted by: toni at June 15, 2005 02:46 AMWhat a completely pompous @ss he is. To think anyone there even gives two hoots what he thinks about world affairs when they are graduating from college! These speakers need to stop taking themselves so seriously or the colleges will soon find that no one shows up at the ceremonies... and they'll demand their grad fees back for not attending.
Personally - I'd hit UM in the pocket book and tell them if they feel this is the type of speaker they want for their graduates... then you don't feel you should contribute to continuing that little tradition and they can beg for money elsewhere. Sheesh!
Posted by: Teresa at June 15, 2005 05:20 AM