Cooper on Mumia

[Chuck0]

Mattcapri at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Looks like this thread petered out. Having been away for much of the weekend
> I had time to think about it, on the train and such.  Do folks recall Nat
> Hentoff's Mumia episode a few years back? The Voice, and Nat Hentoff
> sponsored a speaking engagement\"town meeting" at Cooper Union. The featured
> speaker was the then governor of Pennsylvania (memory fails me as far as his
> name is concerned, but it was the guy before Tom Ridge) the subject was "Why
> I am a pro-life liberal" (gag). A number of Mumia's supporters showed up and
> some permutation of them heckling combined with their being denied the
> opportunity to speak. The next week, (or was it the week after) Hentoff's
> article in the voice featured a file photo of brownshirts surrounding a pile
> of books they were about to burn. The accomplished jazz reviewer tore into
> the pro-mumia folks comparing them to the very nazis in the photo. the next
> week his column invoked the IWW, with a picture of striking early twentieth
> proles to go with it. He touted his one time membership in the IWW and his
> involvement in some kind of free speech struggle as a wobbly in his teen
> years. A response in the letters column from the leadership of the Free Mumia
> Coalition (a flawed outfit but c'mon) pointed out that Mumia's speech was
> less than free. Do you believe that in Hentoff's reply he had the acorns to
> say that he spoke with Mumia and that Mumia told him he dissaporoved of his
> supporters actions at the Cooper Union event?
> Perhaps this is tangential but I think re-animating this thread in the
> interest of having an exchange on what it is that drives people across the
> Rubicon of self riteousness  could be useful. (or did we just do that?)
> mcapri

I've always been of the opinion that Henthoff has some bizarre theories
about free speech. Without knowing more about that incident, why were
the Mumia supporters trying to say something at that meeting? Did the
content of the meeting permit comments on a general range of topics.

This wouldn't be the first time that Mumia's supporters (especially
MOVE) put their foot in their mouths.

I've been meaning to say some more things about Cooper's diatribe about
the Free Mumia movement. While I appreciate that Cooper has the balls to
speak out, he does in typical liberal pundit fashion. His criticisms
hold very little weight, because he hasn't been an activist within the
movement. Still, his rant reflects the growing unpopularity of Mumia in
the general public. Why this is happening perplexes me. Is it simply
that most folks hate people who kill cops? Or, is it something else?

-- 
Chuck0
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