>>
>>Of course, this will be used by people to argue that
>>the "intolerant" left has drummed yet another
>>dissident out of its ranks.
>
>I'd say the percussionist here is Hitchens himself, who seems to have
>emerged as the regimental drummer boy of the new imperialism.
>
>Carl
The year I left Ann Arbor, 1988, then-UN Ambassadoe Jeane Kirkpatrick same to speak at commencement, and was to givea talk at the political science dept, where I was a grad student (also in philosophy). Various campus outfits decided to do a protest, after some sharp debate, those of us who wanted a silent, respectful, peaceful protest rather than a disruptive one won the day. So we showed up at the poli sci neeting room with signs and prepared questions (for the question period after the talk), about 150 people. The chair of polisci was not too happy, and approached me and a friend (Phil Gasper of the ISO, now at College of Notre Dame in Belmont, CA), saying, Only grad students and faculty membersa re permitted. I said, I'm a grad student in the department. Phil said, I'm faculty (he was visiting in the philosophy dept), and the dept chair, dispirited, gave up.
We waited and waited, and Jeannie babe didn't show up. Finally we heard that she had chickened out. It was all over the right wing pundit press and then the newspapers that we had shouted her down and not allowed her to speak. This was written up in various books by the likes of Dinesh DeSouza. In fact, we had decided to let her speak as a matter of policy, and she had chosen not to. She hadn't even appeared. But that's not how it was played out, so the reality was simply whited out.
jks
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