My father's take on the NYT reporter's commencement speech

[redman]

This is my father's email commentary on this incident. I thought it was well written and thought provoking, so I share it with you:

Mr. Christopher Hedges was the commencement speaker at Rockford College. He has spent 20+ years with the New York Times, in the Mid-east, as a reporter and now back in NYC. It was Hedges who was booed, and yelled at and finally verbally chased off the platform for his commencement speech remarks.

Amerikan Liberals immediately rushed in to histrionically decry this horrendous treatment and trampling of the US Constitution, this breaching of the Free Speech On All Campuses At All Times. The press who lent a ready ear and pen to these denouncements uniformly failed to ask whether the Hedges Defender Legion would be so alacritous with their tut-tutting approbations if it had been the likes of a David Duke who had been Bronx cheered off the podium.

Even the president of Rockford wrung his hands and decried those who participated, saying the behavior was not typical of his institution and was inappropriate. He never uttered a meaningful syllable that I can find about the specifics of what Hedges had to say in his prepared (premeditated) remarks. He wanted everyone to rest assured that he is and will remain a defender of Academic Freedom, although I suspect someone like Duke would not even have been invited to speak in the first place.

Well, I got curious. Just who the hell is Chris Hedges and what did he say?

It turns out that he is bright, hard working, and graduated from Harvard Divinity School, a name that is as self-contradictory as military intelligence. He was hired by the New York Times, went to Cairo, studied Arabic and mastered it as well as any Westerner can, which is no mean feat, and then became totally infatuated with the culture and people and their concerns and bigotries. In short, he went native. It was the Times that assigned him to Jerusalem, where he next became totally convinced of the righteousness of the Palestinian cause - - all of it. He is known apparently for his consistently pro-Palestinian articles and pronouncements.

In being questioned afterward about his Rockford experience, Hedges apparently remarked that, ""My [Arabic] teacher, an Egyptian, used to write on the board phrases such as 'the Arabs are good. The Jews are bad.'" He also stated that, "Arabic is a delicate and beautiful construct. The language is poetic, magical, mysterious." O.K., there appears to be a bias of the zealous convert at work here. Undeterred, I went looking for the speech text or something close to it.

Now, if anything folks, the reasons for the verbal outbursts and Bronx cheers from the graduates and other audience members were under reported. Mr. Hedges told the graduates that America is about tyranny and empire. He told them that anyone who lays down their life for such goals and values is a sucker. His term was that they are saps. He told them that war is, in its essence, about betrayal: "Betrayal of the young by the old, of soldiers by politicians, and of idealists by cynics." He does not hold the soldiers participation in the war in Iraq against them, even though they helped American win when it shouldn't have. He said their exculpatory factor is that they are just farm boys from the midwest and the South - specifying Mississippi, Alabama and Texas for reasons never explained - who went into the military only because they could not find employment anywhere else.

I admit I quit the research and reading with that.

Freedom of speech and academic freedom are genuinely important. But there is more going on here that that. Hedges ruined a graduation for 500 young men and women. He hyper-politicized the ceremony at which he was a guest in a way that stole the moment from everyone: students, parents, loved ones and faculty. They paid Hedges $5,000 and he took advantage of it and them, shamelessly. His disrespect of their moment earned the Bronx cheers and boos and denunciations. And, that, I submit is also part of freedom of speech and academic freedom.

But, there is more. Given what Hedges had to share in his remarks and apparently afterward, and how he chose to do it, the New York Times has more problems than those that involve newsroom disciplines and one young, amoral, lazy, self-emphatuated, affirmative action-protected reporter.

Also, let's remember, Hedges and the students and audience members were free to do what they did because of the men and women we are to sincerely remember each and every Memorial Day. That Hedges chose to spit on them and their sacrifices is despicable and tragic. His employer, the NYT, deserves what it is getting and so did Hedges.

And, for the record, I think boos and Bronx cheers are free speech and are fine, just not to the degree a speaker cannot finish or be heard. Academic freedom involves and requires responsibilities, too.

[Burgold]

I agree with you and your father. I think Hedges blew it. The speech was entirely inappropriate for a commencement or graduation. Had it been a debate or speech or some other forum, I would have been irked at his comments but defended his right to share them. There is a time and place. Graduation is not that time to push your own agenda. Graduation is a time of generosity when you paint a hopeful picture and maybe hint at a moral responsibility. Besides, as much as I feel internal conflict over our President and some of the Congress's decision I have never felt betrayed by him. Wronged by him on occassion, but not betrayed. Bush is guilty in my opinion to inattention and of making some poor choices, but every president can be accused to that. I don't feel betrayed because while I disagree with him I believe he has acted from genuine conviction. I can respect that. The war, the Patriot Act, his choice to ignore education, and health care, his alienation of nations- all of these things you can make a pro con list and see a rationale for doing what he did. The only betrayal possibly in there is the Patriot Act. If I understand the Patriot Act properly, it is anti-American in spirit and function. Even this, you can see why he desired it though. I would only define his actions as a betrayal if I believed they were wholly self serving. I don't think he has quite merited that threshhold, though the way he assigned contracts in Iraq was quite disturbing. Okay, I've rambled long enough and have taken myself off the topic. I'll end by saying that Hedges should be ashamed of betraying his audience. He put himself above his audience's needs and let his agenda blind him. That's not good.

[Tommy-the-Greek]

Why was he invited to be a speaker in the first place?

[stratoman]

Originally posted by tommy-the-greek

Why was he invited to be a speaker in the first place?

He was the only lib they could get for that price.

[Glenn X]

You've got a smart pappy there, red. :cool: