President Obama will be giving the commencement speech at Notre Dame and some folks are all riled up about it. For example, the Chicago Tribune quotes this young lady:
"In many ways, the president does not have a whole lot in line with the mission of this university, especially in terms of its Catholicism," said Mary Daly, president of the campus Right to Life club. "People look to this university as a leading example of American Catholicism."
Perhaps Mary's parents can ask for a refund of her tuition. I'd be pretty upset if I'd spent 100k on my kid's education and they displayed such an intolerant, sheltered view. The whole point of college is exposure to new ideas.
I felt the same way when Bush went to schools to speak. I disagreed vehemently with his policies, but I agreed he had a right to speak and felt that the President of the United States should be treated with respect.
Thoughts? Should universities only invite non-controversial speakers for commencement? And how many of those are there? Even Bill Cosby is controversial now!
In what way is that view intolerant and sheltered? Is it becuase it does agree with yours? The other thing to think about, people also spend that kind of money to send their children to ND because they feel it will re-enforce the values they tried to instill in their children.
ReplyDeleteI love when someone has a view that does not agree with mine. I think it would be incredibly sad if a university did not introduce multiple points of view. I don't like John Yoo, but I supported his right to teach at Berkeley.
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