Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FL) likes to call himself “a congressman with guts”. That is because he equates being loud, nasty, sarcastic, sanctimonious and generally obnoxious with having them.
He could learn a lesson from former President of Princeton University William G. Bowen.
Mr. Bowen, was one of the commencement speakers at Haverford University – where another invited commencement speaker, Robert J. Birgeneau, the Chancellor at University of California-Berkeley, was forced out by a loud, intolerant group of students for the “crime” of treating “occupy” protesters/anarchists on his campus as though they were subject to the same laws as the rest of us.
Ironically, Mr. Birgeneau – who is about as distinguished an academician as you will ever find (before Princeton he was President of Toronto University, and a Dean at MIT) – shares many of the movement\’s social positions. But that wasn\’t good enough for the Haveford brownshirts. They screamed, the school caved, and Birgeneau was history.
Enter William G. Bowen.
Here, via Susan Snyder\’s article for the Philadelphia Inquirer, is what Mr. Bowen took it upon himself to say – and how most students and their families (as opposed to the thugs whose rear ends were so willingly kissed by Haverford\’s administration) reacted to it:
In a surprising move, a commencement speaker at Haverford Collegeon Sunday used the celebratory occasion to deliver a sharp rebuke to studentswho had mounted a campaign against another speaker who had been scheduled to appearbut withdrew amid the controversy.
William G. Bowen, former president of Princeton and a nationallyrespected higher education leader, called the student protestors\’ approach both”immature” and “arrogant” and the subsequent withdrawal ofRobert J. Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of CaliforniaBerkeley, a “defeat” for the Quaker college and its ideals.
Bowen\’s remarks to an audience of about 2,800 that gave him astanding ovation added a new twist to commencement speaker controversiesplaying out increasingly on college campuses across the nation. Bowen faced noopposition, but chose to defend a fellow speaker who was targeted, calling thesituation “sad” and “troubling.”
Good for you, Mr. Bowen! Thank you for showing that “guts” means courage and honesty, even in the face of a loud, intolerant opposition.
I am hoping against hope that the thugs you taught a lesson to actually learn something from it.
But I have no hope at all that Alan Grayson will.
