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They'll Realize How Irrelevant This Was In A Couple Of Years
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Schools across America have caught Commencement Speaker Cancellation Fever, the latest being my alma mater, Haverford College, which picked former Cal-Berkeley chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau to speak and get an honorary degree because he was a leading proponent of letting illegal immigrants get an education (hey, Haverford's extremely liberal) and his support of gay students, and then forced him to withdraw because students and faculty objected to how Berkeley police broke up an Occupy protest with batons. No, really, he didn't object feverishly enough for the Haverford protestors, and they hit him with a list of demands. Meanwhile, you've seen Rutgers uninvite Condoleezza Rice, Smith College force the IMF chief to withdraw, Brandeis pull an invite to Ayaan Hirsi Ali... the protests, once reserved for rejecting conservative speakers, are now aimed even at liberals who aren't liberal enough. You know, in a few years, the students will realize that you don't even remember who your commencement speaker was unless it's a really famous person, and you never remember what they say. It's all for show, and it doesn't matter. (New York Times)
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