Here's why it's so hard to fight the Bush propaganda machine...

[rfranklin]

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1117805401315230.xml

CSI graduation: Pomp and circumstance, boos and hisses
Author Erica Jong alienates some with the tone, length of her commencement speech
Friday, June 03, 2005
By MICHELLE MASKALY
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
Best-selling author Erica Jong was booed and told to "Shut up!" and "Go Home!" during her 40-minute speech yesterday at the College of Staten Island's commencement exercises.

As Ms. Jong, best known for her 1973 novel "Fear of Flying," talked about everything from truth in advertising to truth in politics and the shallowness of public relations -- but said precious little about graduation -- some of the thousands in attendance on the great lawn at the college's Willowbrook campus stood up and began to object loudly.

A little less than halfway through her speech, some graduates began tossing around an inflatable beach volleyball. Some even got up from their chairs, just yards from her podium, to go chat with friends and family who were seated behind them.

-more-

[tk2kewl]

1. Not fer nuttin, but ...

no one ever said people from Staten Island were very bright

[rfranklin]

2. You're right, they are mostly Republicans....

But the fact that half of Kansas lives on an island right next to New York and New Jersey is disheartening.

[wabranty]

3. Or maybe it was another boring, self-indulgent . . .

commencement speech. When I graduated, I had to sit through an hour-long diatribe by a local poet who bashed the Reagan administration and America in general. Some of it I agree with and some I didn't but the worst part is that the speaker didn't deliver the speech they were asked to give which is some advice for future graduates. It would have been just as bad as if a neo-con gave a speech on their opinions.

Democrats need to get over the tendency to embrace everything that is anticonservative. Not every person or organization that opposes W and his gang is a good ally to our cause.

[Kolesar]

4. I can pretty much say I hate everything about the Republicans

I came to the conclusion that they were inhuman warmongers at the time they used our resources to but the boot on the throats of Latin America in the 1980s. Nothing seems to have changed since those horrid times of Ronald Reagan's anticommunist extremes.

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. Did you read the article, see her quotes?

Sounds to me like she was speaking the truth, and a bunch of bushbots weren't interested.

Her advice to the graduates was to question authority, and examine the reality behind the words that are thrown at them. In this media saturated age, I think that is sound advice, no matter what your political proclivities.

Do you think it's good to be non-skeptical about government press releases?

[wabranty]

8. Read her article, saw her quotes, and agreed with her

But I think that she could have done a better job by weaving these themes into a more traditional graduation message. But then again, I haven't seen a transcript so she may have done that and I am wrong.

[Toots]

10. So you feel because she didn't tie her points together well enough

Students should have been so rude as to boo her. If you don't agree with what a person says that is one thing but to show such disrespect is decidedly Republican. Republicans have no respect for anything other than power and money. You seem to think being disrespectful is okay if you don't agree with the message. I respectfully disagree with that opinion.

[Ron Green]

5. A commencement speech, or any speech, is a work of prose to be heard

in its entirety, and then judged on its merits. Those graduates who are interested in commencing their lives as educated citizens must sit and listen to the speech, and then decide if it was successful. If these people can't sit for 20 minutes without playing with the beachball, what the hell kind of thoughtful electorate is being developed?

[insane_cratic_gal]

6. I love Erica!

"Whoever controls the words is framing the debate," Ms. Jong said. "You will be able to be framers of the debate rather than the people sitting there and listening to the conversation. Listen to what is said and question authority. I want you graduates to get mad when you're deliberately lied to."

Speaking the truth when no one wants to hear it, everyone wants to be left alone in their ME ME ME aspect of life and long live denial, has got to suck.

[earth mom]

9. Bravo for Erica!

What a bunch of airheads-wonder if they all cheated on their exams in order to graduate? It sure sounds like it! :eyes: