Those Crazy Kids

The right-wing New York Sun reports that vicious crazed liberal, black, hispanic, socialists from Columbia University stormed the stage and attacked the Minuteman founder, Jim Gilchrist, and his sidekick. You can judge for yourself whether they attakced them.

Actually, even the Sun article admits “They were escorted off the stage unharmed and exited the auditorium by a back door.” But that doesn’t change their headline which blares At Columbia, Students Attack Minuteman Founder.

In any case, I am always amused by Ivy League antics. These guys and gals did it with some humor.

The student protesters, who attended the event clad in white as a sign of dissent, booed and shouted the speakers down throughout. They interrupted Mr. Stewart, who is African-American, when he referred to the Declaration of Independence’s self-evident truth that “All men are created equal,” calling him a racist, a sellout, and a black white supremacist.

A student’s demand that Mr. Stewart speak in Spanish elicited thundering applause and brought the protesters to their feet. The protesters remained standing, turned their backs on Mr. Stewart for the remainder of his remarks, and drowned him out by chanting, “Wrap it up, wrap it up!” Mr. Stewart appeared unfazed by their behavior. He simply smiled and bellowed, “No wonder you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

…Having wreaked havoc onstage, the students unrolled a banner that read, in both Arabic and English, “No one is ever illegal.” As security guards closed the curtains and began escorting people from the auditorium, the students jumped from the stage, pumping their fists, chanting victoriously, “Si se pudo, si se pudo,” Spanish for “Yes we could!”

If they had actually attacked the speakers that would not be funny or acceptable. In reality, they just heckled the warm-up guy before shutting down the joint when the racist took the stage. Of course, the College Republicans are disappointed.

The student protesters “rush to vindicate themselves with monikers like ‘liberal’ and ‘open-minded,’ but their actions, their attempt to condemn the Minutemen without even hearing what they have to say, speak otherwise,” the president of the Columbia College Republicans, Chris Kulawik, said. On campus, the Republicans’ flyers advertising the event were defaced and torn down.

The College Republicans expressed their concern about the lack of free speech for opposing viewpoints on the Columbia campus in the wake of the evening’s events. “We’ve often feared that there’s not freedom of speech at Columbia for more right-wing views — and that was proven tonight,” the executive director of the Columbia College Republicans, Lauren Steinberg, said.

It’s weird to see racism equated with ‘right-wing’ views by College Republicans. But there it is.

Author: BooMan

Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.