Throwing Rice

[bobquasit]

This came up a while back, and I completely forgot to write about it. But it's interesting.

A week or two ago the national and local papers were filled with stories about the outpouring of love that Condaleeza Rice received when she gave a speech at Boston College. Apparently the few protesters who were there made a pathetic showing; just a few dead-enders. It was a triumph for Condi.

That sounded suspicious to me. And later, I talked to my parents and found that they'd actually been there themselves, protesting. They estimated the protesters at 200 at least, and one graduate walked over and joined the protest as soon as he'd gotten his degree.

They're sure that the protesters were loud enough to be heard by Rice and the attending reporters. But perhaps the reporters were all deaf. So kudos to the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald for their affirmative action in hiring the disabled!

The liberal press strikes again.

Comments

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Ummm.... The Herald is not the liberal press.... and well, with all layoffs, I suspect the Globe just took the word of someone that was there as they probably couldn't afford to send a reporter :-)

Both papers are dying. Quickly, if the number of papers sold say anything. And neother one wants to get the school mad at them - they could lose future advertising dollars.

[bobquasit.livejournal.com]

I know about the Herald. Actually, I wrote them a letter about ten or twelve years ago, calling them the property of the GOP and the John Birch society, among other things. They took out the John Birch reference and made it the letter of the week; even sent a photographer over to my workplace to take a photo.

I have to wonder, though...why would Boston College mind if protests at the graduation ceremony were honestly reported? I didn't think that the college was particularly aligned with the Republicans?

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Guess Again. The Jesuits run the school and it is very immersed in Catholicism on some levels. I went to school there for computer langauge courses back in the 80s. The Jesuits are very much in control of day to day policy and operations.

Republicans and the Catholic Church have been best buddies for a few years now, because of certain issues (Gays, Abortion) and the school is in many ways lockstep with them, that's why Rice was there in the first place.

[unquietsoul5.livejournal.com]

Side note : I was offered the opportunity to attend as a protestor but decided not to. I don't think these sorts of things have any affect anymore because they aren't covered by the media. We're long passed the time when peaceful protest will change anything. Either folks need to risk disruptive protest, or they need to fight these politicians in the courts (or get the UN to realize they've been fixing our elections in a very big public way so they risk some trade embargoes or other sanctions for their activities).

In any event, I can do nothing but sit and watch the horse and pony show, really. Demographically I don't count (too old).