Condoleezza Rice Decides Not To Speak At Rutgers Commencement

www.huffingtonpost.com...
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has backed out of delivering the commencement address at Rutgers University following protests by some faculty and students over her role in the Iraq War. Rice said in a statement Saturday that she informed Rutgers President Robert Barchi that she was declining the invitation to speak at the graduation. "Commencement should be a time of joyous celebration for the graduates and their families," Rice said. "Rutgers' invitation to me to speak has become a distraction for the university community at this very special time." The school's board of governors had voted to pay $35,000 to the former secretary of state under President George W. Bush and national security adviser for her appearance at the May 18 ceremony. Rutgers was also planning to bestow Rice with an honorary doctorate.

There is a moral teaching I have come across that says there are three ways to combat evil or three levels of possibilities in combating evil.

First is to hate it in your heart. Then one should speak out against it and lastly if one is in position to do so then fight it directly, which doesn’t men violence, btw.

In this case because the elite criminals who run America are so powerful all we can do is
the first two levels of combating evil in the world. One such horrendous evil that really is on a par with the holocaust is the Iraq war.


In this instance, the perpetuators of this international crime ( the Iraq war) fighting it directly would have been this war criminal and mass murderer and member of the Bush junta, Condoleezza Rice, being tried and convicted of war crimes for the Iraq war along with Bush, Cheney, Tony Blair, and the other perpetuators of this illegal and immoral war that caused thousands of American deaths and almost 1 million Iraqi deaths.

But some students and faculty at New Jersey's flagship university had protested, staging sit-ins and saying Rice bore some responsibility for the Iraq War as a member of the Bush administration. Barchi and other school leaders had resisted the calls to disinvite Rice, saying the university welcomes open discourse on controversial topics. The news of Rice's decision came a day after Barchi spoke with students protesting Rice's planned speech and told them the board of governors would not rescind its invitation.

I commend the people of Rutgers University who protested vehemently the decision of the clueless university hierarchy that was about to pay this war criminal 35,000 dollars and bestow on Rice an honorary doctorate..

Ms Rice finally decided to not speak at the event, obviously to avoid embarrassment for she likely would have been drowned while speaking at the event by the protestors.


Rice, Cheney, Bush and those others should for the rest of their miserable lives be hounded, denounced, and if speaking anywhere, given the same treatment as Rice did at Rutgers.


In lieu of the tyranny we live under in America, all we can do is speak out against the murderers and war criminals who besmirch our great country with their evil acts while in power and who are heralded by the MSM and other clueless institutions and American citizens who don’t want to acknowledge the evil that this country does out of either ignorance or misplaced patriotism.

Praises to the brave people at Rutgers who stood up and spoke out against this grave injustice and evil!

a reply to: JIMC5499

Seems you missed the point, I bet if they had anyone that you just listed do the speech they would have meet the same outcome...

a reply to: Sremmos80

There you go bring it all into a political game of the left/ right struggle.

That way the issue can be clouded by obsession and truth get's buried.

Come on man have some subtlety
Don’t they tell you to at least try to be convincing!

a reply to: Willtell

Really???
How did i turn it into a left or a right thing?
All I said that if any of the people the poster stated would have been the guest they would have met the same fate....


Not sure where I am taking a side there lol.
I agree, left or right, it is all the same dog and pony show

And what issue and truth did I bury with my comment, please enlighten me

And can you cry shill faster??? 2 people comment, one disagreeing with the other but yet they are both paid posters....
Take a step back man, there really isn't that many out there IMO

a reply to: Willtell

I commend the people of Rutgers University who protested vehemently the decision of the clueless university hierarchy that was about to pay this war criminal 35,000 dollars and bestow on Rice an honorary doctorate..

Ditto. What an honorable liar.

Ms Rice finally decided to not speak at the event, obviously to avoid embarrassment for she likely would have been drowned while speaking at the event by the protestors.

The protest was so loud she heard it even before agreeing to speak?
Wonnnderful…

Either that or she was afraid of ducking a shoe or two.

Personally I love Condi because her favorite band is Led Zeppelin.

I also like the way she made a classy exit rather than distract from the graduation. If I was a student I would have been excited to hear her speak, but I imagine that the vocal minority got their way over the bulk of the student body who were probably indifferent to her appearance.

Just my humble opinion.

OP, you may have heard of that recent shooter in the Kansas City area who figured he'd go shoot some Jews. It turned out no one he shot actually WAS one..but hey, his level of hate didn't seem to care about little distinctions like that.

The guy is known and fairly well in my neck of the woods. He's made a regular pest of himself to the local paper's editor page and local institutions he could find ways to harass. He was as hateful a troll as they come and that hate finally consumed him. Sadly..He took others with him, and he didn't finish his own job. Some people can't even get that last thing right..but that describes the guy overall, too.

What is important here is that he also appeared at Missouri State University as a guest speaker in at least one course. He was a hateful troll there too, and by accounts, fingered two students individually, to ask if they were Jews and went on to inform them, they'd be first up when it came to take care of things some day....

SHOULD he have been allowed to speak at a University to students? Well, the Prof on that caught a lot of heat back when it happened. Many people came down to either side. It wasn't pretty..but then, neither is the guy at the center of this, remember.

In the end though, I think he DID have the right to speak. In fact, despite being a hateful, unapologetic racist and true menace to society by just being a free man each day (as he proved eventually), hearing him showed those students that people like him DO exist. It is NOT just in movies and they really *ARE* every bit as horrible in person as they are in media. They really DO believe this stuff.


This compares to Rice, because some see her as equally evil, in a very different way. Either way, she should have been welcomed..not rejected. University is about learning ALL sides, and learning how to critically determine which side merits attention and which side merits condemnation. If not then, when? If not in a facility dedicated to the purpose, where?

We'll unfortunately I don't believe them. US Senator Hillary Clinton used Saddams chemical and biological weapons stockpile to oppose unilateral invasion of Iraq as it was too big of a risk to our troops. I just can't delude myself to the point that Rutgers would reject a commencement from her. Otherwise I commend actions that support the retoric for all.

a reply to: Wrabbit2000

It’s not a question of Rice speaking. I could care less. She could have spoken but likely is a coward and afraid of being exposed as the war mongering murderer she is.

The point I’m making is that people of conscience should follow these evildoers who are responsible for 100’s of thousands of innocent dead human beings.

They should be exposed for what they are.

Democrats or republicans independents…all who where a part of this holocaust of the Iraqi people as well the American GI's who died just so people like Dick Cheney and his ilk can have a bigger golf course.

Including that so called progressive, the late Christopher Hitchens and those neocon madmen

Of course Rice and those in the Bush junta are directly responsible and criminally libel as far as I am concerned.

We as Americans of good conscience should call out our leaders when they do evil in our name as the people of Nazi Germany should have called out Hitler before he got too powerful.

a reply to: Sremmos80

Just kidding around with you buddy. Where is ATS' sense of humor.

a reply to: Willtell

I have no problem with accountability to those who made Iraq happen. Did Rice fall inside the "loop" for knowing the good, bad and ugly? I'm honestly not sure..and for more than one reason it isn't P.C. to get into. I'll leave that one, there.

In terms of the overall 'Get 'em!' approach? We're a world power and we have enemies who are also world powers. While we seek to reorder and reform..if not see a rebuild..to our system? We have others outside who would consider it a gift from God or Allah personally delivered to have the opportunity to help the U.S. meet it's destruction.

So, I'm a little circumspect about being real sure on WHO was in and who was not for just who deserves to be hounded for the rest of their life, in public or private, and everywhere they go. Personally...I think THAT is actually obsessive to the point of mental illness of the side of the person following them...but to see them held to account? Sure.. We can agree on that.