Wounded Iraq Vet Gets Heckled During Columbia University Speech

Originally posted by FPB214
Just disrespectful though.

I do not argue that at all myself. I am not really a big fan of hecklers and yellers. It does have its place I suppose, nothing is so black and white.

It is just the fact that the things being heckled seemed a little specific. These were fellow students. All of these people have a relationship that extends beyond what we are seeing here. This was a meeting of students, of which he was ONE. They are calling him "racist" for being a vet? I just really cannot help but feel like we are just getting a view of a single battle that might be part of a larger war among people that know each other at least a little better than any of us do from here.

That is just my 2 cents. Not a claim of gospel truth.

Originally posted by FPB214
reply to post by imitator

 

Your right. Its a free country, you can say whatever you feel like saying. Thing is though, there are good ways to handle things, and bad/immature/disrespectful ways to handle things, and from what we know so far this seems like the second one. Im not saying they don't have a right to freedom of speech, but you'd think they would handle it better knowing what he went through. Yet, when we live in a society such as ours, this actually doesn't surprise me.

Just disrespectful though.

People have always been strongly opinionated during war times, especially when government agendas are pushed on the public. I do agree with you..... it would be nice if they showed some respect.

reply to post by Sinnthia


I understand what your saying. There may be more than what we know, considering the story doesn't get into details at all. Thing is though, we probably won't hear about that. So unless he did something terribly wrong to someone, I still don't think he deserves to be disrespected.

Originally posted by imitator
No, but you see that is no different... What if some crippled students gave a anti-war speech at the VA.... those vets would heckle as well....

Really? Do you have proof of that?

That's just your opinion. Unfortunately, there's proof that that ass-hats at Columbia have heckled a wounded vet.

In the past, during WW2, there were a lot of guys that were CO, but still put on the green tux and were medics, etc. How come I don't see a single member of Columbia doing something like that.

Buncha clownshoes.

While searching for video of the reported heckling incident, I came across this video, wherein a Columbia student is speaking to the assembly. Basically, he suggests it is in conflict of a University's claim of being a place for the open and free exchange of ideas to restrict any group from the campus, regardless of whether one or a majority disagree with the groups position. Trust me, he says it much better than I. Give it a listen.

I love the support the vets types
the vets aren't very well supported by the left or the right
suicide rates the homeless rates starvation rates no health care
no help from the hippotwits on the left or the right

This is another example of the poor wounded soldier being used as a stooge by the right in their sensless battle with the left. Who support the same policies as the right

The right that is just as stalinistst as the left is hitleresque...

If you turn left or right you obviously aint travelling on the straight and narrow

for anyone to make politics out of a wounded soldier who was wounded for nothing in the first place while killing people who have died for nothing is dispicable...
Dispicable - Faux news' middle name.

The following link is to an audio clip of the reported heckling incident, through Columbia's site. For me, it opened I-Tunes, where it played. I'm sorry, but I have no idea how to embed the clip directly to ATS.

www.columbia.edu...

After hearing it for myself, it is not as bad as the article portrays it to be. There really seems to be only a handful of hecklers and they are immediately chastised by the moderator. At the end of Mascheck's presentation, the moderator again warns the audience about the rules of the meeting and against ridiculing speakers for their positions.

For those who can't or don't want to download the audio clip, I'll try to find a transcript and post it.

ETA: I've found the transcript is not yet available, but should be posted here when it is.

The same people who spit on Vietnam Veterans are now in charge of America.

Veterans Affairs facilities have been getting shut down all over. Their funding cut, cut, cut.

Now there are a few Veterans Affairs Clinics ran by a secretary/nurse who sees disabled Veterans and they can't even write prescriptions for pain medication/narcotics for Veterans. Only Doctors can write those prescriptions. There no longer are doctors at those Clinics, they contract for doctors to work there and they are only around a few hours a day.

Veterans all over America have been KILLING themselves because they can't get monthly pain medications from Veterans Affairs.

To make matters worse Obama made Veterans Affairs use their money now for medical research/R&D to try and keep up with China's R&D. So money isn't being used to provide healthcare to Veterans.

Go to research.va.gov to read about what they are doing.

They started injecting Veterans with TOXINS to see if any poisons have any positive health effects. They figured the TOXIN Botox found a good use...what other poisons will help people? So they've started injecting TOXINS into Veterans for Medical Research. They state they DO NOT need Veterans consent for this medical research.

This country should be ashamed of what it's done to it's injured vets. You're letting them be killed.

My heart goes out to the veteran.

He, like many others, had been duped and misled into a long drawn war with no ends in sight. He signed up and offered his precious life because he believed in a lie perpetrated by the corporations hiding in the shadows. He gave his life in the belief for others, but the 'others' were not his fellow citizens or the flag. It had been for the corporations hell bent on claiming and protecting its resources, to get rich further upon, upon the backs of these courageous young men, neglected, and not wanted, once they had been milked dry of their youth.

It had been the Iraqi war, an unilateral invasion by US upon a soveriegn nation.

Many would have thought we would have learnt from the Vietnam experience, but we did not. But many of the educated knew, and are dead set against it, and will protest against it with every moral fibre they possessed. The veteran unfortunately represented all that went wrong with the iraqi invasion. He should not have been made to stand on the podium, least of all string out his adventure and misadventure in that wronged war, even if the oration was about something else. It only reminded many of its duplicities upon a nation.

The hecklers has a right to speak out, but with the power of speech freedom, comes a responsibility of consideration for others. Did the vet deserved the condemnation? No. He did not speak about the war itself or the support of it. There can be no peace without a standing army.

Thus a need to be constantly vigilant with volunteers to protect and defend the nation. The only thing is, the decision of war must never taken lightly for the consequences are huge and impact lives on every side. The Iraqi and Vietnam invasions had been such failures in the chain of command that authorised such wars, and its operators - the soldiers unfortunately bore the brunt of anger from the masses, while those who ordered the war and murders got away scot free, wallets thickened.

This is another sad episode, for both the vet and the students, whom are the victims, the consequences of wrong decisions and policies made by those in charge. It would be pointless to be pointing fingers at the vets or the colleges when the finger should be level at somewhere else...