In general, I am not a fan of campuses cancelling speakers whose view are not aligned with the majority of the students.  Everyone has the right to express their views, unless it poses a threat to public safety.  Go and protest outside, stay at home, go in and try to objectively listen....whatever.

A commencement is different.  It is not optional.  So, IMO, the speaker should not hold views inconsistent with or have offended a significant number of graduates and their families.

It should be a celebration of the graduates' accomplishments and not a forum for controversy.

 

9 minutes ago, Utebird said:

Its not about stifling free speech. Stifling free speech is attacking and discrediting the media then literally attacking them on the streets. Thats stifling free speech.

Democratically  uninviting someone to not speak anywhere isnt stifling free speech, if anything its freedom of speech in action. One could say its stifling speech but freedom of speech and speech arent the same.

I read this three times. I understand the individual words but not the pattern of their juxtaposition.

1 minute ago, Desertbirds said:

I read this three times. I understand the individual words but not the pattern of their juxtaposition.

Well then thats my fault as the presenter of the words.

How can i better express my point?

5 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

In general, I am not a fan of campuses cancelling speakers whose view are not aligned with the majority of the students.  Everyone has the right to express their views, unless it poses a threat to public safety.  Go and protest outside, stay at home, go in and try to objectively listen....whatever.

A commencement is different.  It is not optional.  So, IMO, the speaker should not hold views inconsistent with or have offended a significant number of graduates and their families.

It should be a celebration of the graduates' accomplishments and not a forum for controversy.

 

Commencement ceremonies are optional as no one is required to attend.

In my opinion, the best commencement speeches outline societal challenges and extoll the audience to achieve greater things.

1 hour ago, BigEFly said:

Main Street Republican retired insurance executive elected four times as a Republican to,office. Yep, welfare stater, that’s me.  Extremely regulated business but we did also get some corporate welfare.  Our biggest competitor, AIG, would have gone down in 2008 without a bailout. That would have been catastrophic for the economy.  Crop insurance subsidies?  Write your own flood insurance?  Welfare?  For whom?  

Refining subsidies, good for my Exxon and Chevron stock.  

Bottom line is in reality entitlement programs tend to be defined by who is receiving the benefit.  Sometimes in business and in investments, it was me.   I am a descendent of farmers, for the most part, and I don’t mind helping them.  I can pretty much show anyone on here where they benefit from government help.  Nothing wrong with some of that. Needs to be evened some. 

I didnt mean you   i meant the liberals as welfare staters

we would have been better off in the long run to let AIG go under. Same with banks. Now weve set the expectation of bailout and warped the risk analysis.

The social safety net argument ignores the human behavior aspects

 

53 minutes ago, Utebird said:

Dont fool yourself into thinking cops exist to protect society. They exist to protect capital.

 

You might want to check with the residents of the burned out areas whose residences are no longer habitable or  that no longer have a food source within a reasonable distance about "protecting capital".

1 hour ago, Desertbirds said:

Commencement ceremonies are optional as no one is required to attend.

In my opinion, the best commencement speeches outline societal challenges and extoll the audience to achieve greater things.

I agree with your second assertion.  However, it does not need to be provided by a speaker who creates vitriol among the majority of the attendees.

Regarding your first assertion... NFW.  Tell the graduates and the parents of the graduates that commencement is optional.  That the milestone after four years of work is not really all that big of a deal.  As a parent of three college graduates, it was never an option.  

9 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

I didnt mean you   i meant the liberals as welfare staters

we would have been better off in the long run to let AIG go under. Same with banks. Now weve set the expectation of bailout and warped the risk analysis.

The social safety net argument ignores the human behavior aspects

 

Disagree.  The bailouts were necessary to keep the credit and liquidity markets for collapsing.

The mistake was not prosecuting the few dozen executives that set the crisis into motion or didn't raise alarms.  It was gross negligence on a grand scale.

Further, almost all of the TARP money proved to the banks was returned.

Disagree the competition would have stepped in gladly and any freeze up would have passed

just as SS grew into a monster...and medicare...and bailouts...all it does is hit the snooze and make the problem bigger down the road

we as a nation should be tougher than that, but alas....

9 minutes ago, eglz1 said:

You might want to check with the residents of the burned out areas whose residences are no longer habitable or  that no longer have a food source within a reasonable distance about "protecting capital".

If the cops are protecting the people why not feed them and house them?

Or are you insinuating that the cops in these instances failed to protect capital?

1 minute ago, Utebird said:

If the cops are protecting the people why not feed them and house them?

Or are you insinuating that the cops in these instances failed to protect capital?

Ask residents of the 1970s Soviet Union how relying on the State to feed and house them worked out.

1 minute ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

I agree with your second assertion.  However, it does not need to be provided by a speaker who creates vitriol among the majority of the attendees.

Regarding your first assertion... NFW.  Tell the graduations and the parents of the graduates that commencement is optional.  That the milestone after four years of work is not really all that big of a deal.  As a parent of three college graduates, it was never an option.  

I will note that there is no evidence that the decision by WSU administrators reflects the majority view of WSU students.  The impetus for the cancellation was a letter penned by an associate professor in the Photo Media Department that was circulated on social media and co-signed by a TOTAL of 488 faculty, students, and alumni. 
 

 

24 minutes ago, eglz1 said:

Ask residents of the 1970s Soviet Union how relying on the State to feed and house them worked out.

Thats beside the point seeing as were talking about the function of police not economic systems but hey if you want to go there why dont you ask the 1 in 4 children with food insecurity how capitalism and corporate enterprise is feeding them.

Ask the american homeless population a wide margin of them vets how  capitalism and private property is treating them.

Or we could instead discuss the original question of the function and role of police, mind you a socially funded police.

12 minutes ago, Utebird said:

Thats beside the point seeing as were talking about the function of police not economic systems but hey if you want to go there why dont you ask the 1 in 4 children with food insecurity how capitalism and corporate enterprise is feeding them.

Ask the american homeless population a wide margin of them vets how  capitalism and private property is treating them.

Or we could instead discuss the original question of the function and role of police, mind you a socially funded police.

Instead ask their parents why they had kids they couldnt feed

30 minutes ago, Desertbirds said:

I will note that there is no evidence that the decision by WSU administrators reflects the majority view of WSU students.  The impetus for the cancellation was a letter penned by an associate professor in the Photo Media Department that was circulated on social media and co-signed by a TOTAL of 488 faculty, students, and alumni. 
 

 

Thats probably the majority of WSU tech. WSU tech is an off campus location and not very big. They have 4 separate locations in Wichita, i imagine the graduating class isnt much bigger than the 458 or so sigs. And if it is who cares, they met the requirement of the petition and it passed through a democratic process. No ones rights were infringed upon.

6 minutes ago, Utebird said:

Thats probably the majority of WSU tech. WSU tech is an off campus location and not very big. They have 4 separate locations in Wichita, i imagine the graduating class isnt much bigger than the 458 or so sigs. And if it is who cares, they met the requirement of the petition and it passed through a democratic process. No ones rights were infringed upon.

The letter included signatories from the main campus - the exact percentage has not been published but I suspect it is the vast majority.

3 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Instead ask their parents why they had kids they couldnt feed

So instead of looking at a system that creates poverty you are blaming parents for not feeding their kids?

Why not shift blame to those who pay starvation wages in which case we subsidize corporations like the largest employer in america, walmart, and we as taxpayers foot the bill for their unwillingness to pay livable wages 

Average american spends 30 dollars a year on food stamp programs like snap and others and around 700$ a year on corporate subsidies and your whining about the 30 dollars paid to working parents, you have to have a job to qualify for Snap instead of whining about the 700 dollars you give to corporations to keep their workers in poverty.

Mad about parents who cant feed their kids, are you equally as mad at their ability to get affordable education to increase their value? 

Are you as equally mad at a justice system that unequally jails incarcerates black men creates more single parent homes decreasing a families earning power?

Are you equally mad at the wage gap between men and women and people of color?

Or are you just mad at starving and homeless people because you were told they are lazy?

 

2 hours ago, Desertbirds said:

The issue goes beyond Ms Trump, WSU, and commencement speeches. The Woke left is adopting fascist strategies designed to stifle speech that they do not agree with.

Bitterly so.

 

15 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Instead ask their parents why they had kids they couldnt feed

This is interesting.   Many of the football players we love, write about, cheer for, talk about food insecurity growing up.  Are you suggesting their parents should not have had them?  

2 minutes ago, Desertbirds said:

The letter included signatories from the main campus - the exact percentage has not been published but I suspect it is the vast majority.

Ok lets assume 75% of the sigs came from people on main campus. Many of the students that attend WSU tech also have classes at WSU and even if they didnt the terms of the petition were met through a democratic process signed by students and faculty not some liberal extremist think tank funded by antifa😒

No one infringed on any ones rights.

 

Some really bad history being thrown around here. Cherry picking without context.

1 minute ago, Utebird said:

Ok lets assume 75% of the sigs came from people on main campus. Many of the students that attend WSU tech also have classes at WSU and even if they didnt the terms of the petition were met through a democratic process signed by students and faculty not some liberal extremist think tank funded by antifa😒

No one infringed on any ones rights.

 

Your version of democracy is quite different from mine. There was no vote regarding the letter. Either you agreed with it or you had no say.

Arizona State University revoked a job offer from its incoming journalism school dean after students and faculty accused her of "microaggressions," including a tweet that called some police officers "good."

Tell me again that leftists aren't trying to stifle free speech

Be careful what you cheer for. The political climate swings back and forth. Next time it might be your free speech being trampled.

10 minutes ago, Utebird said:

So instead of looking at a system that creates poverty you are blaming parents for not feeding their kids?

Why not shift blame to those who pay starvation wages in which case we subsidize corporations like the largest employer in america, walmart, and we as taxpayers foot the bill for their unwillingness to pay livable wages 

 

 

Yes i am blaming the parents. Thats what accountability and responsibility looks like
 

wages move with supply and demand. Unskilled labor has never been less valuable. Those jobs are not meant to support a family.

i dont support corporate welfare either but who is the second largest employer again? Was the USPS last time i looked...public sector jobs are far bigger welfare

28 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Instead ask their parents why they had kids they couldnt feed

Cause we didn’t let them abort.