Monday, July 16, 2007

On Protesting Dick Cheney

In April, there was a big to-do at BYU about Dick Cheney being the Commencement speaker. Nothing could be a bigger waste of time than protesting against Dick Cheney for the following reasons:

a) He's a vice-president
b) Nobody really cares what he does or says
c) Protesting a domestic politician is so 1960s
d) Did I mention that he is a vice president?

I suspect that the real reason for the protest was for BYU students to show that they can rebel against the university establishment. I guess that when you live in Provo, Utah, you just don't have much else to do or think about.

3 comments:

Eugene said...

I believe the real reason is much more than demonstrating a successful defiance of the establishment. My youngest son participated in this alternate commencement. He is a BYU senior and was asked to play his violin before Nader spoke. It was a great opportunity to express himself through music as well as make the kind of contacts that he will likely keep for life. The demonstration was a remarkably creative student response to an unpopular administrative decision. The organizers were highly motivated and intelligent in how they addressed this passionate issue. I suspect that the skills that they developed in the long, frenetic and sometimes desperate experience of getting this event to materialize have launched a few of them into careers that they had not previously imagined.

Anonymous said...

I have the 'privilege' of living in Provo. A lot of my friends got in trouble for participating in this protest and expected my sympathy because supposedly if you're not Mormon in Utah Valley you're automatically suuuuuper liberal 'bro'. I basically told them this exact same thing... Along with, "You're idiots for getting yourselves kicked out of BYU when you have two semesters left."

Anonymous said...

I actually met Dick Cheney when he was the Sec of Defense. I was a part of briefing he was given. He's a nice guy. I'm a big fan, was before I met him too.

Looking at college kids and their lack of respect, I think ignorance is what happens to families when both parents work outside the home. Why bother having kids to let a day care center raise them, and don't get me started on the lack of discipline day care's offer when the kids stop being kids and start being brats.