Bear is Driving!

First off, Susan Rosenberg was supposed to teach a course here this semester. Susan Rosenberg— for those of you who don't know (I didn't)— was/is a convicted terrorist, a member of the Weather Underground, and a suspect in a robbery that left three people dead back in 1981. She was serving out year 16 of her 53-year term in prison when Clinton pardoned her on his last day in office back in 2000.

Anyway, she was gonna teach a course here, but then Hamilton pussed out because people (alumni, professors, punks, hoodlums, ruffians...) were getting all bent outta shape about corrupting our students with her terrorist tendencies. The official story is that Rosenberg voluntarily stepped down, but I'm thinking that's I Doubt It.

So great, Hamilton tried to get someone controversial here, but couldn't take the heat, so they got outta the fire. I'm not happy, but I'm also not surprised. Skidmore wouldn't have even gotten as far as inviting her, so whatever... props to Hamilton.

Now though, Hamilton is turning into the college that yelled wolf. Last night, this dude Ward Churchill was supposed to be speaking on a panel about "The Limits of Dissent." Ward Churchill is supposedly even more controversial than Susan Rosenberg, but I can't find any record of him being involved in killing anyone. Maybe I haven't looked hard enough. Ward is instead being controversial by writing some nasty words about September 11th, and how we might have had it coming and deserved it in some ways. Yowza.

Unsurprisingly, Hamilton pulled the plug on the panel earlier this week, citing threats of violence (death threats and whatnot). And while I totally believe that there were death threats, that's no reason to stop the disscussion. That's, you know, "letting the anti-terrorist terrorists win" or something. And, perhaps worse, letting Bill O'Reilly win. (Did I mention this hoo-ha made Fox News?)

Anyway, the point of all this is that these two people were going to come to Hamilton College, a private liberal arts institution, and share their ideas with the community. They have every right to do that. Hamilton has every right to let them. But, well, Hamilton is a liberal flip-flopper, and they swing whatever way the alumni money is blowing. They don't want to piss anybody off... and in the process piss everybody off. First they upset all the right-wingers by inviting these speakers, then they cancel the speakers... you know, to piss off the left-wingers. That way everybody is upset equally, and the college loses even more money. Awesome.

At least when I went to Skidmore, they just flat out sucked. They knew it, and they didn't even try to pretend they were something they were not. They were like Bush... you might not agree with him, but at least you know where he stands. Hamilton is like Kerry, trying to make everyone like him. Bah. Bah I say.

Anyway, as I frequently do, I will now quote Star Trek.

"You can pulp the story but you can't destroy the idea. It's real!"

I'm pretty sure neither of these people were gonna kill anybody or cause anyone bodily harm by coming here. (Churchill might have been shot at, but that's hurting him, not us.) These people we're coming to dispense ideas. We were going to be left to interpret those ideas. I'm thinking Hamilton's President doesn't watch much Star Trek.