A Tale of Two Leftist University’s

Cross posted from Right In A Left World

September 21, 2007

With the announcement of former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, being appointed a visiting fellow with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace, a conservative public policy research center, alumni and faculty launched into protests and circulated petitions opposing the appointment on the grounds that “Rumsfeld clashed with the university's core values.”

Pamela Lee, an art history professor said, "He contradicts the fundamental standards of the university, which are order, morality, personal honor and most importantly, the rights of others. This person has played a critical role in a disastrously failed military policy. He has aggressively abused international law."

As is usual from our Socialistic left, exactly what “international Law” has been “aggressively abused” doesn’t get disclosed. Listening to anyone from the left discussing things as, “morality, personal honor and the rights of others” makes me choke.

What “morality” is there in supporting the slaughter of unborn babies?

What “personal honor” is there in slandering a General Officer prior to his giving a report mandated by the leftists in Congress?

What “rights of others” are there when the left uses every tool available to them to stifle opposing views to their leftist indoctrination, especially in our University’s?

It should be noted that Mr. Rumsfeld would neither be teaching students nor taking up residence at Stanford and might possibly meet with other conservatives 2 to 3 times a year.

Psychology professor, Philip Zimbardo chimed in with, “It is unacceptable to have someone who represents the values that Rumsfeld has portrayed, in an academic setting.”

Could Zimbardo be any clearer that conservative thought is unwelcome?

Ms. Lee adds, “It’s extremely important for the Hoover Institution to know that their appointments are not in the mainstream of the Stanford community, as well as to send a very clear signal to the country that this is not what Stanford is about.”

Is this another example of the “tolerance” the left preaches to us about often? Tolerance of them and their views, while banning and censoring conservative thought?

Is this what we send our children to institutions of higher learning for, to be indoctrinated with leftist ideals and stripped of any values we may have taught them?

If you don’t think our University’s are infested with Socialists elites who hate what America actually has stood for, we need only to look east to New York to see the outrage of Columbia’s Lisa Anderson, dean of international and public affairs, who independently invited Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Holocaust denier and head of a terrorist supporting state, for a question-and-answer session with Columbia’s faculty and students in their World Leaders Forum.

Last year Columbia had also invited Ahmadinejad to Columbia, but plans were dropped due to “security and logistics” concerns.

I fail to see the logic coming from our University’s when an American citizen of Mr. Rumsfeld’s stature is vilified and protested yet a tyrant like Iran’s Ahmadinejad would be embraced.

Lest you think I am being hypocritical and advocating a double standard, let me remind you that Donald Rumsfeld was the Secretary of Defense of the United States of America. He over saw the successful overthrow of the despotic regime of Saddam Hussein and performed his job under intense fire from the Democrat party right up to his resignation. He would not be teaching or addressing students, but discussing matters with a campus based ‘think tank.’

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, would be addressing students and has been known for some of the most outrageous speeches denying the well-documented Holocaust of World War Two and calling for the total destruction of the nation of Israel. Former hostages have identified him as taking part in the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis where several of our Embassy staff were held hostage in Iran for over a year.

Our Troops in Iraq have identified several weapons seized there and that were being used to kill our Troops on the ground as having come from the Country of Iran. His regime also thumbs their nose at the world as they rush headlong into the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

While being in our country, primarily to address the United Nations, he requested to visit ‘ground zero,’ the spot in New York where the World Trade Center Towers once stood, before being destroyed by radical Muslim terrorists, murdering nearly 3,000 of our citizens.

Why would a terrorist leader of a terrorist supporting nation desire to visit the site of their most successful attack? He may say it is to pay homage to those murdered individuals, but to use it as a photo op to gloat to fellow terrorists seems more likely, to me.

His visit to Columbia University would be like Columbia inviting Adolf Hitler to address Columbia’s students and faculty in 1944, at the height of World War Two.

After massive public outcry, Columbia’s President just today rescinded the invitation to have Ahmadinejad address students and faculty as a part of the university-wide leader's forum, but left open the invitation to speak at the school of international and public affairs.

In defense of Lisa Anderson, Columbia’s president Lee Bollinger said, “she has the right and responsibility to invite speakers whom she believes will add to the academic experience of our students."

Although two different University’s on separate coasts, I fail to see just how a terrorist supporter could be considered as “adding to the academic experience of our students," while a former U.S. Secretary of Defense, who wouldn’t even be addressing students or faculty, is said to “clash with the university's core values.”

It is little wonder why our children graduate these institutions with such a dismal view of the world and world conditions.

Lew