The Bollinger/Ahmadinejad farce

[bemildred]

Imagine the scene: As angry protesters march outside, a nation's unpopular president prepares to address students and faculty at a prestigious university. Introducing the president, the head of the university is bluntly critical of his guest speaker: "You, quite simply, ridiculous. You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated. . . . I doubt you will have the intellectual courage to answer questions . . . I do expect you to exhibit the fanatical mind-set that characterizes so much of what you say and do. . . . Your preposterous and belligerent statements . . . led to your party's defeat in the elections."

Unfazed, the president rises to begin his speech. His sometimes bizarre remarks generate hoots of derision. But he plows on civilly, though he ducks and weaves when faced with critical questions from the audience.

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Wouldn't it be wonderful if something like that could happen in our country?

No, no, I mean really happen in our country. Tuesday's farce in New York at Columbia University, starring Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the Unpopular Presidential Guest and Columbia President Lee C. Bollinger as The Man Who Spoke Truth to Power, doesn't count because it was just that: a farce.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-brooks28sep28,0,7795418.column?coll=la-opinion-columnists

[peacetalksforall]

1. Who is she? Rosa Brooks? That's the kind of approach this

country used to have a long time ago?

Most of the time the truth hurts.

She spoke the truth and it felt good to have someone telling the truth. Congratulations to the LATimes.

If only..... we could have truth in this country.