How Bush Visit Became the Siege Of Howard U.

[chimpymustgo]

I didn't see this getting much press at all earlier this week.

How Bush Visit Became the Siege Of Howard U.

By Courtland Milloy
Sunday, October 30, 2005; Page C01


It was Soul Food Thursday at Howard University last week, and many students were looking forward to their favorite meal: fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, collard greens and cornbread. At lunchtime, however, students discovered that much of the campus had been locked down and that the school's cafeteria was off limits.

Apparently, many of them did not know that President Bush and first lady Laura Bush had arrived for a "youth summit" at the Blackburn Center, where the dining hall is located. Stomachs began to growl, tempers flared, and, eventually, a student protest ensued.

-snip-

During the protest, dozens of students locked arms around a flagpole in the Quadrangle, a designated forbidden zone at the center of the campus, and refused to move despite warnings from campus security that Secret Service rooftop snipers might open fire on them.

-snip-

What might have been a public relations coup for Bush -- a visit to a historically black college to show concern for at-risk youths -- ended up as another Katrina-like moment, with the president appearing spaced-out, waving and smiling for television cameras while students were trying to break through campus security to get to the cordoned-off cafeteria.

-snip-

But the visit went from bad to worse. On a day when the U.S. Senate passed a resolution paying tribute to civil rights icon Rosa Parks, who died last week, campus security guards were telling students that if they wanted to eat they'd have to come back when the president and first lady were gone, then go to a service door at the rear of the dining hall and ask for a chicken plate to go. Never mind that a student meal plan at Howard can cost as much as $2,500 a semester.

-snip-

To set off a student protest at this school, you'd have to be politically tone-deaf in the extreme, out of touch and flying blind. And yet, Bush did it.

God help us in Iraq.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/29/AR2005102901574.html

***

[malaise]

1. All I can say is

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:
Let me email a friend at Howard and hope he has some pix. This is just too good.

[xultar]

2. Ahhh don't pull a bruva or sistah away from soul food Thursday...

home cooked food on campus makes ya' happy!

[Connie_Corleone]

3. You got that right!

You don't get that kind of good eating often on campus. And tell them to go to the rear to get their food too??!! That's just awful.

Beware the growling stomachs of college students.

[jody]

4. Man, I was raised on soul food like that. * is the most insensitive boor

ever to occupy the Oval Orifice. :hi:

[chimpymustgo]

5. President Space Cadet...

"...the president appearing spaced-out, waving and smiling for television cameras while students were trying to break through campus security to get to the cordoned-off cafeteria..."

[madrchsod]

6. aside from the collard greens

that`s pretty much what i eat! the president`s planners are idiots and worse if he wasn`t so hated in this country he wouldn`t need to post armed guards every where he goes......just think if would have been clinton!

[tsuki]

8. Collard Greens, Pepper Vinegar and a big slab of Cornbread.

Yum Yum. Mac and Cheese, I'll pass. :hi:

[politicasista]

7. Way to go Howard U!

[Neil Lisst]

9. that hasn't been covered well

But Bush got his TV moments for the Vichy media.

[Aimah]

10. Why did they expect a cordial response...

There were going to be protesters whether Soul Food Thurs was interrupted or not.

[rocktivity]

11. Doesn't Howard have an auditorium?

Why the cafeteria? If it had to be held there, why weren't the carryout meals distributed from a different location when the cafeteria was due to serve dinner?

:headbang:
rocknation

[Karenina]

12. George Bush Don't Like Black People.

Let 'em eat yellow cake!