I was in town already and my family wanted to see it. It only took a few hours and it made a lot of people happy.

I went to Carnegie Mellon University, and the speaker was the man who was the governor of Pennsylvania during the time I was in college. That seems like not only an appropriate speaker, but a prestigious one, the general importance of whom seemed to add to the atmosphere for those attending, your personal political opinions notwithstanding.

From general reading of your posts, your politics are fringe and the bulk of your content designed for shock value instead of intelligent discourse, so your definition of "appropriate" in this circumstance is generally going to be considered irrelevant by most of society. If you scoured the globe long enough, you could find someone who would get their knickers irrationally twisted about anyone who spoke at such an event.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

They're not all the same, and as someone who graduated high school (in addition to college), our HS grad speaker was a student leader held in high regard. They didn't just pick any random flunkie (i. e. someone ranked 894/899) to speak for the class.

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Life only becomes meaningful at its extremes

-- S

Well, cupcake, what did the speaker say????

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chardonnay in one hand, chocolate in the other, body
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming 'WOO HOO, what a ride!'"

I rea that as to refute Viola Lee's implication that Clinton didn't get heckled. I don't think he said it was either right or wrong.

(don't mind me, I'm just heckling...er, offering a different take)

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Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

Right, so if someone like Michael Brown were chosen to speak instead of the Governor of PA, it would still have made those people just as happy?

Probably, but the factor that gauges who is an appropriate speaker is not whether someone would "get their knickers irrationally twisted" but rather whether half the student body gets its knickers twisted rationally, which would likely be the case if Brown (see above) were chosen.

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Life only becomes meaningful at its extremes

-- S

If you guys think Clinton got heckled during his presidency, can you show me the news stories? I'm interested to see what they were heckling him about.

Most people were relaxing in the longest stretch of peace and prosperity in our history during the 90s. I don't remember any dissent. Except of course on the part of those Republican busy body hypocrites like Newt Gingrich who were investigating his private life, after Newt cheated on his own wife.

Actually, I think Bush DOES hide from society. If memory serves, almost all of his appearances have been carefully controlled as to admission, wearing certain T-shirts,, signs etc.

In fact, the only one I recall was when he threw out the first pitch last time. Didn't they boo the living hell out of him then?

__________________
Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.

He said "Our nation is in desperate need of leadership."

-- June, 1989

(damn, Mrs. M walked right into that one )

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Life only becomes meaningful at its extremes

-- S

Probably most of them. But, this was in 2002, so the few who would have known who he was probably wouldn't have had any negative feelings about him.

Well, I'm in a pretty good position to gauge the reaction of the student body. I don't recall anyone being upset about the choice of speaker at their graduation. Most of the students seemed more concerned with celebrating with friends and family.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

I don't think that whether or not a politician is heckled really means much of everything. In a divided, partisan society, you will be prone to heckling simply by being a politician.

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"Government big enough to supply everything you need is big enough to take everything you have... The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."

-Thomas Jefferson

Or just getting through the reading of 1000 names...

Nope.

"Almost anyone" implies the bulk of Americans, most of whom are not leaders, much less role models, and who couldn't inspire if their weekend depended on it.

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Life only becomes meaningful at its extremes

-- S

That's all your great speaker said? Geez! Any moron could have stood up and repeated one sentence.

(damn, cupcake walked right into that one )

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"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chardonnay in one hand, chocolate in the other, body
thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and screaming 'WOO HOO, what a ride!'"

You think a president who resides over peace and prosperity gets heckled the same amount as a president who resides over war based on lies and record debt and a dollar slump and a stock market downfall and record gas prices and a recession?

I don't think so....

That's entirely different. Phred Phelps and his cult "protest" the funerals of individual soldiers who have ZERO direct impact on his little band of witch-burners, and for quite different reasons.
People who detest Bush and make things uncomfortable at these rallies usually see him and his policies AS directly affecting the whole country.

__________________
Not a day goes by that I don't see something that reinforces my belief that people are idiots.