Some news stories really don’t need to be written or are non-stories. A great example of this is the story in Friday’s edition of the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus that reported that an advisory committee for Cleary University’s Livingston Economic Club Speakers Luncheon Series has no plans to stop racist hatemonger Ann Coulter’s appearance at the event.
That’s like reporting it’s dark at midnight. Cleary President Tom Sullivan and the people involved with the event knew the kind of furor it would cause inviting Coulter and paying her more than $30,000 grand for two hours of hate, especially in light of the quality of speakers the school had the option of inviting. With the recent firing of Don Imus for an alleged racist remark, it also seems unbelievable that Cleary continues to defend Coulter and she's not being held to the same standard, whose racist and hateful remarks in the past make Imus pale in comparison.
It just makes you wonder where the $30,000 in blood money came from. I had no idea Cleary was so well off. The newspaper also claims it's only Democrats that are protesting Coulter’s appearance, but the dislike of her discrimination and hate speech crosses all political lines, for the most part.
“An advisory committee to the Livingston Economic Club decided recently not to rescind the offer to Coulter, said university President Tom Sullivan, despite the furor she caused by using a derogatory term for homosexuals when discussing Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards earlier this year.
Yet, the eight-member executive committee will meet on Thursday, he said, and will conduct a routine review of the economic club's speaker series.”
Sullivan claims the school has received 33 calls against Coulter and 35 in favor, but the real number that matters is 200. That’s the number of tickets that have already been sold to Coulter’s appearance, and it’s sad that a community asset like Cleary is throwing away all its credibility to embrace racist views for a few bucks. Again, they had their choice of many people for less money that will fill the Genoa Woods Conference Center and actually give an uplifting message instead of an hour or two of hate.
“Sullivan said Coulter's speech and the controversy she often creates are a desirable part of the political debate that's critical to democracy.
"The economic club is designed to bring people of varying perspectives into the community," he said. "The discussion, and getting people to raise questions about her perspective and approach to things, is healthy. I do think it's something of value."
What is desirable about calling a presidential candidate a fagot, telling women who lost their husbands in 9/11 they enjoyed it or saying the genocide in Darfur is not happening fast enough or that half of the U.S. population are traitors?
How does that lift the political debate or contribute to dialogue in this country, Mr. Sullivan?
President Tom Sullivan
Cleary University
3750 Cleary Drive
Howell, MI 48843
tsullivan@cleary.edu
Phone: 517.548.3670
4 comments:
Is Ann Coulter the only subject you can come up with? zzzzzzzzzzz
No, Ms. Fyke, and if you read all 208 posts you will find that out. But you’re the last person I care about pleasing. You may not believe this, but there are actually people out there with open minds, and if you present the facts to them you can change their minds. If you don’t like what’s written don’t bother reading or posting. However, if sometime you want to have an actual debate without calling me names I would have no problem with that.
It's been nice chatting with you, this is my last post on this blog. There are lots of things to do before May 8th.
I'll stop by on May 9th and reveal the winning strategy.
You don’t have to bother; after the so-called “love” candidates are soundly beaten I’ll post it. By the way, is your anti-gay hate group ever going to revel its endorsements?
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