There should have been a better solution to that flap over Condoleezza Rice’s invitation to give the commencement address at Rutgers University later this month. The former secretary of state under President George W. Bush finally relented and declined after weeks of student-and-faculty protests as well as a student sit-in at the office of the Rutgers’ president, Robert Barchi. Rice said she didn’t want her speech to be a “distraction for the university community.”
Several points:
First, it remains a shame that such a gifted, uniquely accomplished person is on the wrong side of history when it comes to an enabling role in Bush foreign policy, notably the Iraq war. She was hardly part of the Rumsfeld-Cheney clique, but her best wasn’t nearly good enough. She was, however classy in manner, part of the problem.
Two, whether it comes from the left or right, the intimidation of legitimate, public arena, free speech is wrong. Including–no, especially–the sort of speech that is unpopular in a given context. That’s a big reason why we have a First Amendment.
Three, surely an arrangement could have been worked out that would have allowed Rice to give the commencement speech–and then some–for her $35,000 fee. Perhaps she could have participated in a graduation weekend foreign-policy forum that would have yielded more than its share of pointed questions, exchanged ideas and critical assessments.
How ironic. Rice, a key operative in the Bush Administration’s ill-fated Middle East policy, took the high road and didn’t want to distract from what “should be a time of joyous celebration for the graduates and their families.” Rutgers, a bastion of free-thinking liberalism, plays the part of censoring heavy. Both Rutgers and Rice deserve better.