The Laughing Man
April 11th 2005, 06:17 PM
The background behind the assult is very disturbing, but not surprising. It was actually the climax to a larger series of typically liberal intolerance and harassment:
The Story Behind the Campus Assault on Pat Buchanan (http://www.flynnfiles.com/archives/culture2005/the_story_behind_the_campus_assault_on_pat_buchanan.html)
According to a Western Michigan University senior, Pat Buchanan wasn't the only conservative assaulted on campus last Thursday. Matt Hall, who organized the Buchanan speech, alleges that a woman's studies professor pushed him from behind and boxed him out after he attempted to retrieve a torn-down poster from the professor's classroom hours before the lecture.
The dousing of Pat Buchanan with salad dressing one week ago today was prefaced with WMU's advisor to student organizations denouncing the event in his newspaper column, professors using class time to label Buchanan a "racist," a faculty-directed effort that resulted in the removal of more than 2,500 fliers promoting the event, and a professor allegedly assaulting the student organizer of the lecture. While a non-WMU student attacked Buchanan, the College Republicans who hosted the commentator believe WMU faculty and administrators created a climate that encouraged the assault.
The professor-student conflict took place in the early afternoon last Thursday. "I saw three girls going around tearing down the Pat Buchanan signs," explained WMU student Jeff Tirrell. "As I went to wait outside my class I saw that they were taking the torn-down fliers into a classroom and handing them to a professor." Tirrell alerted College Republican Chairman Matt Hall that a professor was assigning her students to rip down posters promoting the Buchanan event. Hall then confronted the professor, Edith Fisher, in a classroom in Dunbar Hall.
Seeing his $30 glossy poster promoting the Buchanan speech impaled on the pole holding a Mexican flag, Hall attempted to retrieve his club's property. According to Hall, Fisher shoved him from behind and then elbowed him aside when he tried to take his sign. "No, this is official university property and it's been confiscated," Dr. Fisher allegedly told him. Fisher hasn't responded to emails sent Monday requesting her side of the story.
Several witnesses note that Fisher then crumpled up the large promotional poster and threw it in the trash. At this point, Hall noticed scores of his fliers in the garbage bag. Fisher, several witnesses claim, started screaming at Hall. "I was kind of shocked," Hall explained to me. The incident occured during Fisher's class, Introduction to Women's Studies, with the professor informing Hall: "You're intruding on my class, please leave."
That night, twenty-four-year old community college student Samuel Mesick rushed the podium and dumped a large cup of ranch dressing on Pat Buchanan as he spoke. "The campus police were unable to stop the assault on Buchanan," witness Jason Miller told me, "but responded very rapidly to protect the assailant." In fact, the mohawked assailant screamed for the police when a burly College Republican apprehended him. As for Buchanan, "He was pissed," according to Miller, who wondered if the sixty-six-year old pundit was going to take a swing at the man who disrupted the event. Remarking that he didn't even like ranch dressing, Buchanan stopped the question and answer period and returned to his hotel. The event ended prematurely and Mesick was released on $100 bond.
"This was institutionally acceptable," WMU student Matt Hall believes. "Professors telling their students to tear down fliers. Professors telling students that Pat Buchanan is a racist and a bigot. A professor physically attacking me, a student. An administrator, the advisor to registered student organizations, denouncing the Buchanan speech in his newspaper column. This sort of thing adds up and creates an institutional atmosphere where it becomes acceptable to treat people like scum."
A leftist student's assault on Patrick Buchanan at Western Michigan University generated nationwide attention. Allegations of a leftist professor's assault on a conservative student didn't make headlines. It should have.
:no: Shameful and disgusting, but somehow I think these people are really proud of that assault.
The Story Behind the Campus Assault on Pat Buchanan (http://www.flynnfiles.com/archives/culture2005/the_story_behind_the_campus_assault_on_pat_buchanan.html)
According to a Western Michigan University senior, Pat Buchanan wasn't the only conservative assaulted on campus last Thursday. Matt Hall, who organized the Buchanan speech, alleges that a woman's studies professor pushed him from behind and boxed him out after he attempted to retrieve a torn-down poster from the professor's classroom hours before the lecture.
The dousing of Pat Buchanan with salad dressing one week ago today was prefaced with WMU's advisor to student organizations denouncing the event in his newspaper column, professors using class time to label Buchanan a "racist," a faculty-directed effort that resulted in the removal of more than 2,500 fliers promoting the event, and a professor allegedly assaulting the student organizer of the lecture. While a non-WMU student attacked Buchanan, the College Republicans who hosted the commentator believe WMU faculty and administrators created a climate that encouraged the assault.
The professor-student conflict took place in the early afternoon last Thursday. "I saw three girls going around tearing down the Pat Buchanan signs," explained WMU student Jeff Tirrell. "As I went to wait outside my class I saw that they were taking the torn-down fliers into a classroom and handing them to a professor." Tirrell alerted College Republican Chairman Matt Hall that a professor was assigning her students to rip down posters promoting the Buchanan event. Hall then confronted the professor, Edith Fisher, in a classroom in Dunbar Hall.
Seeing his $30 glossy poster promoting the Buchanan speech impaled on the pole holding a Mexican flag, Hall attempted to retrieve his club's property. According to Hall, Fisher shoved him from behind and then elbowed him aside when he tried to take his sign. "No, this is official university property and it's been confiscated," Dr. Fisher allegedly told him. Fisher hasn't responded to emails sent Monday requesting her side of the story.
Several witnesses note that Fisher then crumpled up the large promotional poster and threw it in the trash. At this point, Hall noticed scores of his fliers in the garbage bag. Fisher, several witnesses claim, started screaming at Hall. "I was kind of shocked," Hall explained to me. The incident occured during Fisher's class, Introduction to Women's Studies, with the professor informing Hall: "You're intruding on my class, please leave."
That night, twenty-four-year old community college student Samuel Mesick rushed the podium and dumped a large cup of ranch dressing on Pat Buchanan as he spoke. "The campus police were unable to stop the assault on Buchanan," witness Jason Miller told me, "but responded very rapidly to protect the assailant." In fact, the mohawked assailant screamed for the police when a burly College Republican apprehended him. As for Buchanan, "He was pissed," according to Miller, who wondered if the sixty-six-year old pundit was going to take a swing at the man who disrupted the event. Remarking that he didn't even like ranch dressing, Buchanan stopped the question and answer period and returned to his hotel. The event ended prematurely and Mesick was released on $100 bond.
"This was institutionally acceptable," WMU student Matt Hall believes. "Professors telling their students to tear down fliers. Professors telling students that Pat Buchanan is a racist and a bigot. A professor physically attacking me, a student. An administrator, the advisor to registered student organizations, denouncing the Buchanan speech in his newspaper column. This sort of thing adds up and creates an institutional atmosphere where it becomes acceptable to treat people like scum."
A leftist student's assault on Patrick Buchanan at Western Michigan University generated nationwide attention. Allegations of a leftist professor's assault on a conservative student didn't make headlines. It should have.
:no: Shameful and disgusting, but somehow I think these people are really proud of that assault.