02 April 2008

Ashcroft at Skidmore, Continued

From a more local paper comes a more detailed account of the Ashcroft controversy. Again, the Young Republicans express their anxiety that tonight's talk may be disrupted, but the newspaper presents rather little evidence of any attempt in the works. A single quote points that way, a Facebook poster saying, "Let's make sure that he gets an earful when he gets here." That may only mean heckling, which may appear disruptive according to the fastidious discourse etiquette of Republicans, but would fall far short of disruption, as I suggested to the YRA representative who posted last night, by the standards of other countries.

I should re-emphasize that there should be no slackening of vigilance against any actual attempt to stop Ashcroft from speaking, whether by protesters on the ground or by faculty behind the scenes. At the same time, I wonder whether the Skidmore Republicans might be inspired by their scary experience to "denounce and reject" their RPI counterparts for their role in driving the Virtual Jihadi exhibit off that campus. It would probably be even more interesting to read why they wouldn't.

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