Petraeus Heckled at CUNY

[Wiseman]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer...yintelligencer

[ddoering]

Pathetic pieces of shit. I have less respect for Americans every day. The only ray of hope is that when our Chinese overlords take over they will work these dumbasses to death rather quickly.

[The Reaper]

Well, I guess I should expect no better from a group of privileged young elitists with no respect for the rights of anyone who disagrees with them.

I agree, these budding little socialists will not fare well under either Chinese Communist or islamic rule, whichever takes over first.

TR

[Richard]

College students behaving like...well, college students. I'm shocked.

Richard

[Utah Bob]

Originally Posted by Richard

College students behaving like...well, college students. I'm shocked.

Richard

Pretty much
In Boulder, they''ve been telling CU students to say in their dorms due to the flooding and stay away from the creek which is running at biblical levels and threatening to collapse the bridge.

Guess where they all went?

[ddoering]

Originally Posted by Richard

College students behaving like...well, college students. I'm shocked.

Richard

So that's an excuse now for acting like jackasses......
Obviously it is a place of higher learning. I'm sure their parents are proud.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by ddoering

So that's an excuse now for acting like jackasses......
Obviously it is a place of higher learning. I'm sure their parents are proud.

I neither said nor implied acceptability; only that such behavior has been exhibited by college-age students long before any of us were ever thought of and will probably continue by future generations of college students long after we're gone. Period.

Richard

[The Reaper]

It seems to me that the increasing hypocrisy of the left is that the libs constantly attempt to deny freedom of speech to those they differ with, but demand respect for their own champions as a First Amendment right.

Those who would advocate the destruction of America are to be given their opportunity to speak, but someone who has actually served this country and made history is to be heckled and harassed.

Don't just claim that you are for diversity, support it by allowing balanced viewpoints. Be respectful, even if you disagree.

Finally, I would maintain that GEN Petraeus is a bargain at his salary, in terms of his first hand knowledge and understanding he brings to the university.

TR

[98G]

Originally Posted by Richard

College students behaving like...well, college students. I'm shocked.

Richard

Richard! Where are your rose colored glasses? It is this darned present clouding your memory. Students were all respectful back in the 1960's and 70's.

Last time I was on a campus (about a month ago) I saw the same mix I always see.

1. Hard working serious engineering students (actually all of the sciences)
2. The students whose parents are well heeled so they attend but not much more is expected or occurs.
3. The save the world students who tend to be liberal arts and are a mix of naive, indignant, angry and lost.
4. Jocks taking business courses
5. Outliers who don't quite fit any of the 4 above perfectly and just get through it. They tend to be paying their own way.

Must have been a slow news day.

[ddoering]

Originally Posted by Richard

I neither said nor implied acceptability; only that such behavior has been exhibited by college-age students long before any of us were ever thought of and will probably continue by future generations of college students long after we're gone. Period.

Richard

And I would beat every one of them with a baseball bat until they absorb a good lesson in manners.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by ddoering

And I would beat every one of them with a baseball bat until they absorb a good lesson in manners.

Yep. That would "teach" them.

Personally, I think the good General's behavior would be a better example of behavior to be emulated.

Richard

[Basenshukai]

Originally Posted by Richard

College students behaving like...well, college students. I'm shocked.

Richard

Well, Rich, I actually graduated from CUNY and I never saw this type of behavior there. I don't consider it "normal". We had classes with plenty of professors we may not have agreed with, but there was respect exhibited by the student body there. I don't know where you went to school. But, where I went - and more importantly - when I went, this was not something I would have expected to be normal for my fellow students.

Maybe I'm just all fucked up and not in tune with the times as you seem to be.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Basenshukai

Well, Rich, I actually graduated from CUNY and I never saw this type of behavior there. I don't consider it "normal". We had classes with plenty of professors we may not have agreed with, but there was respect exhibited by the student body there. I don't know where you went to school. But, where I went - and more importantly - when I went, this was not something I would have expected to be normal for my fellow students.

Maybe I'm just all fucked up and not in tune with the times as you seem to be.

I prefer Richard.

Young people with still developing forebrains letting their emotions surface in such outbursts of rude behavior - unheard of.

FWIW - my anecdotal experiences differ from yours as I either saw such behaviors amongst portions of student bodies or heard educators speak of it on nearly every campus (high school, college, or university) I ever attended, visited, or had dealings with during my time in education, either personal or professional, from the mid-60's through the first decade of this Century, and throughout the US (including NY at NYU, Columbia, and RTI), Europe, and in SEA (where I watched large bodies of students from Chulalongkorn University riot in what became an overthrow of the government at that time).

In the history of education, it goes back far beyond that and I doubt it'll end during our lifetimes, especially if we continue to encourage "free thinking" and "freedom of expression" as a cultural norm within our society.

Universities are large, interactive bodies, with many things occurring of which we may not be aware while attending to our education - unless something like this is communicated through some form of media or other communication network.

I think we all realize that GEN Petraeus is a nationally recognized figure who, because of his role in our recent past, represents an on-going controversial period in our nation's history generating strong emotional currents deeply affecting our culture. I am sure this is neither his first nor last experience with such heckling groups, but I am a bit surprised that anyone would find it so out of the norm from a group of college age students. It happens to every POTUS - why should someone like GEN Petraeus be exempt from such displays of dissatisfaction of our government's policies?

How long did it take this nation to - for the most part - come to grips with our involvement in Vietnam? I think I can answer that one - if the recent controversies surrounding "The Butler" are any indication, we're still working on it. And I suspect we'll be working on OEF/OIF far beyond my and my son's expectant life spans.

However, there are many who do "get it" - such as these students from the University of the Ozarks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O57oyJ9OnGQ

Sometimes it takes a bit of time, study, experience, and honest self-reflection to understand it all and come to grips with it in our own way.

As for the behaviors of those particular students at CUNY - IMO- boorish, certainly; but unexpected or a representative "norm" of either society or the university's student body as a whole, hardly. However, I suspect they, too, will probably "get it" one day. At least I hope so.

However, YMMV - and so it goes...

Richard

[ddoering]

Originally Posted by Richard

Yep. That would "teach" them.

Personally, I think the good General's behavior would be a better example of behavior to be emulated.

Richard

I'm betting it would. A good dose of the real world consequences of having an alligator mouth coupled with a hummingbird ass would be an eye-opener for them. I'm sure they were never paddled by their parents either.

Justifying bad behavior as being a natural thing because their brains aren't fully formed is a specious arguement. I guess you are saying they don't know right from wrong.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by ddoering

Justifying bad behavior as being a natural thing because their brains aren't fully formed is a specious arguement. I guess you are saying they don't know right from wrong.

No.

I'm not justifying their behaviors, just pointing out that such behaviors are fairly common among the 13-27 yo group due in great part because of forebrain development which, when developed fully, helps our reasoning and tempering of such emotional impulsivity.

I'm as guilty as anyone for saying and doing things I wish I could re-do during that period in my life as many of my friends and I were of this club:

"Hey...let's do such and such!"

"Great idea!" {which proved to be not such a great idea on a bunch of occasions}

"Oh, crap...what were we thinking!"

"Yeah - we'll never do that again!" {until the next time when we did something else that was just as impulsive, poorly thought-out, and downright dumb}

When reminiscing, I fell pretty fortunate for having survived that part of my growing up years.

And so it goes...

Richard