Billy Hallowell
The Blaze
10/13/2011
Earlier this month, the Blaze reported that leftist academic Frances Fox Piven was invited to speak at Messiah College, a Christian college in Grantham, Pennsylvania. The radical professor, who recently called bankers “thieves,“ ”cannibals“ and the ”big problem” in a speech to Occupy Wall Street participants, addressed the Christian college’s audience on Tuesday.
Prior to the event, some internal controversy did break out after the college removed posters from campus that advertised Piven’s appearance. Officials said that advertisements were taken down because turnout was already expected to be high. Additionally, the college claimed that officials didn’t want open-house guests seeing the advertisements and asking questions that staff members wouldn’t be able to answer. Some students didn’t buy into this mantra.
On Sunday, students who were frustrated over what they saw as Messiah’s intention to downplay the event, wrote notices in chalk on the college’s walkways and courtyards. Early in the day on Monday, college staff hosed them away.
Derek Petrella, a senior who studies politics and economics, said, ”Messiah College is sponsoring the event and they’re disassociating themselves from it.” Ben Hemphill, a sophomore student who studies politics, mirrored this sentiment:
“The college has elected to bring in this controversial individual, and as far as we can see, it appears that they’re now trying to back away from it. We’re really trying to make people aware of this double standard.”
…Following the address, Nick Kratz, a student writer for Messiah’s “The Swinging Bridge” said that, though he doesn’t necessarily agree with Piven, her viewpoints were important for the Christian community to hear. Kratz writes:
Although some at Messiah may feel uncomfortable with the message she brings,I will argue that that is ok. It is ok to feel uncomfortable because in those moments of discomfort and tension, wrestling with new ideas, that we grow as individuals. Her focus on the growing income gap and a lack of social justice in the United States is important for the people of this community to consider. How do we reconcile our beliefs in a system that leaves millions unemployed and promotes racial inequality? Regardless of your personal opinion on the issues that she raises, the conversation is important.
It seems there truly was a diversity of opinion among the college’s student body.
The complete article, with more video, is at The Blaze.
Also at The Blaze, the crowd at Messiah College, Rebukes Piven for Saying Tea Party Doesn’t ‘Like the Idea of a Black President’ Watch the videos at the link.
…In addressing the successful right-leaning conservative movement, Piven seemed to allude a to her belief that the Tea Party is motivated by racism…see her begin to dive into this mantra (which has become commonplace for many people on the left). In fact, she even says that the Tea Party doesn’t “like the idea of a black president.”
You’ll hear a man in the audience respond to her charges, saying, “as long as he follows the constitution we don’t care what color he is” (referring to President Barack Obama). Hear her comment and the man’s response…
Related: At Trevor Loudon’s New Zeal, Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. Calls for Obama to Take ‘Extraordinary Constitutional’ Action on Unemployment
“I hope the president continues to exercise extraordinary constitutional means, based on the history of Congresses that have been in rebellion in the past,” Jackson said. “He’s looking administratively for ways to advance the causes of the American people, because this Congress is completely dysfunctional.”
At CAJ we believe Congressman Jackson is fortunate not to be in prison already. Here is our list of articles featuring Jackson.
Also, Republicans roll out jobs plan in challenge to Obama
A group of Senate Republicans marched out their own jobs plan Thursday in a direct challenge to President Obama, who has been blasting Congress for not passing his jobs bill.
Republican senators John McCain and Rand Paul introduced the “Jobs Through Growth Act” at a press briefing Thursday afternoon, calling for a host of regulatory and spending measures they say will spur job growth in the country…
Update: Jesse Jackson Jr. Should Resign; and if He Doesn’t Should He be Thrown Out of Congress?
…Of course another word for “extra-constitutional” is “unconstitutional.” Really it is hard to know which is more appalling—his ignorance of history or of the Constitution. As Glenn Reynolds writes:
Two thoughts; (1) He should resign for this statement, which constitutes an abnegation of his oath of office; and (2) Just a reminder — those Confederate Rebels were Democrats, mostly. Trouble with item (1) is that if contempt for the Constitution were grounds for leaving Congress, we’d hardly have a Congress. But still . . . A pathetic example of today’s pathetic political class.
Of course there is a world of difference between a person having a minor disagreement about what the Constitution actually means, or even advocating a relatively minor breach of the Constitution, and advocating a complete overthrow of this government in favor of a dictatorship, which is what Mr. Jackson has proposed.
But let me throw out a question to the peanut gallery. The oath of office for a Congressman reads as follows (expand third item to read):
“I, (name of Member), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Clearly he has violated it. Is that a cause for removal from office?
Read the whole thing.
