Hedges was wrong - Letters to the Editor

Progressive, The, August, 2003

As an undergraduate student, I expect my graduation day to be a memorable, optimistic experience. If Chris Hedges were to speak at my graduation ceremony ("Heckled in Rockford," July issue), he would be lucky if rotten vegetables were not thrown at him. Graduation is a ceremony for the students. It is a ceremony honoring the hard work put forth by the graduates. If some punk from The New York Times used my graduation as a platform for his own political agenda, I would be greatly offended. Chris Hedges says he is "heartbroken"? If he had said what he did at my school, he would have ended up nose-broken.

Gregory Kerr

Edinburg, Texas

I am an opponent of almost everything this current Administration stands for, domestically and internationally. That said, I found Chris Hedges's commencement speech at Rockford College to be inappropriate to the occasion.

Not once did Hedges indicate he knew or cared that he was speaking at a graduation ceremony. In all his talk about peace and justice he did not even bother to exhort the grads to go into the world and work for such. He did not speak to the graduates; he pontificated pompously at them.

As for Hedges's excuse--What did they expect? "Climb Every Mountain"?--well, yes, to some extent. It was, after all, a graduation ceremony, not a political forum. Would he do the same thing if invited to deliver a toast at a wedding or a eulogy at a funeral? It would not have been difficult to incorporate those same thoughts in a stirring graduation address. He might have won some hearts and minds instead of alienating an entire class from his point of view.

There is indeed some serious suppression of free speech occurring in this country and we should pick our battles carefully. Making a martyr out of someone who showed not only a pitiful lack of common sense but a lack of basic courtesy for his audience--he couldn't even spare a sentence for their accomplishments--is not going to help anyone but the anti-free speech crowd.

And as far as free speech and heckling goes, the Constitution does not assure one a complacent audience. While I consider booing to be rude and uncalled for in most situations, isn't it in reality just another form of free speech?

Robin L. Berenbaum

St. Johnsbury, Vermont