Today’s Valley Times revealed that Bill Ayers will be part of the St. Mary’s College speakers series this month. Assuming that the theme of the series must be something to do with domestic terrorism, I read on, sure I would see Ted Kaczynski on the line up. Evidently, he was booked.
In actuality the theme of the speakers series is “Against the Grain,” and the other speakers include a woman who is overweight and proud of it – she wrote a book called “Fat! So?”; a man who (sniff, sniff) gave up his life of luxury to live off solar power; the founder of a group of “outlaw bicyclists” that he believes are creating the future today; and a “premiere hip-hop historian and deejay.”
Wow, way to be totally boring and irrelevant to what’s happening in the Bay Area, St. Mary’s! I can’t think of a single reason that anyone would attend such a lame speakers series when unemployment is crushing us, home values are falling off the charts, and to top it all off…the Governor is thinking about taxing golf! We’ve got real problems, and you’re encouraging your students to go “against the grain”?
If you want to serve the needs of your students, St. Mary’s College peeps, bring in speakers that will help them get a job, or better yet, start a business and create jobs. Now that’s radical thinking!
January 27th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Rugby’s a big draw at St. Mary’s!
January 27th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Hey, Joey, if you’re gonna read the FR, why don’t you write for it again? You still have a loyal fan base who miss your smart mouth. (:
January 27th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Hard to understand how this speaker series passes the “intellectual stimulation” test. When I was a junior at the University of Illinois, we had Dr. Timothy Leary debating G. Gordon Liddy. Now THAT was awesome! And what was cool about it was that instead of one person giving an unchallenged discourse on their thought process, it was a true exchange of ideas and philosophies. That’s what college students need.
January 27th, 2009 at 12:00 am
Agreed. As an SMC alum, I encourage the College to continue the tradition of training students in critical thinking. The skill will last them a lifetime.
The problem is this series doesn’t meet any threshold for encouraging or inspiring critical thinking. It is the same pabulum they are being fed by MSM, MTV, and MoveOn.org Leary vs. Giddy on the other hand… Wish I had seen THAT!
A very sad day for SMC alumni.