Letter: Hecklers at speech should be ashamed

Monday, November 17, 2008

I was deeply disturbed during the discussion with former President George H.W. Bush on Sunday, as he was heckled several times by people in the audience for comments about things that he had done during his administration and career.

Regardless of your opinions or party alliances, some amount of respect for a great leader of our country would have been decent. He didn't seem to be bothered by it, as I'm sure he has dealt with his fair share of hecklers as a politician, but I was embarrassed that people from my university would participate in such classless behavior.

Although I have major issues with Barack Obama's proposed policies, if he were to come to speak at KU, I would either respectfully decline to attend or would calmly and quietly listen to what he had to say.

Hecklers do have the right of “free speech,” but how about common decency and respect? As adults, this would be expected and understood. But respect seemed to be a concept that those people in the audience could not grasp.

I hope those hecklers feel some amount of shame that they were such poor ambassadors for the University. They were truly an embarrassment to KU.

President Bush, I sincerely hope that you will only reflect kindly on your visit here to KU, as many have only the utmost respect and admiration for you and the great things that you have accomplished in your lifetime. Some may not agree with every decision that you made, but they can still respect the leadership that you once provided for our great country.

— — Whitney Taylor is a junior from Singapore.

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Letter: Hecklers at speech should be ashamed

I don't agree with Bush the First (or the second), but I wanted to hear him speak. He's a former president. He deserves the respect of a former president, regardless of whether or not you agree with his policies that he enacted in his administration. The fact that people were heckling former president Bush at a speech here makes me embarrassed for my school.

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