A ha, I said to myself, when I noted that John Calimano was a 1966 graduate of Rutgers. Then I got an even clearer picture when Mr. Calimano admitted in his recent Your Turn guest column that he had participated in “teach-ins and other protests” against Vietnam.
Although definitely not my cup of tea, he certainly had the right of protest and he obviously took advantage of that.
Now, however, after leaving Woodstock behind (one would think so, after 45 years), he is still out there demonstrating his distaste for any view other than his own.
Although the arrangements for former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were already made and all but a few of the Rutgers students were looking forward to her commencement address, Mr. Calimano felt impelled by his antipathy toward the Bush administration to contact the Rutgers Alumni Association to declare his objection.
Never mind that he had graduated so many years before and would not have been subjected to her address; he did not wish to let Secretary Rice make the address, so he would do his best to see that she did not.
Such intolerance from the left is not unusual, as has been seen over and over again.
People like Mr. Calimano do not tolerate any point of view other than their own. This thinking is childish, but they have no desire to debate an issue. Instead, they boo speakers who have different ideas from theirs.
I agree with Jonathan Carfagno in his recent Your Turn guest column that the handful of professors and students who protested Secretary Rice’s appearance should be embarrassed by their anti-intellectualism.
However, I am quite certain that had Secretary Rice spoken, she would have been subjected to boos and catcalls, which has always been the left’s way of showing its antipathy.
It is certainly a sad commentary on education — and life in the United States today — when a small minority can override the wishes of the majority in so many of our day-to-day activities.
Shame on you, Mr. Calimano, and people who think as you do, for trying to shut down any views of which you disapprove. It is certainly the way of totalitarianism and it does not bode well for the future of the country. Jacquelin Duffy Marlboro