thedrifter
04-12-07, 08:56 AM
Cindy Sheehan Comes to Purdue
By Jacob Laksin
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 12, 2007
Long after the national media lost interest in her publicity stunts, Cindy Sheehan remains a fixture on the anti-war speech circuit. Just last month, the mother of a fallen soldier turned raving conspiracist cut a propaganda swath across Vermont, where she stumped for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; urged Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney; and basked in the adulation of the Green Mountain State’s more gullible activists. But perhaps Sheehan’s most loyal fan base can be found on university campuses.
Demonstrating the point is Sheehan’s appearance today at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In an instructive commentary on the ideological tilt of modern academia, Sheehan’s visit to the school is being sponsored by a full congregation of academic departments, among them the department of Political Science, the American Studies program, and the Women’s Studies program -- a fact not lost on critics like Purdue professor David Bridges, who points out that the invitation amounts to an administration-endorsed carte blanche for Sheehan “to spew her hateful rhetoric on Purdue's campus in a Purdue-sponsored event.”
Behind Sheehan’s scheduled visit is one of Purdue’s more radical denizens, political science professor Harry Targ. Targ, a coordinator of Purdue’s Peace Studies Program, first gained notoriety after his appearance in David Horowitz’s 2006 book, The Professors. An active member of the communist splinter group Committees of Correspondence For Democracy and Socialism, Targ has a long history of seeking to convert the campus to his decidedly fringe school of political activism. (As an example, Targ considers “U.S. capitalism” and “militarism” the gravest threats to international security.)
Targ defends Sheehan’s visit on the unimpeachable grounds that universities should promote “diverse views” and “engage in dialogue and debate” on controversial subjects. The problem is that the professor makes for an unlikely exponent of such good sense, his academic career being a specimen case of the creeping closed-mindedness of modern academia. Under Targ’s stewardship, Purdue’s Peace Studies program functions as an effective forum for the professor’s political predilections, not least his sympathy for totalitarian Cuba, which students visit as part of a course co-taught by Targ.
Outside the classroom, Targ’s supposed commitment to intellectual diversity is no more apparent. Events sponsored by Targ through the Peace Studies program have without exception been devoted to the cause of antiwar and anti-American activism. In 2002, Targ invited radical journalist Robert Fisk to deliver a lecture titled “September 11: Ask Who did it, but for heaven’s sake don’t ask why.” In the run-up to the Iraq war, Targ helped stage the on-campus screening of several anti-war documentaries, including Michael Moore’s justly maligned Fahrenheit 9/11. Relentless in his advocacy, Targ last fall organized the screening of a number of far-left documentaries, among which were such nuanced productions as “Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire” and a reverent tribute to Fidel Castro. It goes practically without saying that Purdue students were afforded no chance to consider a different point of view on the merits of military intervention.
While such conduct makes of mockery of Targ’s posturing as a champion of freewheeling debate, it does explain why he would seek out Cindy Sheehan. Having denounced President Bush as the “biggest terrorist in the world,” sung the praises of Cuba’s police state on a recent trip, and snuggled with Castro protégé Hugo Chavez, Sheehan is the beau ideal of the kind of doctrinaire leftism that thrives in the nation’s universities. Little mystery that schools like Indiana State University, where Sheehan is slated to appear on the day after her Purdue speech, as well as countless other institutions of higher learning, have been scrambling to open their doors to the den mother of the deranged Left.
Not everyone is similarly enamored of the self-styled “peace mom.” In West Lafayette, Republican activist Connie Basham has spearheaded much of the local opposition to Sheehan’s appearance. Apart from other concerns, Basham believes that it is in “bad taste” for the school to play host to Sheehan, especially in light of the fact that many West Lafayette residents are parents of soldiers now serving in Iraq. Indeed, Lafayette is the home of the 209th Quartermaster Company Army Reserve Unit, currently deployed in Iraq. One of the company’s members, West Lafayette native Army Spc. Luke Frist, had even planned to attend Purdue prior to his death of fatal wounds in January 2004.
And while Indiana has borne heavy costs throughout the war -- at the most recent count, 78 members of the armed forces with ties to the state have been killed in Iraq -- Sheehan’s rabid contempt for the military and the United States -- “This country is not worth dying for,” Sheehan has declared in the past -- has found the state infertile soil. “In our midst the parents of some soldiers who also gave their lives in Iraq--parents who have chosen to take exactly the opposite stance regarding their children's sacrifices,” Connie Basham notes. “They are deeply hurt that someone who publicly spouts such disdain for our military and our government in general (with no educational credentials) will be welcomed by our state-supported university.”
In the face of community opposition, Purdue’s administration has brandished the shield of inclusiveness and free-speech. “The university’s primary interest is in providing an environment where ideas may be debated freely, so that our students -- and others -- may be exposed to many different viewpoints and learn to reach their own conclusions,” says Joseph Bennett, Vice President for University Relations at Purdue. It’s a noble sentiment. But it would be more convincing if the school didn’t also acquiesce in Harry Targ’s one-sided exercises in political recruitment. Or if entire academic departments didn’t regard the ranting of a political hysteric like Cindy Sheehan a serious contribution to intellectual debate.
Ellie
By Jacob Laksin
FrontPageMagazine.com | April 12, 2007
Long after the national media lost interest in her publicity stunts, Cindy Sheehan remains a fixture on the anti-war speech circuit. Just last month, the mother of a fallen soldier turned raving conspiracist cut a propaganda swath across Vermont, where she stumped for an immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq; urged Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney; and basked in the adulation of the Green Mountain State’s more gullible activists. But perhaps Sheehan’s most loyal fan base can be found on university campuses.
Demonstrating the point is Sheehan’s appearance today at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In an instructive commentary on the ideological tilt of modern academia, Sheehan’s visit to the school is being sponsored by a full congregation of academic departments, among them the department of Political Science, the American Studies program, and the Women’s Studies program -- a fact not lost on critics like Purdue professor David Bridges, who points out that the invitation amounts to an administration-endorsed carte blanche for Sheehan “to spew her hateful rhetoric on Purdue's campus in a Purdue-sponsored event.”
Behind Sheehan’s scheduled visit is one of Purdue’s more radical denizens, political science professor Harry Targ. Targ, a coordinator of Purdue’s Peace Studies Program, first gained notoriety after his appearance in David Horowitz’s 2006 book, The Professors. An active member of the communist splinter group Committees of Correspondence For Democracy and Socialism, Targ has a long history of seeking to convert the campus to his decidedly fringe school of political activism. (As an example, Targ considers “U.S. capitalism” and “militarism” the gravest threats to international security.)
Targ defends Sheehan’s visit on the unimpeachable grounds that universities should promote “diverse views” and “engage in dialogue and debate” on controversial subjects. The problem is that the professor makes for an unlikely exponent of such good sense, his academic career being a specimen case of the creeping closed-mindedness of modern academia. Under Targ’s stewardship, Purdue’s Peace Studies program functions as an effective forum for the professor’s political predilections, not least his sympathy for totalitarian Cuba, which students visit as part of a course co-taught by Targ.
Outside the classroom, Targ’s supposed commitment to intellectual diversity is no more apparent. Events sponsored by Targ through the Peace Studies program have without exception been devoted to the cause of antiwar and anti-American activism. In 2002, Targ invited radical journalist Robert Fisk to deliver a lecture titled “September 11: Ask Who did it, but for heaven’s sake don’t ask why.” In the run-up to the Iraq war, Targ helped stage the on-campus screening of several anti-war documentaries, including Michael Moore’s justly maligned Fahrenheit 9/11. Relentless in his advocacy, Targ last fall organized the screening of a number of far-left documentaries, among which were such nuanced productions as “Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear and the Selling of American Empire” and a reverent tribute to Fidel Castro. It goes practically without saying that Purdue students were afforded no chance to consider a different point of view on the merits of military intervention.
While such conduct makes of mockery of Targ’s posturing as a champion of freewheeling debate, it does explain why he would seek out Cindy Sheehan. Having denounced President Bush as the “biggest terrorist in the world,” sung the praises of Cuba’s police state on a recent trip, and snuggled with Castro protégé Hugo Chavez, Sheehan is the beau ideal of the kind of doctrinaire leftism that thrives in the nation’s universities. Little mystery that schools like Indiana State University, where Sheehan is slated to appear on the day after her Purdue speech, as well as countless other institutions of higher learning, have been scrambling to open their doors to the den mother of the deranged Left.
Not everyone is similarly enamored of the self-styled “peace mom.” In West Lafayette, Republican activist Connie Basham has spearheaded much of the local opposition to Sheehan’s appearance. Apart from other concerns, Basham believes that it is in “bad taste” for the school to play host to Sheehan, especially in light of the fact that many West Lafayette residents are parents of soldiers now serving in Iraq. Indeed, Lafayette is the home of the 209th Quartermaster Company Army Reserve Unit, currently deployed in Iraq. One of the company’s members, West Lafayette native Army Spc. Luke Frist, had even planned to attend Purdue prior to his death of fatal wounds in January 2004.
And while Indiana has borne heavy costs throughout the war -- at the most recent count, 78 members of the armed forces with ties to the state have been killed in Iraq -- Sheehan’s rabid contempt for the military and the United States -- “This country is not worth dying for,” Sheehan has declared in the past -- has found the state infertile soil. “In our midst the parents of some soldiers who also gave their lives in Iraq--parents who have chosen to take exactly the opposite stance regarding their children's sacrifices,” Connie Basham notes. “They are deeply hurt that someone who publicly spouts such disdain for our military and our government in general (with no educational credentials) will be welcomed by our state-supported university.”
In the face of community opposition, Purdue’s administration has brandished the shield of inclusiveness and free-speech. “The university’s primary interest is in providing an environment where ideas may be debated freely, so that our students -- and others -- may be exposed to many different viewpoints and learn to reach their own conclusions,” says Joseph Bennett, Vice President for University Relations at Purdue. It’s a noble sentiment. But it would be more convincing if the school didn’t also acquiesce in Harry Targ’s one-sided exercises in political recruitment. Or if entire academic departments didn’t regard the ranting of a political hysteric like Cindy Sheehan a serious contribution to intellectual debate.
Ellie