Hundreds Rallied Against Card!
Thursday, May 10th, over 300 students, staff, and faculty rallied in front - and then inside - of UMass Amherst’s Whitmore administration building to protest the honorary degree being awarded Andrew Card, former Bush Chief-of-Staff. Below are some of the pictures and movies (click them to start) from the rally.
Finally, some folks gathered around for a few moments after leaving Whitmore:
| The three supporters of Andrew Card showed up, too - as expected, those three got equal time on the evening news as the three hundred-plus protestors. Gotta love American media.
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Other sites with pictures of the rally:
Slide: http://www.slide.com/r/1MmDMpvywj82waR9DHAFLHV_rq1fITNF
Facebook: http://umass.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2111936&l=ab291&id=9103749
One Comment
Published under the byline “Rescind Card’s Invitation” Opinion in Hampshire Gazette, May 11.
To the editor:
The decision by UMass’ bureaucrats and board of directors to award an honorary degree to Andrew H. Card Jr. ought to be immediately rescinded in no uncertain terms. He should also not be allowed to attend this year’s graduate and undergraduate convocations. The chicanery of Mr. Card, which was immortalized in his sentiment that “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August” (a comment that refers to the campaign to convince the public of the necessity of a war with Iraq), disqualifies him from such an honor.
Mr. Card lacks honor and integrity. The idea that the U.S. government ought to treat voters no differently than an audience targeted by a corporation during a marketing drive is contemptuous and plainly contradicts the principles of democracy. Voters ought not be treated as consumers by their government; they are citizens, and the decision to go to war is not comparable to puzzling over whether to purchase a Kia or a Honda. To embrace such undemocratic sentiment warrants scorn, punishment, and not commemoration with an honorary degree.
Panayiotis T. Manolakos
UMass alumnus
Xenia, Ohio
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