Banned In Kalamazoo

Shouldn’t college students seeking knowledge — especially knowledge that might challenge their own biases — be encouraged? Not so, it seems, according to the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign and the College Republicans of Kalamazoo College. When seven sophomores at the school showed up at Wings Stadium in downtown Kalamazoo to see George W. Bush at a campaign rally on May 3 and presented the tickets they had obtained for the event, security officers would not allow them in. The problem, according to these students, was that College Republicans volunteering at the event fingered them as liberals who did not support Bush. And such citizens were not welcome at the rally.

According to Ted Hufstader and Julia VanAusdall — two of the Kalamazoo Seven — here’s what happened: Last week, the students heard that Bush would be appearing at Kalamazoo during a bus tour through the swing states of Ohio and Michigan. Hufstader maintains that this group of friends, which was made up mostly of Bush detractors (some of whom have engaged in protests in the past), only wanted the chance to see and hear the president. They were, he says, not interested in waging any anti-Bush action. “We wanted to get a better idea of what he’s like,” Hufstader notes. “All we get are little sound bites on the news.” And he points to the fact that one of the seven was an international student as evidence of their sincerity: “We would not have done anything to jeopardize this student’s standing in the country.”

So Hufstader hit the Internet and discovered that tickets for the Bush rally would be handed out at a local Chamber of Commerce office. (“The tickets are free and will be distributed on a first come first serve basis,” the chamber’s Web site reported.) He and Lisa Dallacqua went to that office at 7 a.m. and waited — in the rain — for two hours. Inside, they were asked to show a photo ID and to provide their addresses — and the addresses of several friends for whom they were obtaining tickets. “We later heard that some people who wouldn’t declare they were Republicans were denied tickets,” Hufstader says. “But we didn’t see that happen.”

http://www.metrotimes.com/editorial/story.asp?id=6228

We all know why the students were going to that rally. They got outed & should just move on. I'm not buying their excuse for one minute. Although I do wish they had succeeded!

so i guess presidents do not represent the whole country anymore?

I think they have the right, but I also think that they have not been forthcoming for the reason for going.

It seems to be any citizen's right.

Unless there's evidence that they were intending to commit a crime, I don't think that there is really any legitimate justification for even questioning their motivations in attending a free speech delivered by any official of the US government.

I think these guys were seriously just interested in seeing the president.

You know how they got thrown out, right? Some dudes from the K College Republicans recognized them and alerted security that they were dirty pinko commies.

-C

They obtained tickets in the proper way. Thereafter, they had as much right to attend as any other ticketed person.

Is it only bush who needs a 100% friendly forum to express his point of view?

Here's a link:
http://madison.indymedia.org/feature/display/17662/index.php

When I heard about the Bush rally in La Crosse Wisconsin I thought it would be a great opportunity for my children to be able to see the President. I was able to get five tickets so three of my kids were planning on going, along with Tyler who was one of their friends. One of my children had the great idea of making a t-shirt for each of us to wear into the rally. There was nothing anti-Bush on any of our shirts, instead the slogans expressed our views of the war in Iraq. Tyler used his shirt to express his pro-Bush feelings. I gave each of my children and Tyler a disposable camera to use before we tried to go to the Bush rally and suggested that they take pictures of anything that interested them.

I had been in line with four children to go see President Bush. I was wearing a white tshirt underneath a black button down shirt and when the lady who was checking IDs saw the white collar, she asked me to unbutton my shirt. I did and as soon as she saw the writing on the tshrt, she hollered for security. The guy who is shown in the blue and green jacket came over and grabbed the tickets from my hand. He looked at my shirt and asked how did I get tickets these tickets. I told him from the LaCrosse Republican Party headquarters. He said "We don't want people like you here and ripped my tickets in half. The children with me included Jacob-14, Matthew-12, Billy-9, and Tyler-12. Tyler was very upset because he was wearing a tshirt to support Bush and really wanted to get into see the president. Jacob was planning on writing about the presidential visit for an extra credit project and Matthew and Billy wanted to see him just for the experience.

We decided to join into the protest since we could not see President Bush. Our t-shirts had changed our day for the better.

My children learned a valuable lesson, the Republican party is not an organization that is accepting of everyone and if you have an opinion, it is perceived as being threatening. Tyler is a republican type of kid and while we were protesting against Bush after getting our tickets torn up, he was protesting for Bush. My children commented on how great it was that the protestors and democrats would listen to Tyler and not get mad at him, but Bush backers would not let us in due to an anti-war slogan.

De Anza College sports field who had anti Reagan cardboard signs, t-shirts, hats, face paintings. This was about 1983. Cupertino, CA. Reagan made a speech there.

This Kalamazoo operations seems criminal and/or immoral.

1) it's a lot more doubtful in a public place, and
2) completely unconscionable if I comply with the necessary procedure to attend -- as in obtaining tickets.

Once someone has tickets to an event, they should be excluded only for behavior.

ostensibly combining them with official business, then I don't think he should be able to keep tax-paying American citizens out. If he or his campaign want to foot the bill, it's a different matter altogether.

Only smiling, enthralled faces for the propaganda newsreels, please...

I can tell you from experience that of all the campus based student groups, the College Republicans was among the smallest when I was on campus. Kalamazoo College is pretty exclusive and rigorous in terms of academics and you have to have a pretty impressive set of SAT scores to gain admittance.

The student population is pretty bright, worldly and quite liberal. The school definitely puts the liberal into liberal arts. I'm proud to have a K-College sheepskin hanging on my wall.

Second, for the reasons I have pointed out above, the individual who posted about the K-College students being stoned clearly knows little about the college. I'm sure the poster must have had K-College confused with it's next door neighbor Western Michigan University, where the GPAs run just a tad lower.

I know people who went there and they are fine, but isn't that their nickname?

and if they make a scene, then they can then be booted. This whole thing goes along with the Bush doctrine of guilty until proven innocent, and often not even then. Bush is clueless about the Constitution. I think that should be a campaign issue.

I would also respectfully submit (again) that WMU students are the stupidest group of people ever.

I've never heard it called Bronco High School, though.

-C

Yeah, I'm a WMU student. Yeah, it's a really shitty school and I don't like it much, on the grounds that it holds some of the stupidest fucking people I've ever met.

But I know a pretty good amount of the student body at K College (at Western too, but Western is more of a Popov and 151 school) probably couldn't make it through their day without THC.

I will agree with you, though, that K College houses a lot of bright and overall good kids.

Nowadays, however, the College Republicans are a lot more organized (organized enough to be featured on FOX News and to have brought Phyllis Schafly and Ward Connelly to the campus). Small they may be, but they certainly do have their shit together this year.

-C

it'll soon be extinct. No one can tow every plank of the party platform 100% of the time. Eventually more and more will be excluded, realize their disillusionment, and move on toward a more reasonably-minded political affiliation.

No dern ferriners allowed...including the domestic variety.