Giuliani Ruined My Graduation
Posted at 10:27 am on Thursday, August 30, 2007, in Uncategorized, and tagged 2008, syracuse, video.
In May 2002, I graduated from Syracuse University. Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani was the commencement speaker. (We got screwed. Not only did the class of 2003 enjoy a basketball national championship, but also Bill Clinton as it’s commencement speaker.)
All Giuliani did was talk about nine-eleven. It was horrible. Here we were, the young class of 2002, about to embark on a journey into the real world, and all the guy had to talk about was his actions on that day. And how the world was now a much different and more dangerous place. (It was depressing.)
Before September 11 we were living like there was a cloud, a veil in front of our eyes. We didn’t see what was going on in the world clearly or precisely enough. We didn’t understand that there was the kind of hatred for what we are and who we are that could inspire a monstrous attack like that. Maybe we partially understood it, maybe we understood it somewhat, but we didn’t understand it with the full drama with which we should have understood it.
What is clear, however, is that Giuliani was running for president. Not in 2004, but he had already determined his signature point for the 2008 campaign: “Remember me, the guy from nine-eleven.”
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August 30th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Not a very auspicious beginning in the “real world,” was it? But you were a witness at the beginning of the Republican mania to make 9/11 the centerpiece of each and every campaign since that time. Just as Bush invoked the politics of fear in 2004 by scaring people into voting for him (“If you vote for Kerry, the US will never be safe again!”), Giuliani is doing the same on a lower-key level (“I got New York through 9/11 and I can get the US through any crisis!”)
Quite frankly, I’m sick and tired of hearing this overblown rhetoric of fear from these Johnny-One-Notes. They should be giving us ideas as to what they want to do for the US, where they see the US in the future, and how they’ll inspire us to achieve great things. Instead, all we get from the Republicans is stories about how the Boogeyman is coming for us. If this is all the Republicans can offer, they should be drafted to fight in Iraq!