“Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every man has a right to knock him down for it.”

-Dr. Samuel Johnson, english author, lexicographer.

The verdict is in, and the mainstream media and President Donald Gerth have convicted the Sacramento State graduates and their friends and families of rude and inappropriate behavior after they heckled Sacramento Bee Publisher and President Janis Heaphy off the stage at the Dec. 15 commencement address.

The San Francisco Chronicle?s Web site ran an opinion piece claiming that Sac State graduates and students don?t understand the concept of free speech and the First Amendment. Gerth acted shocked and said he had never seen anything like it.

And while Heaphy took to the pages of her McNewspaper, The Sacramento Bee (Why don?t we have another newspaper in this town? Answer: $), and defended herself by printing the text version of her speech, it?s painfully obvious why her speech was inappropriate.

Graduation is an important time in people?s lives and the conclusion of many years of hard work. The family and friends of the graduates didn?t travel across the country, state, county, or even the city to be treated to the political views of Heaphy. There is a time and a place for social and political activism; like rallies, book-burnings, ASI meetings or, god forbid, the editorial pages of The Sacramento Bee.

Heaphy seems unable to grasp the idea that the 17,000 people at Arco Arena were there to see their sons and daughters graduate, not listen to her speech on the death of privacy in the United States by the evil demagogue George Bush. To be terribly honest, I agree with Heaphy?s message, but I disagree with the forum she chose to express it.

Commencement speakers at universities usually give a speech with an uplifting message and balance it with the fact that life in the real world is hard and tough, but that ultimately the graduates are in charge of their own destiny.

Maybe Heaphy thought she was being clever by turning her speech into a political plea. If you read the speech, it is well written, but about a third of the way through you start to feel uncomfortable. This is when the heads of audiences started turning to each other for an explanation.

“Pssst, honey, is this a live taping of ?Crossfire?? I thought this was a graduation.”

Well you thought wrong Joe Public, and Heaphy?s speech debacle brings up a whole other issue: Should university presidents preview the speeches of speakers at graduation? Gerth admits he didn?t preview the speech, but supposedly he and Heaphy are old friends.What is really bothersome is that Heaphy is so aware of the events in the post Sept. 11 world, but is too selfish or insensitive to think that for this very reason this graduation is more important than ever to the graduates and their friends and families. You would think that for a couple hours you could just get away and spend some quality time with your friends and family.

And the What was He Thinking Award goes to Faculty Senate President Bob Buckley for his disturbing comments made in the online edition of The New York Times.

“It was scary. For the first time in my life, I can see how something like the Japanese internment camps could happen in our country.”

What!? The fact that Heaphy was heckled off the stage, while embarrassing, hardly calls for such a extreme analogy. Buckley?s comments are the equivalent of using an atomic bomb to take out an Afghani tank. These comments are more insensitive than former Library Dean Patricia Larsen?s historically accurate comments about Japanese internment camps that got her fired?ummm, forced to resign by administration last year. Good thing Buckley doesn?t live in Germany, or he might start trivializing the Holocaust. Way to go, Bob.

Matt Wagar is a journalism major.

E-mail him at [email protected]