I don’t see myself as holding us to a higher standard–a different standard, certainly, but not higher. Even if I disagree with another individual’s–or culture’s–morality, I think it’s important to respect our differences.

What concerns me is the fairness, consistency and equality with which those rules are followed, obeyed, enforced. That is where I can admire the Iranians, compared to our incredible moral gerrymandering in America.

While I feel a chilly reception is childish, and impotent, I can excuse it as being borne out of frustration. The frustration of having a president that is very ineffectual in stopping Iran from acquiring WMD’s, despite running on a platform of being the candidate who could best prevent that.

Whenever in dialogs with people who are fairly self-critical of the United States, I have to raise the question of whether they are judging peoples and governments of the world by the same standards. So I need to pose these questions to you. Do you hold us to a higher standard than you hold Iran? Do you wish your “representative” was someone appointed to run for office, by a party who enforces it’s strict religious and cultural norms on the populace? Would you want a “representative” who will stay in office as long as unelected Mullah’s see fit? …Or are you merely being disproportionately critical of the United States because you are an American?

Are Iranians, as a whole, puppy-killers? I doubt it. Is this fellow? Even money — and thats being generous.

Sand Nigger.

That all aside, I do believe in free speech. And that those that are portrayed as guilty often aren’t *as* guilty as they appear, and those portrayed as innocent aren’t as innocent as they appear. (That’s not even getting into the fact that there are many that are guilty that have sound reasoning like personal revenge or nationalistic pride. I don’t agree with the reasoning, but at least it’s there, and many of our country’s actions don’t really have sound reasoning — why do we decry those who say the Holocaust is a myth yet turn a blind eye to Turkey’s denial of the Armenian genocide?)

So, um, yeah. Let him speak. Let folks throw rotten tomatoes at him. Let folks hear what he has to say. Let him put a wreath at Ground Zero. He didn’t directly cause the deaths of 9/11/2001, and even if he did, he can still regret them. In fact, *if* he had any connection at all, isn’t it better that he does express regret?

Columbia is a private university and can do what it wants. It’s located near a very Orthodox Jewish community, so maybe it’s not the best location. However, c’mon folks!