Details on Hillary's Rally on Tuesday
Oct 18, 08:37 PM CST
Here are the promised details:
On Tuesday, October 21, Senator Hillary Clinton will be headlining a Change We Need Rally in the Omaha area.
Tuesday, October 21
11:30 am Doors Open
Qwest Center
Exhibit Hall A
455 N 10th St
Omaha, Nebraska
Tickets are not required, but please RSVP at http://ne.barackobama.com/OmahaChange
For security reasons, do not bring bags. Please limit personal items. No signs or banners allowed.
– by Eric Van Horn | Send this to a friend
Turns out it had more to do with political interference by our Republican governor, Dave Heineman. According to right wing pundit Michelle Malkin’s blog Heineman had this to say:
“Chairman of the Board of Regents Chuck Hassebrook and President of the University J.B. Milliken should immediately rescind the invitation extended to Bill Ayers to speak at the University,” the governor said. “This is an embarrassment to the University of Nebraska and the State of Nebraska. Bill Ayers is a well known radical who should never have been invited to the University of Nebraska.”
But what really bothers me is that our own Democratic Senator, Ben Nelson, chimed right in with him:
“His past involvement in a violent protest group and incendiary comments are not consistent with the agenda of unity that we need in America today,” Nelson said. “I encourage the university to reconsider this decision.”
My problem with all this is that it plays right along with the wedge driving issues disseminated by the far right in America today. If a person has differing opinions, or unpopular opinions, then we are expected to bring the full brunt of our political power to shut them up, to keep others from hearing their opinions, to marginalize them. That, my friends, is contrary to what I believe our great nation has stood for, and what it should stand for.
Nebraska is demonstrating that it supports the policy of political rigidity and closed-mindedness. As Voltaire is said to have stated (although there is some question of the validity of the source), “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” I agree with that.
What is next? Are we going to support foaming-at-the-mouth radicals such as Minnesota’s Rep. Michelle Bachmann who, just the other day, said that the media should do a “penetrating expose” of anti-American members of Congress? Should we return to the “good old days” of McCarthyism?
Not on my watch.
Here is the email I sent Gov. Heineman just last night. I eagerly await his reply. I’d also like to hear from Sen. Nelson on this issue:
————————————I see where Prof. Wm. Ayers was uninvited to speak at the University of Nebraska for purported reasons of “security.” I find it quite difficult to believe that our state has hosted a plethora of high ranking government officials in the recent past, including two sitting Presidents of the United States, a Vice President, a Speaker of the House, and any number of Presidential candidates). Yet we can’t protect a college professor?
Has the level of partisanship and political shenanigans risen to the point that such lame excuses may be brought before Nebraska’s citizenry and expected to be swallowed whole? Or am I to believe that my governor has so little faith in the forces of order in his own state that he fears they would be unable to protect Mr. Ayers?
Please explain.
Brian T. Osborn
Democratic Chair of Phelps County
NDP Associate Chair – CD3————————————
— Brian T. Osborn Oct 20, 11:56 AM CST #
and no apparent buzz in the local media. The capacity of the Qwest Center is around 17,000 persons, it is going to look terribly empty if only a few hundred people show up.
— Charles Wellen Oct 20, 01:40 PM CST #
On the bright side, I do think it has received quite a few mentions in the local media.
And let’s remember, Palin got quite a good turnout with very little media notice before the event, probably through email and word-of-mouth.
— Don Kuhns Oct 20, 05:49 PM CST #