Los Angeles, Alta California
September 25, 2007
Bollinger was rude, crass and vulgar with President Ahmadinejad
One of the fundamental rules of etiquette is that you do not insult the guests you invite to your home. Impolite behavior can be forgiven if exhibited by underage and not yet well educated youths, but what should polite society do when crass and vulgar behavior is exhibited by the president of a prestigious university?
Yesterday the President of Columbia University Lee C. Bollinger, like a common street thug, literally "mugged" the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran before he had a chance to speak at a university sponsored World Leaders Forum. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited by John H. Coatsworth, the Acting Dean of the School of International and Public Affairs but was "ambushed" by a rude introduction by Bollinger. The theatrics by Bollinger at the School of International and Public Affairs forum might explain why the US State Department is infested with foul mouthed diplomats who lack decorum.
Bollinger attempted to upset President Ahmadinejad with his impolite introduction but Iran's leader just demonstrated calm and a lot of class. Bollinger's "cheap shot" and "sucker punch" did not affect President Ahmadinejad whatsoever. The lack of respect for Iran's president by falsely calling him "a petty and cruel dictator" and other crass things did not have the effect Bollinger intended but only cheapened Bollinger and the university. Bollinger's attempt to infect the minds of the student audience before President Ahmadinejad spoke failed. First of all, President Ahmadinejad is not a dictator. He was democratically elected in an election that was monitored by international observers that included US President Jimmy Carter.
It is becoming increasingly clear that Columbia University is presently governed by a group of weak-kneed academicians with a tendency to capitulate to political pressure from the right, Zionists and Bush type politicians. The racist discipline of the three Chicano students who deported the Minutemen vigilantes from campus is another example of how the university administration does what is politically expedient instead of what is right. It certainly appears that Lee C. Bollinger succumbed again to the same sort of pressure when he showed such extreme disrespect to the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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