Obama vs. Notre Dame

Obama 47 - Notre Dame 23. A typical Fighting Irish meltdown in South Bend. Touchdown Jesus weeps.

Whither the collective Notre Dame conniption fit over the President of the United States addressing its commencement ceremony. Is this Indiana in 2009 or Kent State in 1970? What is going on in the Midwest? What with Notre Dame's only real excuse for existence, its football team, flatlining miserably these last few years, the Fighting Irish should be thankful they get anyone other than some "who's that," like the Secretary of Labor, or the Postmaster General, or Deputy Under-Secretary of Commerce to show up. Hell, Notre Dame could have gotten Tail Gunner Joe Biden. At least he'd have either read someone else's speech or given us one of his trademark ad-lib gems. My favorite was "Stand up Chuck, let 'em see ya," spoken to a paralyzed man in a wheelchair. That's Gib Lewis-worthy.

I don't like to get into politics here, mainly because many of you are Godless Communists, hell bent on stealing from the not so well off to incentivize the government-dependent class to stay dependent on the government, instead engaging in the American ethic of hard work and bettering themselves. So you would get itchy and feverish reading my political views, most of which come straight from The Prince.

But this hullaballoo over President Obama addressing the Notre Dame commencement ceremony leaves me in the unfortunate position of feeling compelled to defend our Emperor and his New Clothes. At least in part. Because disenchanted Domers...you people are really wrong on this issue. Sort of like you were wrong about Charlie Weis being the new Ara Parseghian.

The controversy, as I understand it, involves the following reasoning: Notre Dame is a Catholic institution, one of the main tenets of Roman Catholicism is opposition to abortion (which somehow has translated into fervent opposition to laws allowing abortion), Notre Dame should stand as a bastion of anti-abortion thought, and the prominent appearance of a pro-choice politician is incompatible with that anti-abortion message. The President's appearance, which by the way was at the invitation of the President of the university, has generated passionate protest and even arrests. Obama, for his part, tried to defuse the controversy in a fairly graceful way, acknowledging the differences between pro-life and pro-choice positions, but calling for mutual respect and engagement. Specifically, he reached out to Catholics to help him with programs to address unintended pregnancies and to make adoption easier.

These protesters really have overlooked some important things. First off, Notre Dame didn't necessarily invite Barack Obama to speak because its thrilled with him and want to join his cult of personality, it invited him because he is the President of the United States and the democratically elected leader of our nation. Whoever occupies the office of President is entitled to respect, and for the President to accept an invitation to appear at your institution is an honor and privilege. Notre Dame doesn't effectively endorse all his political or moral views just by inviting him to its ceremony, any more than it agrees with all the students to whom it offers admission or the professors it hires to teach there. Or any more than the views of the numerous other Presidents or other officials who have spoken at Notre Dame commencement ceremonies. Has respect for our political institutions sunk so low that there could be some legitimate question at a reputable national university about whether the President of the United States, no matter his views, represents an appropriate individual to speak to its students?

Additionally, let's all remember that there are other issues than abortion, and the official Catholic position on those issues hasn't slowed down Notre Dame from inviting those with different views from addressing its commencement ceremonies. I'm mainly talking about the death penalty. The Roman Catholic Church's official position is staunchly opposed to the death penalty. Indeed, the same Catholic bishops presently up in arms over an "abortionist" President speaking at Notre Dame have called for an end to the death penalty and been politically active to stop executions. Yet, Notre Dame invited firmly pro-death penalty Presidents George Bush (41 and 43) and Ronald Reagan to speak without similar outrage. One can well imagine that Notre Dame has invited numerous officials and other prominent public figures to address commencement exercises who do not hew to the Catholic position on any number of issues, such as contraception. Why there were probably even some atheists in there too. Why the difference for Obama, and why the difference on abortion?

Its also deplorable that alumni of a university, which should stand as a bastion of free thought and expression, should seek to bury their collective heads in the sand and not even listen to those expressing different ideas or having different beliefs. Freedom of expression and speech is under attack in this country in so many ways. From the effort to de-throne some idiotic beauty pageant winner just because she dared to express a belief on gay marriage still embodied in nearly every state's laws, to nationwide outrage at some stupid disk jockey who said distasteful things about college women's basketball players, we are creating a culture of self-censorship, where failure to express agreement with the prevailing political views leads to public revulsion, ostracism, and contempt. The harsher the retribution and criticism of outside the mainstream views, the fewer we will have, until no one will ever dare to express a contrary idea. We've been through this before. It was called the Dark Ages. The Inquisition ran amok, torturing anyone who expressed belief in science, or who dared to interpret the Bible differently than the Pope. We have experienced the Committee on Un-American Activities, where individuals with "progressive" views were hounded and punished simply because their views differed from those of certain influential politicians. Universities exist as centers for learning and expression. They have no other purpose, or certainly no higher purpose (especially at Notre Dame, whose football team last year won its first bowl game since 1994, and has become practically useless). A university must provide absolute freedom of expression, as only through consideration of opposing views can those views be tested, evaluated, and sharpened. Universities throughout this country have already sharply restricted conservative voices. This incident represents just another example of an unfortunate trend toward stifling opposing thought. A university should not only tolerate different views but encourage those with different views to speak them clearly, not for suppression of different views. Even a Catholic university. You listen up too, Baylor. If one opposes a certain position, the best response is to engage in the debate, demonstrate the superiority of one's views, and persuade others to believe as you do. That is one of our bedrock freedoms. Stifling all opposition views is the way of the North Korean Communist Party. Not a major American university.

Finally, I hesitate to bring this up, but there's probably a lot of Notre Dame students, professors, alumni, and supporters who support abortion rights. A sizable number of Catholics in this country support abortion rights. Should they be expelled or fired to preserve Notre Dame's anti-abortion purity? Additionally, the latest Gallup Poll shows very little difference in support or opposition to abortion laws among American Catholics from the population as a whole. Shall they be excommunicated? Perhaps all the energy being channeled into protesting against President Obama should instead be redirected to persuading other Catholics that current abortion laws are wrong. In other words, focus on getting your base straightened out before going after the enemy.

OK, now that we have all that solved, I hope to resume the usual harangues, with the gratuitous Dirty Dancing and Top Gun references and "that's what she said" statements in the next post. Enjoy your week!