Protesters interrupted the Milton S. Eisenhower Symposium featuring Karl Rove, former Senior Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, with heckling and political chants last Tuesday evening.
Hopkins security personnel had to remove as many as 15 people from the venue, at least one of whom was a Hopkins undergraduate.
"MSE is proud, not only of being part of the Hopkins community, but of the Baltimore community. We demonstrated that last night. We could have shut the event off to the community. I was proud of how respectful the Hopkins students were even if they disagreed with what Rove was saying," MSE co-chair, senior Jonathan Kornblau, said.
The first time Rove was interrupted, a protester yelled "mic check'' and the rest of the protesters shouted in unison: "Karl Rove is the architect of Occupy Iraq, is the architect of Occupy Afghanistan."
"If you believe in free speech . . . then you demonstrate it by shutting up and waiting until the questions and answers session," Rove said to the protesters.
The protestors continued to heckle Rove, screaming "Occupy America" and chanting "We are the 99 percent."
"Who gave you the right to occupy America?" Rove said in response.
Rove was not deterred by the disruption.
"I can do this all night long," he said.
The continued disruptions prompted MSE co-chair, junior Elizabeth Goodstein, to approach the podium and ask for silence until the end of the speech.
"I know that Rove does not represent all Republicans and that Axelrod does not represent all Democrats. I had to get on stage because I felt compelled to maintain a sense of order. I was very clear that everyone is entitled to free speech. We extended the time that we usually allot for questions. Having the right to free speech is a right of Rove, the MSE, the protestors and the student body, but all with in reason. Everyone deserves equal respect," Goodstein said, describing her reasons for going on stage.
Many Hopkins students present were upset with the constant outbursts from the protesters. Whenever a Hopkins security personnel removed one of the instigators, the Hopkins students cheered and gave standing ovations for the security personnel.
Many students were disappointed with the way in which some members of the crowd handled the event.
"My congressional representative wants to make Christianity the official religion of the United States. I disagree with this, but I handle this issue with civility," sophomore Hilary Matfess said. "Hopkins is described as being a-political, but we're not. Tonight, the crowed was disrespectful."
Senior Gabrielle Matuzsan, who sat in front of a group of protesters, overheard them speaking prior to the uproar.
"Outside, the protest was peaceful and well organized," Matuzsan said. "Once they got inside, we heard them talking about how they were going to interrupt [Rove]."
Matuzsan said she was furious that the protesters tried to prevent Rove from completing his speech.
"I didn't agree with everything Rove said either. But I was going to let him speak, and then ask my question," she said.
Matuzsan noted that the hecklers seated around her told her they were from Occupy Baltimore, and she only recognized one as a Hopkins student. She said it was hard to tell how many of the hecklers had been at the protest.
Other students believed that protests truly enhanced the evening.
"Between the antics of the Occupy protesters and Rove's southern charm, what would have otherwise been a stale Republican stump speech ended up making for a very entertaining event," junior Wyatt Larkin said.
"I was thrilled to see someone bring out so much passion. The MSE symposium is supposed to be intellectually stimulating, as well as entertaining. I think both of those objectives were achieved Tuesday," MSE staff member, sophomore Elias Rosenblatt, said.
A number of the protesters escorted off the premise were participants in a protest organized by the Human Rights Working Group that occurred just prior to Rove's speech. Consisting of graduate, undergraduates and members of Veterans for Peace and Occupy Baltimore, the protest was meant to call attention to Rove's record during the Bush administration, according to protest organizers.
"The question was not whether to protest Rove, but what form that protest should take," Larry McGrath, a graduate student in the Humanities Center, said.
He cited allegations that the Bush Administration authorized the torture of suspected terrorists as the most significant reason for his decision to protest. He also cited Rove's role in promoting the American invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.
"Rove perfected the political category of terrorist in the context of what he called the ‘War on Terror,'" McGrath said. "We believe that the ‘War on Terror' was used to expedite US terror against the Middle East."
As students walked into Shriver Hall to attend Rove's speech, protesters shouted several chants that prompted angered reactions from students. Some of the chants included "9/11 was a handy cause to start some wars and break our laws" and "War crimes with a Hopkins twist. In Shriver there's a terrorist."
Some students disagreed with the protesters claims.
"Karl Rove is a political figure, not a terrorist," junior Cameron Kemal said, as he walked into Shriver Hall Auditorium. "You don't have to agree with him, but he isn't a terrorist. Osama bin Laden was a terrorist."
Junior Corey Rogoff, an MSE staff member, objected to the assertion that Rove viewed 9/11 as more of a political tool than a national tragedy.
"I'm a Democrat," Rogoff said, adding that he hoped the audience would challenge Rove on his statements about Iraq's pre-war supplies of weapons of mass destruction. "But to suggest that Republicans don't feel the same way about 9/11 is going way too far."
Leaders of the Human Rights Working Group sent out a press release Tuesday night celebrating their protest, and stating that they did not encourage their participants to heckle Rove.
"Some attendees chose to disrupt the event inside. These actions were not planned by the Human Rights Working Group. A public event as large and prominent as Rove's appearance at Hopkins inevitably attracts a diverse crowd," the statement read.
However, many of the hecklers removed by security guards had attended the prior protest, with some still holding signs.
The choice of the MSE Symposium's concluding speaker was meant to be a counterweight to the previous week's choice of former chief advisor to President Obama, David Axelrod.
"We invited Rove to come speak to at the MSE Symposium while we were constructing the program this summer because we knew we wanted a political balance. MSE does not endorse a particular ideology and we wanted to hear both sides," Goodstein said.
During his talk, the former senior advisor to President George W. Bush sought to present his views regarding the current political and economic paths of the United States.
"We are facing great domestic issues. We have attempted one path to solve them and it has not worked. That is why we need to change our course in 2012," Rove said in an interview with The News-Letter.
"My goal is to be factual with the students and to demonstrate to them that there are better alternatives out there," Rove said, when asked how he wanted to connect to the students at Hopkins.
Rove delved into discussing the daunting obstacles the United States is currently facing. He asserted that President Obama has been an ineffective leader, citing that from the inception of his presidency Obama made critical strategic mistakes.
"I thought that asking for a stimulus from Congress before being sworn in was a good idea, but you don't tell Congress you need between $650-750 million and say ‘Sure, I'll take $800 million'. . .Congress needs a babysitter," Rove said.
He pointed out that since 2009, federal discretionary spending has increased by 84 percent, making government spending 25 percent of the entire US economy. The stimulus bill, in Rove's opinion, has not been very effective.
"We still have 9.1 percent unemployment and if you include discouraged workers, then it's more like 16% unemployment. According to administration's estimates, the stimulus would have lowered unemployment to around 6 percent by this time," Rove said.
In order to address President Obama's claim that the United States is not taxing its citizens fairly, Rove pointed to some statistics.
"The top 5 percent pay 59 percent of all taxes, though the bottom 50 percent only contribute to 3 percent of revenue," Rove said.
Health care was the issue Rove spent the most time analyzing. He began by asserting how unpopular the Affordable Care Act — pejoratively dubbed Obamacare — was before its passage and how its approval continues to decline.
"Even The Huffington Post says only 38 percent of Americans approve of the health care bill," Rove said.
Rove believes that the Obama administration's claim that 46 million Americans are uninsured is an inflated number. He believes that upwards of 10 million of those 46 million are illegal immigrants and, therefore, should not be covered. He described several conversations he has had with small business owners. Many of them, Rove said, are concerned by the prospect of having to pay significantly more in health care expenses for their employees.
"Why don't the small businesses get the same discounts as the big guys," Rove said.
His favorite claim by the administration regarding the health care law is that it will reduce the deficit by $143 billion.
"Only if you believe in the tooth fairy," Rove said.
One suggestion that Rove had for the Obama administration and for Congress is to create rules that will produce a more sustainable budget. He believes that government should have to follow a budget the same way businesses and households do.
In the interview with The News-Letter, Rove had some words of wisdom for any young person interested in entering the political arena.
"Pick out what you want do. Find your passion and pursue that. Just find some time to carve out for politics. If you want to be a doctor, be a doctor. Then find time on the side for politics."
Rove considers his time working as the National Chairman for College Republicans as the turning point in his political life.
"That really set my life. I ran my first congressional campaign at 23 and was able to make great friends," Rove said.
Before protesting Rove, the Human Rights Working Group held a talk by Brian Wilson, a veteran of the Vietnam War who has spent the past several decades protesting American military efforts.
Wilson addressed a crowd of about 70, comprised largely of graduate students and local peace activists. He described his upbringing in a "born again" Christian family that "didn't have interesting philosophical discussions." He told of how, as an Air Force officer during Vietnam, he became convinced that the U.S. forces were intentionally killing civilians, and how he became a pacifist and rejected "the church and state that I was raised in."
In 1987, he was run over by a train while protesting the shipment of American weapons to anti-communist guerillas in Central America. Wilson said that he was at Hopkins not specifically to protest Rove, but rather to argue that the United States government was an "oligarchy committed to expansion at the expense of most of the rest of the planet."
Wilson's critique of American foreign policy was shared by Charles Pribble, a senior who attended Wilson's talk, joined the protest outside of Shriver Hall and was later thrown out of Rove's speech for heckling.
Pribble described Rove as a murderer and asked Wilson if he thought violence was a justified way to protest American military policies. Wilson said no, describing himself as a pacifist. "I asked that question for a reason," said Pribble. "Nazi Germany wasn't stopped by letter writing campaigns. You know what stopped them? Killing government officials, killing military officers." When asked if he thought that killing American troops could be justified, Pribble said that "anything is justified to prevent mass murder."
None of the organizers of the protest said they knew Pribble. Humanities Center graduate student Katie Boyce-Jacino, one of the event organizers, called Pribble's suggestion that anti-war protesters target U.S. troops "pretty horrible."
Boyce-Jacino emphasized that the protest was nonviolent, and advocated nonviolence as the most effective and necessary response to violence.
"[Wilson] was a great person to speak in contrast to Rove," Boyce-Jacino said. "The nonviolent nature of our protests, as well as Wilson's throughout his life as an activist, were particularly good counterpoints to the violence of the policies and practices Karl Rove helped create."
While the protests caused some students to passionately agree or disagree, other students chose to find the humor in the situation.
"It sounds like the 99 percent found its own ‘rhyming reverend,'" junior Ari Schaffer said, comparing McGrath's rhyming chants to the famously poetic slogans of liberal activist Rev. Al Sharpton.
"I told the protest organizers that I'm glad they're here," Kornblau said. "I'm just sorry they didn't bring the drum circle."
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