INDY'S WEEKLY ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER HIGHLIGHTING ARTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Leave Chelsea alone

Whomever you support, please show respect

A Butler University student made national headlines and burned through his 15 minutes of fame last week when he provoked Chelsea Clinton into an angry response to a question about the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

Besides the wrath of Chelsea, Evan Strange’s rude behavior earned him appearances on several network news programs and quotes in dozens of newspaper stories. With his fame clock at 14:58 and counting, Mr. Strange is now claiming to be a Clinton supporter who was just bringing up a valid point about Hillary Clinton’s qualifications.

Even though I enthusiastically support Barack Obama, Mr. Strange’s question seemed to go too far. Whatever one’s opinion of Hillary, nobody can deny that Chelsea Clinton is an attractive, articulate spokesperson. She grew up in the national spotlight and managed to emerge a fiercely intelligent, thoughtful person.

While it’s easy to imagine one of the Bush daughters turning up in a Girls Gone Wild video, Chelsea has avoided controversy and did not deserve to be shown disrespect at a campaign appearance.

If you don’t like Sen. Clinton, then don’t vote for her. Show up at a campaign rally with an Obama sign. But don’t embarrass a great university and an entire state by heckling her daughter.

There’s a right way and a wrong way to protest. More than 20 years ago, when I was a student at Indiana University, William Rehnquist came to campus to deliver an address at the law school.

They didn’t come much slimier than Rehnquist. A Nixon appointee to the Supreme Court, Rehnquist was the architect of dozens of decisions that stripped away freedom and helped big business extort higher profits from the public. The fact that the Constitution survived Rehnquist’s frequent attacks upon it is more of a statement of Rehnquist’s mortality than it is of the resiliency of our Democracy.

Rightly offended that Rehnquist was being invited to IU, students quickly organized a demonstration in front of the IU Auditorium. When Rehnquist came out to speak, we greeted him with loud boos and profanities. It drowned out his fascistic speech and rattled the old man.

Even pleas by the governor to stop interrupting Rehnquist didn’t quiet us down. Finally, as the nation watched live on CNN, the chief justice cut his speech short and left the stage.

It was a temporary victory, to be sure. Rehnquist retaliated by becoming even more repressive. His last laugh was to oversee the theft of the 2000 election by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and the armaments industry.

Even so, it was worth it. If I ever have children, I’ll gladly tell them about the day that Daddy screamed, “Fuck you!” to the chief justice of the Supreme Court.

And, even today, I’d wait in line for a week to yell the same thing at Bush or Cheney before the Secret Service would mow me down in a hail of gunfire.

But even I’d draw the line at harassing their children, evil spawn of desperate lawmakers or not.

In these last remaining weeks of the Democratic presidential primary campaign, it is very important that we remain as respectful and civil to one another as we can. Mrs. Clinton is not my choice for president, but I respect her, her husband and her daughter as great Americans and defenders of liberty.

I might even switch my vote if my wife and I could have coffee with Chelsea or Sen. Clinton. I certainly wouldn’t confront Chelsea about something embarrassing that her father did more than 10 years ago.

If we are going to avoid a third Bush term and the consequences that it carries — perpetual global war, the Great Depression of 2009 and even more degradation of freedoms — a sense of decorum should be preserved.

Whoever emerges from this historic nomination battle will need the undivided support from all of those who love freedom. Whether it’s Clinton or Obama, he or she will still be better than John McCain and the remnants of the Bush Administration.

John Kerry was prophetic when he warned in 2004 that a second Bush term would have a single message: “More of the same.” Bush did deliver more of the same: more war, more misery, more repression.

Whether our country is strong enough to withstand four more years of the same is a question very much in doubt. We should not remove our eyes from that sobering fact.

So feel free to express your opinions. Wear campaign buttons. Put out yard signs. Encourage your friends and family to support your candidate.

There will be plenty of time to yell, “Fuck you,” at conservative politicians once we have a Democratic nominee. Let’s not embarrass ourselves by fighting among each other now.