Clad in black cowboy boots and a smile, former presidential candidate and current Texas Gov. Rick Perry spoke at AU about states’ rights, privatization, health care reform and what he sees as the demise of American society.
“We’re not on a course to greatness in this country. We’re on a course to social decline,” Perry told a small audience in the Katzen Recital Hall on March 23. “It’s time to return to what makes America great, and that is competition.”
He also called for an end to taxpayer-funded bailouts of private businesses.
“America was not built on the generosity of the federal government, but on the grit and determination of private sector workers,” Perry said.
He appealed to the students in attendance and challenged them to get involved in campaigns and work on the Hill.
“Work your way to the top, so one day you will lead the next conservative revolution in America,” he said. “Returning power to the people, restoring the primacy of the United States Constitution.”
“It’s your country, take it back,” Perry said. “The American dream is your promise. The Constitution is your blueprint to freedom. Defend them as if your life depends on them, because it does.”
Perry also encouraged young people to fight for their beliefs.
“You don’t need to wait until your hair starts to gray before your voice needs to be heard,” he said. He then quoted the Apostle Paul, who said to “march into the public square fearlessly.”
And students did just that.
During the question and answer period following Perry’s speech, about 15 students holding plastic LED candles stood up and silently left the room. The students were protesting the 234 deaths by execution that occurred while Perry was governor.
AU College Republicans President Todd Carney said he felt the protests were disrespectful. College Republicans sponsored the event.
“I just think it’s wrong to try to disrupt anyone’s event,” Carney said.
Outside Katzen, messages scrawled in chalk said, “234 killed by Perry” and “9 murders of mentally ill.”
Before the event, a group of about 25 students marched down Massachusetts Avenue to a recording of “Amazing Grace” played on bagpipes. Most were dressed in black as they carried protest signs, daffodils and a black casket.
School of Public Affairs junior Sylvan LaChance said she didn’t appreciate the chalk drawings and wanted the discourse to be respectful.
“I think we should be able to have a dialogue without attacking each other like this,” she said.
But Stephanie Acs, a sophomore in SPA, said the students have a constitutional right to peaceful protest.
“I feel it’s very divisive and there’s tension, but people are only going to take so much, and things won’t change unless people raise their voices,” she said.
After the event, protesters, AUCR members and other attendees stood outside Katzen, where they debated with one another while clearly dividing themselves into two halves. On one side, the protesters utilized “Occupy” methods like a “mic-check” to make themselves heard.
“This is an event because we fundamentally disagree with killing no matter who it is,” one student protester through the human microphone. One AUCR member immediately fired back and said, “What about the unborn?”
Josh Jacobs, a senior in School of International Service and an AUCR member, said he stuck around for about 20 minutes after the event to speak with lingering protesters.
“One of the points of a liberal arts education is that you’re supposed to have an intellectual discourse and exchange of ideas between radically different schools of thought and people,” he said.
Mana Aliabadi, a freshman in SPA, said she and the other protesters didn’t target Gov. Perry and Gov. Jan Brewer’s, R-Ariz., Feb. 24 speech because of their affiliations with the GOP.
“The reason we protest is because their policies and the effects of their political actions are so fundamentally flawed against anything that we as enlightened students stand for, that we do not believe [Perry] deserves any degree of respect,” she said.
Aliabadi had the last word before leading the protesters away from their post.
“Before we leave we would like to make one point clear: We will not stop protesting,” she said. “We will keep coming back until you stop bringing people like that to this campus.”
llandau@theeagleonline.com
