Update: Fighting Irish Lay Down; Fighting Irish Backlash
UPDATE:
Notre Dame is keeping Obama as the commencement speaker or so says the Chicago Sun Times. It appears that the alumni, parents and others may still try to fight this with petitions (linked below), funding and phone calls.
There are parents, alumni and some students who are not all that ecstatic over President Obama conducting the commencement speech at Notre Dame’s graduation this year. The college itself (not the young student body) has historically been more conservative and many students come from conservative backgrounds when they arrive at the school, some stay that way, but most change ideologically, as could be expected. The current student body is typically liberal, but many of the alumni go back to their conservative roots as they get older. The biggest issue for Notre Dame is its deep Catholic roots. Catholicism has very conservative opinions and views in regards to abortion and embryonic stem cell research – this becomes a very big issue since Obama is the most radical pro-choice president in the history of this nation.
As reported here on First Read Friday, President Obamawill be speaking at the University of Notre Dame commencement ceremony on May 17th. While the president will also be speaking at the Naval Academy and Arizona State, those appearances haven’t caused as much uproar as his trip to South Bend, Ind.
In today’s edition of the student newspaper, The Observer, letters to the editor, which are usually reserved for debates over the color of The Shirt or whether it’s proper to chant “Sucks” at sporting events — was expanded to cover a lively debate over whether Obama should be speaking.“Obama choice unacceptable,” read one headline, and “Obama a disgrace” shouted another.
The point of contention? The president’s record on issues related to abortion, the majority of which clash with the strict anti-abortion stance of the Catholic Church. An online petition has sprung up urging people to voice their complaints to Father John Jenkins, president of the university.
Jenkins said in an interview with the student paper Monday that while there are clear differences between the president and the Catholic church on some issues (abortion and embryonic stem cell research), it was a great honor to have the president accept the university’s offer and that he had no plans to rescind the offer.
A majority of the student body is enthusiastic about President Obama coming to speak — he won the campus’ mock election 52.6% to 41.1% over Sen. John McCain — but an active alumni base that skews more conservative than the increasingly liberal campus has been vocal about the selection of the commencement speaker.
Maybe that’s why they call them the Fighting Irish!
There were several petitions for this item of interest as well.
Yes there is much outrage over this. 64,000 people have signed an on-line petition against his appearance. The issue is not the appearance itself. It is the fact that they are going to honor him despite abortion and stem cell research policy is in contradiction to the Catholic Church, and Christain values in general.