Some students at Dartmouth College, an apparently prestigious Ivy League school, decided to harangue visiting Texas governor Rick Perry with juvenile jibes unfit for the stupidest playground altercation.
These students were so upset by Rick Perry and his stance on homosexuality, that they planned to spend the entire question and answer time derailing actual political discourse with constant references to anal sex. Here are a few examples of their questions taken from a print-out (written by sophomoric sophomore Ben Packer) distributed to students:
- In 2002, you supported Texas’ anti-sodomy laws. Do you dislike bootysex because the peeny goes in where the poopy comes out? . . .
- If new documetns reveled that Jesus liked to play with his own hairy hollow, would you change your opinion? . . .
- You have recently been involved in a corruption scandal. Would you like to have anal sex with me later?
- Recently in San Francisco, you explained that being gay is like being an alcoholic. Would you like to get drunk and be gay with me? . . .
The document also encouraged people to get a picture with Rick Perry after the Q&A with this advice: “Don’t hesitate to show your love! Go in for the kiss!”
This is not an issue of political policy per se. This is a matter of respect. No matter what a visiting politician may believe, it seems to me—and to most people with good manners—that he should be received with some degree of seriousness. And, to be fair, most people at Dartmouth agreed that these questions were in poor taste:
[Ben] Packer [the author of the questions] said the questions did not achieve their “desired effect.”
“Since the event organizers knew what we were doing before it happened, they sort of controlled the lens through which the questions were viewed,” said Packer. “The questions—they’re funny, right? I think they’re funny. I think a lot of people think that they’re funny, but since the event had control over the framing of the questions, nobody in the audience laughed. They booed.”
That’s somewhat comforting, I guess.