USC Cancels Graduation Due to Protesting Students

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Did want to give you an updateon these protests just momentarily. I don't
want to spend a lot of timeon it today, but we mentioned that
one of the new protests that poppedup yesterday was from the University of Southern
California, and within the last houror so, the USC has canceled officially
its main stage graduation ceremony because ofsafety majors. They want to keep everyone

(00:23):
safe. After the demonstrations on campusyesterday, ninety people. Over ninety people
were arrested as part of the protest, and their statement that came out today
said, and I quote, weunderstand that this is disappointing. However,
we are adding many new activities andcelebrations to make this commencement academically meaningful,

(00:44):
memorable, and uniquely USC, includingplaces together with family, friends, faculty,
and staff, the celebratory releasing ofthe doves, and performances by the
Trojan Marching Band end quote. AndI guess I have to ask, Matt,
did you actually participate in a graduationhigh school, college or otherwise and
walk across that stage and got thatdiploma? I guess I did for high

(01:07):
school. I graduated college, butI didn't go, oh, you didn't
go. Nah, it's a it'sa it's a commitment of time the graduation.
But I went. I went.I graduated more than once. Did
you get those six doctorates that youwere joking about? I got. I
got some things. I got somepieces of paper that say papers. Let
me put it that way. Igot some pieces of paper that say some
things. All right, well that'sgood. I spoke it. You know.

(01:30):
It's funny. I spoke at mygraduation, which one the first one
for college. Yeah, and yousaid I didn't go. Yeah, I
forgot. What did you say?Do you give the commencement address? I
made the speech up on the spot. But people seem to like it.
What did you say? I can'tremember what was it for? Were you
like I was like I was goodat it. I don't know, I
was like the best at something.Wow, I can't remember what it was.

(01:53):
Why did people speak? I spoke? Class presidents spoke it. The
class president spoke at mine. Iwasn't the class as president. I think
I had pretty good grades. Ohwell that's cool. Yeah, congratulations on
that. I guess. I didnot speak at mine. I had two
I went. I talked about thisthere are going to be kids that are

(02:14):
part of this class at USC thatwe're going to graduate after four years of
college that will now have been wipedout of both of their commencement graduation ceremonies
because COVID wiped out the twenty twentycommencements, and they're just generally was not
a good backup plan for that.And now this at USC where they're saying,
just for safety purposes, we're noteven going to bother having the in

(02:35):
person thing. That is a lotto go through. Obviously it wasn't super
duper memorable for you because you forgotyou even spoke at one of them.
But I do think you don't goas a spectator except for somebody you really
care about to see that five secondsof them walking across that stage. But
to rob people of that because ofthis stuff. That's brutal to me.
Man, that really sucks. Thevaledictorian for us, he was scheduled to

(03:00):
speak, but this person has alreadycome out as very pro Palestinian, and
they already told that person that theywere not going to allow them to speak
for safety reasons. But now theseprotests changed changed things. M Yeah,
I don't know, man, it'spretty interesting, and I didn't want to

(03:21):
say anything about it, but Ijust I hurt for the people that just
wanted to have a normal finish totheir semester, a normal finish to their
college careers. I feel for thepeople that wanted to have that opportunity to
be at a regular graduation and tofeel that happiness and that celebration, And
now this whole thing is marring allof it in so many places, and

(03:43):
it's really just a big bummer.And I guess we have to think our
lucky stars that we didn't have anythinglike that interrupt our graduations and the way
that we were able to celebrate howour schooling careers, either in high school
or college or otherwise, how theywent. Have you been to a graduation
since I have not? Yeah,I don't think so. My dad graduated,

(04:05):
I guess, and I popped infor just long enough to see him
graduate. He was in the Collegeof Working Adults at my school, and
I was living like right across thestreet. So I popped awake, got
myself dressed, and kind of likesqueezed in there. When I thought because
I had just done the same thinglike the year before, I had graduated,

(04:26):
and I knew how they did thelike the order they did undergrads,
grads, College of working Adults,that kind of thing. And I got
there. I was there probably twentyminutes, saw him walk and I got
out of there. Is that badof me? I don't know? Is
there a proper etiquette for Like,I'm not going to cheer for all like
five hundred people that are graduating.I'm just not. You can't make me.

(04:50):
And I don't want to sit therefor two hours while everybody gets their
name red. You're not there forthem? Who cares? You know?
Yeah? Exactly, like they don'tcare that I'm there. They're not there,
And they weren't there for your dad. So no, exactly, And
I was there. I gave him. I gave him a good whoop whoop
and uh and that was good.Anyway, If you have any thoughts on
this, or you want to talkabout your graduation and your experience, you

(05:13):
can four two five five eight toeleven ten. It is four twenty seven
on news radio eleven ten kfab andmas on news radio eleven ten kfab.
Are you trying that lights ale yet? I have going against doctors advice on
that one but I have not.I'm sticking to water. It's good.
It's good for hydration purposes, albeitnot very exciting, it is, and

(05:36):
it's good to stay hydrated for alot of reasons. Yeah, they say
if you're if your p is niceand clear, that means you're good and
hydrated. So that's that should bethe goal. Yeah, something like that.
I'm not gonna check your homework onthat one, but the cheers anyway
to you. Yeah, cheers.It's delightful. All right. We were

(05:56):
talking about the graduations with the protest, and the US's graduation has officially been
canceled a in person giant commencement thing. They say they're going to have other
celebration types or whatever, but forsafety reasons, they don't want to have
an in person graduation. Hard tohard to blame them, but we're getting
your thoughts on a four h twofive five, eight eleven to me of
ok on the line, Oki,Oki Doki, welcome to the show.

(06:20):
Hello Oki, okay, Hey gon. He wants to have went back to
Muskogee. Ah? Is that wherehe's from? Oh? That's okay.
He sat on hold for so long. Terry emailed in said years ago,
I won't say what year. That'sprobably a will you would you tell people

(06:43):
the year? Like, what's thethreshold of not wanting to tell the year
that you graduated or tell people howold you are? I feel like there's
like a moment where you're just kindof like, yeah, I don't want
to talk about how old I amanymore. Well, it could be a
dangerous game too, because without anyfurther context, we could over assume that's
right, right, you don't.I would guess that you're younger than you
are, Like, you look likea really stout thirty one years old.

(07:06):
I'll take it. Most most peoplesay that you do. Your face is
very fresh. You don't have alot of you know, a lot of
those cracks and wrinkles. You knowwhy, It's because I'm well hydrated.
Take note. Friends, Uh don'tyou just love how he was able to
work that in there? Again?I am A Yeah, I have a

(07:26):
water endorsement? Are you A?Are you do you lotion? Do I
lotion? Yeah? Not really?I always forget And by the time I
lay down in bed, and youfeel like I should have put the lotion
on, but I'm already laying down. It's like I can't get up now,
so I figure, you know what, next time I got to get
up, which will be like thirtyminutes from now, because I gotta go
to the bathroom, I'll remember.Then I go through like a one of

(07:47):
those one of those what do youcall them? What would you call one
of those, like a container,like one of those tubs. They're not
a tub, like a bottle,a bottle, bottle of locean, a
bottle. Does it have like oneof those little pumps at the top.
Yeah, yeah, so I'd callit a bottle. Okay, So yeah,
I go through a bottle of lotionlike once every three weeks probably.
Wow. Yeah, yeah, Ifeel very My skin is always moisturized,

(08:11):
and like from like October to April, I'm getting to a point where I'm
not doing two full pumps, butlike I'll do two full pumps and do
my face two full pumps, anddo my arms two full pumps, and
do my torso front and back.It goes through lotion pretty quick, but
man, I feel great afterwards.Do I look young? Yeah? How
old do you think I am?Does the hair help? Does it hurt?

(08:31):
I would say, I think you'reright on target for right around you
know, I would say early thirties. Yeah, early thirties. All right.
I'm not very good at this gamethough, because you know, you
see some people like that bowler Ishowed you the other day. Yeah yeah,
yeah, twenty seven years old.Could have sworn that guy was fifty
eight. Yeah. Yeah. Hehad a mustache and a hairline that receded
all the way back to Cancun.Yeah. Yeah, but that was a

(08:52):
different time. That was the nineties. You could try to get away with
that in your twenties back then.Nowadays, I mean you're getting air plugs
or you're the mustache. Just thatpeople are trying to make the mustache happen.
Again, it doesn't happen. Itdoesn't work. Very few people can
pull off the mustache. And youhave to have the right haircut to go
with it, that's true. Otherwiseit's a dead giveaway that you have absolutely

(09:13):
no style. That's why. SeeI got I got, I got the
Van Dyke going, that's what it. Yeah, yeah, you got the
little you got the fuzz under underneaththe bottom. That kind of adds a
little touch of class to it.Yeah. I don't want anybody thinking,
you know, I don't think Icould do just I've tried to do just
the stash. I don't like it. I wasn't a fan either, Yeah,
you asked me. In my opinion, I'm like, I'm never gonna
endorse the mustache ever, never foranyone, not even not even Tom Sellek

(09:37):
or whole Kogin. Yeah, Iwould have been like, maybe we should
have gone with the beard. Let'stry the beard and see how that looks,
you know what I mean. ButI certainly am not gonna like Dale
earn Hart probably the best mustache.Yeah yeah, that thing is that's a
shop broom, you know. Yeah, yeah, but it works right,
getting the right profession. You gottawonder if he did clean the floor with
it. He could have, No, he could have. I mean he

(09:58):
cleaned the floor with the rest ofhis opponents mostly. You ever had his
wife just kind of like prop himup against the broom at the broom's broken,
Dale, get in here. Shejust sweeps the floor with that sunch.
She could have. I feel likethey had enough money that they could
have hired somebody for that sort ofthing. He seems like the kind of
guy who you know, was frugalat heart. You think that he was
he was he was cleaning his ownhouse. I tend to think that he

(10:22):
probably was not. I think themustache probably he got to take good care
of that one. Yeah. Anyway, back to the email Terry sent that
was totally related to what we weretalking about before. Terry says, years
ago, I won't say what yearI graduated from Hawaii Pacific University. Well,
that sounds like fun, he said. It was that the Waiki key
shell right on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. Doesn't that sound fun? Sounds lovely?

(10:46):
He said. All this, thegraduates got laid, some more than
others. Some got laid so muchthey went blind. Good times. Oh
and they like when they put theflower necklace. Yeah, I mean it's
spelled l e I. So that'smy assumption, although within the context,
if you know, if you're notlooking at it like I'm looking at it,
you could probably come up to adifferent determination than that as to what

(11:07):
happened on campus. I suppose,Eh, you know, it is what
it is. Four forty three isthe time when we come back. I
want to tell you what happened withthis h this event that happened in Massachusetts,
and what kind of people were attendingwhere a drag queen was talking to

(11:30):
children and leading them into very politicalbased chants, and how we feel about
that. Gonna mention this to youbecause I think it's pretty fascinating to me
that this is a thing that's happeningright now. And I'll get to a
next on news radio eleven ten KFAB. Emery songa on news radio eleven ten

(11:50):
k FAB. One of the moreunfortunate things that have come across the last
hour or so is that USC theUniversity Southern California's graduation has been canceled in
person because the protests that are happeningon campus yesterday and they had over ninety
people that were arrested as part ofa protest, and they say, just
for the safety of everyone, they'regoing to go ahead and cancel that in

(12:11):
person thing and set up different kindsof celebrations that everybody can enjoy the commencement.
Bill's on our phone line to talkabout this for a two five,
five, eight to eleven ten,Bill, what's on your mind? Okay,
I'm I'm a USC alom oh wow, okay, and I would be
extremely ticked, well, I amextremely ticked about this situation. Uh,

(12:35):
and I'm just wondering what would happenif they took okay, they arrested ninety
of them there and to see ifthey could get the names of a number
of others, and then the Idon't know, a group of students who
were set to graduate were to suethem for you know, destroying their graduation

(12:56):
and whatever, and you know,basically a lass action fuit. It's just
a thought, and I have noidea if it could be pulled off,
but it might stop a lot ofthese idiots from you know, doing what's
happening if they were facing some kindof consequences, monetary consequences as a result

(13:20):
of their actions. Yeah, butBill, this is the thing, and
it's unfortunate because we're on the samepage that this is just unnecessary. The
demands that are being made are beingmade to the American government, and the
American government has little to no abilityto just like handhold Israel into everything that
they want here. So this isreally just a thing for these kids to

(13:43):
be doing. They're bored, theyhave no idea what else to do with
themselves, and this was like theend thing to do. And unfortunately,
anything that you would want to doon this is going to be immediately pushed
back with free speech. And you'reseeing that in Texas already because they the
University Texas had their big blow upprotest yesterday as well. And by the

(14:05):
end of our show yesterday, asthey were trying to usher people off the
campus because they said that wasn't allowed, people were bringing up a video from
Twitter from four years ago or fiveyears ago when Governor Greg Abbott had put
into law to protect the free speechof the First Amendment rights of college campuses
because he felt like conservative values inconservative speech was being you know, suppressed

(14:28):
on these college campuses. And nowthat's coming back to bite him because people
are saying, well, how isthat any different than what these kids are
trying to say on their campus,whether it's hate rhetoric or it's pro Palestindian
rhetoric, and that legality thing isalways going to stand in the way.
It's like, is that a violationof their First Amendment rights? Even if
we know that they're really stupid andjust trying to disrupt stuff, I think

(14:48):
that would get in the way ofanything like that, you know what I
mean? Maybe, but it's justa thought that you know, if they
you know, really thought about whatthey were doing, and they don't.
That's the thing. No, theydon't have a clue. Yeah. Half
of them are literally just there becauseeverybody else is there. That's the only
reason they're there. They don't carethat they're hurting other people. Yeah,

(15:09):
and I just feel that, youknow, somehow, there's got to be
some angle that you could do somethinglike that that were you know, Okay,
you're entitled the free speech. Youdon't have to do it here on
my campus, and you don't haveto spoil my graduation. Yeah. I
know it's awful, it really is. I wish there was a better way

(15:31):
to attack this, I really do, but I just don't. I'm not
sure that that's going to happen.Bill. I appreciate the call today.
Thanks reading part of the show.Okay, but John's on the line.
John, thanks for calling in today. What do you think about? Hey,
two things on Austin. You know, I'm pissed because the district attorney
released all of the fifty students orfifty protesters who are arrested. So they

(15:56):
got arrested by the police officers andthen the DA led them. I'll go
without any charges that's a little upsettingthere. Second, I would ask the
governor of Nebraska to declare Nebraska asanctuary state for all these Jewish students at
NYU and Columbia and try to getthem to come back to Nebraska to go

(16:17):
to school. Yeah. Well,and I think that there's something else that
is. Yeah, it's an interestingconversation, John. I think that the
reason, first of all, toyour first point, the bigger story there
is that there wasn't any illegal actexcept for trespassing theoretically because the University of

(16:38):
Texas said you can't do this inthe spot you're trying to do it.
But that wasn't something that was actuallyon the books. That wasn't something that
they had written down in their rules. Like Brown University had a rule that
they could cite from twenty eleven thatsaid you can't set up an encampment on
the lawns at our university, andthey were able to enforce that because that

(17:00):
was on the books. The Universityof Takes didn't have a rule like that.
So when they called the cops andsaid you can't do this, the
students all said First Amendment speech.And they have the video of Greg Gabbott
signing into law protecting First Amendment rightsand free speech. So I'm with you,
John, It doesn't make any senseto me. But at the same
time, because of the way ourFirst Amendment is written, these kids,

(17:23):
these protesters are all just citing thatis, their ability to spread their hate
speech. Well again, I letthem know that Nebraska is welcoming to these
Jurish kids that feel Thritaten. No, for sure, I'm with you one
hundred percent, John, and Iappreciate your thoughts today, real quick.
Let's John, you got thirty secondsother John, John number two, appreciate

(17:45):
you calling in real quick. Freespeech is one thing, but free speech
and intimidation or threats is another.Yeah, they can't rupt other people's lives
with their speech. Anyone is freeto speak what they want, but that
doesn't mean they're aren't consequences to negativespeech, such as fomenting violence and things
of that nature. I think you'reone hundred percent right, John, and

(18:07):
I really appreciate you calling in today. I think that's something that's really important
to keep in mind about all thisis there's a difference between exercising your First
womenment right, and there's a differencebetween actually having threatening speech that would make
people feel unsafe in that intimidation,and hopefully there can be a determination on
that without being able to inflict orsay that you're just exercising your First Amendment

(18:29):
right, because that's not what thatis. More on the Way stick Around
Emory Songer with your news radio eleventen KFAB