Majority leader Eric Cantor was scheduled to deliver a speech Friday at the University of Pennsylvania. He cancelled it at the last minute because of concerns about protesters aligned with the Occupy Wall Street movement.
His speech was titled, “A Fair Shot at the American Dream and Economic Growth”. The speech was cancelled about three-and-a-half hours before Cantor’s scheduled 4:30 p.m. start time.
Cantor’s office said it scheduled the speech several months ago with the understanding that the audience would be composed of about 250 “members of the Wharton community,” including students, faculty and invited guests. Friday morning, the university’s student newspaper, The Daily Pennsylvanian, reported that between 500 and 1,000 protesters affiliated with Occupy Philadelphia planned to rally outside the hall where Cantor was to speak.
University security planned to open the speech to the public and allow the first 300 people in line to attend the speech, regardless of affiliation, which did not set well with Cantor.
Allowing these protesters to have that much power is exactly what they want. They are not sure what they really want, except to be “in control”. They aren’t sure what they really want to control, much less what they would do if they were in control.
One would have to assume that the campus security was sufficient to handle the protesters, so what was Cantor thinking when he cancelled? It would seem that gave the protesters some power if they can “shut down” an event or a scheduled speech. That is the WRONG message to send them.
If these protesters have a legitimate beef they need to be free to express it. They certainly have that freedom. The problem to this point with them is that, aside from the fact they have no real message, they have been unruly group.
Security measures should be taken to insure they are orderly and respectful. Cantor should have delivered his speech instead of leaving by the back door.
***Gordon Howie is a nationally syndicated author and CEO of Life and Liberty Media***
Actually, I think he did the right thing. It would have turnedn into a huge forum for the protestors and Cantor likely would have been forced to leave the stage anyway because no one could hear him or for his own safety. If the campus police were able to keep the place secure, they could have restricted the protestors to a place well away from the meeting, which evidently they weren’t able to do.
Gordon, the real message here is that the Republican establishment is not interested in meeting with the public. Essentially, Cantor dodged a town hall. The protesters served the public interest by showing Cantor’s lack of interest in the public.