TheAgitator.com
Neal Boortz: Commencement Speaker
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2004Neal Boortz, nationally syndicated radio talk-show host and local Atlantan libertarian personality will be the commencement speaker tonight for Yeshiva Atlanta, a private, Orthodox Jewish high school from which I graduated in 1999.
Boortz was instrumental in sparking my interest in politics in general and libertarianism in particular. While I have not listened to him in quite a few years, and while I was disappointed in his gung-ho support for the War in Iraq, I still owe him a debt of gratitude for turning me on to classical liberal ideas.
I was surprised that Yeshiva invited him and that he agreed to speak. Most Jews lean strongly to the left, and although Orthodox Jews are somewhat more politically conservative than Jews overall, they are known more for their communitarianism than any latent individualism. As far as I know, this is the only commencement speech Boortz will be delivering this year, and I don’t recall him giving any in the past.
A friend of mine who will be doing the audio-visual work at the graduation told me that a large portion of the senior class are big Boortz fans and consider themselves libertarian. Given that Jewish history is replete with persecution and tyranny at the hands of the state, this is a welcome change. I can only hope that my generation and future generations of Jews will eschew the misguided efforts of left-liberalism (and now, regrettably, neo-conservativism) and turn their attention to the importance of individual freedom and the danger inherent in state power.
Either tonight or tomorrow, I will post a report of Boortz’ speech. I’m hoping he doesn’t focus too much on the War in Iraq, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the standard, boring fare of high school commencement speeches (success, failure, adulthood, blah, blah, blah). My preference would be a speech tailored to the audience, specifically about school vouchers and the importance of a maintaining (more like resuscitating) a strong separation between school and state. We shall see.
[cross-posted at Catallarchy]
Boortz was also responsible for my initial interest in libertarianism (I grew up in Atlanta as well). It’s too bad that lately he seems to have gotten caught up in hanging with the professional conservative set, and his libertarianism has (largely) taken a backseat to cheerleading the current administration.
Still, I’m glad he’s finally going to get to deliver that commencement speech. He’s been talking about it for years.
Cheerleading? I don’t listen to Boortz as much as I used to, but when I did hear him last week, he said “If it wasn’t for the War on Terror, there’d be no reason to vote for Bush this November.” He sees Kerry as far too conciliatory. But Boortz doesn’t hesitate to rip into Bush on any number of other issues, from steel tariffs to judicial appointments.
I’m pretty sure that Boortz gave a commencement speech at Texas A&M University last yr. If I remember right, he ripped academia as a whole, and said that most of the professors on the stage didn’t tolerate people with his views. He also said that the “real world” will un-learn the students of all the ideals their liberal professors espoused, especially that govt is good.
I may still have the transcript in an old email, if so, I’ll email it
John -
Memory’s fuzzy, so I’m not sure how fake the email is, but I know at least that Neal never gave the speech at a graduation ceremony. He’s posted it on his website a couple of times & said as much. If I remember correctly, he didn’t even write it, but I’m on shaky ground there.
My guess is that you will be disappointed. He knows what time it is, or rather what date it is. That “date” is post 9/11.
Mr. Boortz, a committed and influential Libertarian has seen the writing on the wall.
The rest of the Libertarian party will either “get it” or continue their slide into irrelevance.
Disappointment
Well, Neal Boortz’ commencement speech was a disappointment. He didn’t discuss politics much at all, and instead focused on the standard high school graduation topics: success, failure, adulthood - zzzzz. If anything, the Rabbis and other s…
I happen to be a graduate of the High school in question, but what interests me here is the complete misinformation; Orthodox Jews tend to be extremely conservative, along with orthodox Christians, but, for the reasons cited above, significantly more interested in personal liberty.
I’m not sure why the people would think the stereotype of liberal Jews would apply to the Orthodox, especially the right wing, non “Modern-Orthodox,” as Yeshiva Atlanta used to be, but whatever prompts this idea that they have been liberal in the past, it is mistaken.
Oh, and whatever scott told you, i think that the charachterization of “a large portion of the senior class” as libertarian may be a bit mistaken; I know the class, and while he tends to hand out with the ones that have a viewpointsimilar to his own, I think that the class is pretty diverse in terms of their opinions, at least to the extent that they are not simply apathetic.
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