Graduation Ceremonies at UC Berkeley.
University Medalist Fadia Rafeedie, the top graduating senior in a class
of 6,500, was scheduled to speak before Secretary of State Madeline Albright,
who once agreed that the killing of over a million Iraqi civilians was
a "price worth paying."
School officials changed the speaking order. Some said it was because
of Albright's tight schedule. Some said it was because they expected Fadia's
remarks to be confrontational.
After Albright spoke and others on the podium applauded, Fadia sat quietly.
As Albright went to shake hands with people sharing the stage, again Fadia
kept sitting with her hands clasped.
Albight left the area immediately after her speech. At the end of the
program Fadia was given the podium. In sympathy with friends who had been
removed from the arena because of their protests, and in frustration because
of the changed schedule, Fadia tore up her prepared speech and spoke from
her heart.
Excerpt from on-line article by Cathy Cockrell
...the 22-year-old daughter of Palestinian immigrants criticized Iraqi
leader Saddam Hussein, but also the role of the US in building up "this
brutal dictator" and imposing sanctions against Iraq that she said
had led to the death of 2.5 million people.
Of the protesters inside and outside the amphitheater, she said emotionally:
"They do not embarrass our university; I think they dignify it."
Rafeedie's speech, like Albright's earlier, brought Berkeley's Class
of 2000 to its feet for a standing ovation.
Excerpts from Fadia's explanation of events.
"..At the moment when the administrators announced, after we were
all sitting on stage, that they'd change the schedule around so that Albright
spoke first and not last, I knew that the "powers that be" were
frightened of what was to come - embarrassment and exposure to a woman
whose administration and policies deserve it.
As soon as she stood up on the thick block at the foot
of the podium to reach the microphone, a 15-foot bright red and black banner
- signature of the International Socialist Organization -- unfurled itself
in the distance, directly across from her in the center of the theatre,
with the clearly written slogan, "Madeleine Albright is a War Criminal."
Then, in unison, hundreds of voices (or at least they sounded like it),
interrupted her before she could begin, with chants of "end the sanctions
now! end the sanctions now!"
The 'security' forces, dressed in loud yellow jackets, were quick to
rip down every poster that surfaced in the crowd and escort the protesters
outside of the theatre, but there was NO WAY to get at all of them. As
I said, it was like fireworks!
When the red banner went down, another one to the left of the crowd
flew up about the situation in Columbia. Then the officers tore that one
down, dragged out the audience, and scanned the crowd for the sources of
the consistent cries of protest.
Albright was stumbling and bumbling through her speech there was no
way that anyone was listening to her babble about stopping war criminals
in Kosovo, preventing the "buying and selling of human beings"
in Latin America, achieving so much as a Secretary of State wearing a skirt,
etc. etc. etc. There were just too many people screaming out that she was
a war criminal, that she was occluding any mention of Iraq, and that she
was a liar. The hypocrisy laden in every sentence she uttered was truly
unbearable to have to endure, especially since I was caught off guard about
having to speak after and not before her, as is tradition at Berkeley....
...Right from the start, two of my friends from ADC-SF, Eyad and Senan,
were 'escorted' out. They both looked at me from the distance as they left,
and I was fuming. Part of me wanted to just get up and leave with them
so as not to dignify what this woman was saying while I was sharing the
stage with her. But I knew that a spoken statement would have more effect.
I decided then that the best thing to do, despite the fact that she was
going to flee on her broomstick before she had a chance to hear me speak,
was to deliver an impromptu address since my original speech was now obsolete.
In any case, after seeing all that, there was no way I was going to rattle
off about how much I loved my brother Ramiz, how grateful I was to my parents,
how I wished my grandmothers a happy mother's day, how we were leaders
of the future, etc. etc even though all of that would have been, and was
intended to be, appropriately delivered under the expected circumstances.
...The loud condemnation continued to the very end of her hackneyed
speech, but she received a standing ovation nonetheless. Happy with her
victory (which was in some ways a great PR stunt for her), she descended
from the block at the foot of the podium, turned to the students and faculty
sitting (actually, now standing) most near her, and smiled as she shook
each of their hands in self-congratulation. She was going in a row until
she got to me. I stayed sitting, my hands clasped in my lap, and gave her
a serious, angry look. Her smile turned into the frown of scorn which she
wears more naturally, then she withdrew her hand, and turned around to
walk away. "Insirfi," I thought to myself.
[I had been asked by university administrators a day earlier to meet
with her for a half hour before the ceremony. I told them that I'd prefer
not to, and I told them that if I was in any photo opportunity with her,
it would be a result of the fact that we were merely sharing a stage together
as mutual honorees. I was not intending on shaking her hand, only to be
captured and coopted by a photographer. They didn't press me to comply
either way.]
...Okay, then she left abruptly, briskly, and riding a wave of glee
from INSIDE the theatre. Outside, with the well-mobilized protesters who'd
been there for hours before her clandestine arrival - and here's the greatest
victory of all - she had to leave sprawled across the back seat of her
car like the criminal that she is, ducking for her life, and dashing off
into the distance.
Things quieted down a bit after that. We heard two more speeches - one
of which was especially light and funny - but I enjoyed neither. Three
of my friends were gone, and my family was looking painfully at me in the
distance. It's true that my moment was hijacked by the university administration
and the secret service. I had worked so, so hard on my speech you wouldn't
believe how much help and support I got. It was a true learning experience,
but at the same time, I was ambushed.
...I don't - by any stretch of the imagination - take credit for the
turn of events at convocation on Wednesday. They probably wanted her out
of there as quick as possible to circumvent the flurry of stunts that audience
members had planned. (The longer she stayed, the more protracted the embarrassment,
I think.) That the movement of resistance was successful in subverting
an entire program and turning it on its head is in itself a victory.
Still, it's significant to note that the materials I had submitted to
the Committee on Prizes when I was competing for the medal were unequivocally
pro-Palestinian, anti-sanctions, anti-Oslo, etc. etc. They chose Albright
to be our commencement speaker precisely the day before they chose me to
be the Medalist. I'm not even sure the 8-person committee, which was composed
of professors, knew of the senior class council's decision. They are definitely
more concerned with choosing the person who most fits the description of
University Medal than worrying about the lineup at graduation. Or, it would
be that the professors really DID want someone to counter Albright and
they thought a Palestinian would be perfect. I don't know there are too
many theories. Maybe she and I were both chosen independently of each other
and the lineup was random.
In any case, what I think made the university a bit wary of me was that
I refused to submit my speech to them. (That decision was also one that
agonized me for weeks, because there were ramifications for each option,
and I had no way of predicting which would be the most effective to achieve
the goal of saying what I wanted the way I wanted.) I shared the beginning
and end with them, but didn't elaborate on the middle part. It wasn't because
I was hiding anything from them, necessarily. It's just that they didn't
have a right to read it in the first place, and I wasn't finished composing
it anyways. Of all universities to check freedom of speech, Berkeley should
never be one of them. More than that, I think I threw up a red flag when
I declined the opportunity to meet with Albright beforehand. The coordinator
of student activities was also well aware that I had no respect for Albright
or her policies.
I should say that Eyad predicted precisely what happened: that once
the university really knew what I felt about her, they wouldn't have the
audacity to remove me as a speaker, but they'd just change the schedule
so that I spoke last, just as the reporters were packing up to leave.....
"
Comments from a U.C. Alumna in attendance
I was present at the U.C. Berkeley Commencement Convocation on May 10,
2000. Looking at the printed program I saved from that event I note that
a woman named Lisa Delehunt is listed as the "Closing" speaker
immediately prior to the closing singing of Hail to California (which was
done very poorly by the audience).
Looking at the Text as Prepared for Delivery, which I got as a member
of the press (I was assisting a friend stringing for In These Times), I
note that Madeleine Albright's first sentence as printed is "Thank
you Lisa Delehunt, for that introduction." Lisa Delehunt was in fact
shifted from closing to introducing Albright.
These papers constitute hard evidence that the rearrangement of the
order of speakers was not a last minute decision made on the stage in the
face of protest. The university's planners and the Secretary of State's
office had clearly determined before Albright's speech was typed to place
Fadia last, thus ensuring that most of the press would have departed to
file their stories and "protecting" Albright from having to hear
a few hard truths.
Fadia finished only a few minutes before six o'clock. Her speech made
me proud to be an alumna of the University of California. I wouldn't have
missed it.
Carolyn Smith Scarr, class of 1965
<epicalc@aol.com>
Note: Carolyn works with Ecumenical Peace Institute/CALC, which has
a web site, www.epicalc.org, where a variety of articles on Iraq sanctions
and other issues can be found.
