<p>I agree that she cannot be responsible for what students chose to wear. I think once she discovered it, she could and I think did, tell him it was offensive and she wasn’t going to pose for pictures. I don’t know if she was aware of little “skits” going on but I do think speaking to the young man, IF she knew, about it being offensive at the party, would have been a good thing to do at a school event, which is not the same as a private party. I think that political masks such as Bush, Hussein, Bin Laden are also different. In my town, in our annual 4th of July Parade, many “floats” are political in nature and those kind of masks are involved. I think in the case of the young man at the President’s party, it wasn’t in good taste to “act out” terrorist “activities” that would be offensive to those belonging to groups he was “terrorizing”, much in the same way as a KKK costumed person might depict lynching a Black student at the party. But I don’t really blame the President here. I don’t know what happened. I think once the college president realized it, she did say something. The boy’s choice involved poor judgment, that’s all. I also think he has apologized and may realize that it offended others. Hopefully she pointed that out to him, as well.</p>
<p>
I think this is an important point - this was not a private party. It was held in the public areas of the president’s residence which is owned by the university, not by Guttman and was an open event to the entire Penn community.</p>
<p>“collegialmom, I’m still curious. What would you do about an offended Muslim if someone came in a pig costume?”</p>
<p>I don’t see the connection, why is a pig objectionable to a Muslim? If a person forced someone else to eat pork, that would be objectionable, but a pig itself should not be offensive. On the other hand, portraying a suicide bomber is offensive. They do kill people. </p>
<p>And again, who checked to make sure he really wasn’t one? Remember the recent incident at Duquesne University, you never know what kind of crazy people will show up at school events. If you didn’t hear, at that very peaceful university, 4 basketball players were shot in the back by other partygoers as they were leaving a party, and one is still in rehab because of his injuries.</p>
<p><a href=“democracy-project.com - democracy project Resources and Information.”>democracy-project.com - democracy project Resources and Information.;
<p>here’s a link to this guy’s pictures of himself acting out an execution, etc. The amazing thing is how many people cooperated with him, and saw this happening. So much for these Penn students at this party.</p>
<p>Well, In Great Birtain, even toy pigs, Winnie the pooh trinkets, and children’s books about pigs are banned from some government offices and school libraries so as not to offend muslims. </p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008376.php[/url]”>http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008376.php</a></p>
<p><a href=“http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008407.php[/url]”>http://www.jihadwatch.org/dhimmiwatch/archives/008407.php</a></p>
<p>The comments under the article in your second link above are very funny. OK so if you can ban references to pigs in predominantly Muslim schools in Britain, then you can certainly ban Nazis, KKK, suicide bombers, and other references that are offensive in this country, esp when they are put in areas that will ignite hatred. Or does Britain not have the ACLU?</p>
<p>"What do you think of the costume consisting of snack pack boxes taped to a person with an implement (fork or knife) thrust through the little boxes of corn flakes and raisin bran. The costume obviously represents a “cereal (sic) killer.” Poor taste? or very funny? "</p>
<p>That would be funny and punny. It also is very different than showing up as a suicide bomber complete with fake bomb.</p>
<p>Someone who attended a University of Florida party, however, masked as Danny Rollins (recently executed after conviction for slaughtering some UF students0 with blood on him would not be funny.</p>
<p>This guy dressed up as disgusting vile murderer-terrorist, and he didnt do it in a mocking way either, my bet is his intentional were just as bad as his costume. It is a glorification of terrorists</p>
<p>collegialmom, the Duquesne incident was at a club-sponsored dance on campus, and one of those arrested was a Duquesne student who got the shooters into the dance. It’s not a comparable incident. Those who shot the basketball players arrived and entered the dance with weapons, real weapons. The issue of checking everyone who enters a campus event for weapons is another issue entirely.</p>
<p>Yep and checking people with things that look like bombs around their waist would be a good idea. Last time I checked, a bomb is a weapon. And was his assault weapon verified by someone as a fake or real weapon at the door? </p>
<p>If they don’t feel the need for security at the door, then maybe when he has “victims” kneeling on the floor pretending to execute them, that might have been a good time to check into the situation more carefully.</p>
<p>If you look at these pictures linked below, you may see that he was acting in a suspicious way. Where was security?</p>
<p><a href=“democracy-project.com - democracy project Resources and Information.”>democracy-project.com - democracy project Resources and Information.;
<p>he was reading versus from a koran ,that guy is an idiot</p>
<p>collegialmom, as I said, security at campus events is an entirely separate issue. I don’t know what type of security they had at this party, do you? The initial discussion concerned the President of the university’s reaction to his costume. The topic at hand is about how offensive his costume was, not whether or not this boy was a terrorist. There’s nothing to indicate that anyone had any concern as to whether his ‘bomb’ was real or not. This is an entirely different situation than the one at Duquesne, that was the point I was attempting to make.</p>
<p>I would have hoped that bells would have gone off in her head, as a VERY highly paid president of a university with a respected academic background. I do see a comparison to the Duquesne situation, because that party WAS also a school sponsored event, put on by a student club. There was very lax security at the Duquesne party. </p>
<p>The president of a university should be on high alert whenever there is an event, whether at her house or elsewhere on campus. A young person dressing as a suicide bomber and then walking around performing “executions” on people wound up as an overtly nonviolent situation, but another day, another time it could have had a different result. She is at the helm, and I personally think she behaved sloppily as the leader of the university at her own house. </p>
<p>You may not agree, but heck, don’t I have as much right to free speech as anyone?</p>