Back in my undergraduate days at Brown University, I was always sort of embarrassed when my fellow students chose to express their disagreement with a speaker not by asking tough questions, but by disruptive protest that drowned out the individual's message. From my perspective, it was an appropriate protest when Richard Perle was confronted with a banner, silently unfurled during his lecture, reading, "You're a war criminal, Mr. Perle." But it was annoying when members of the local International Socialist Organization attempted to shout down Hillary Clinton as she gave a talk on women's leadership.
As for throwing a pie in Thomas Friedman's face -- I know, I'm giggling too -- I have to say, poor guy, bad Brown student. I remember hearing Friedman speak during college, attempting to justify his support for the Iraq war. I disagreed with him, but he was a good natured guy honestly enthusiastic about engaging in debate with college students. And now some wacky kids serve him up two pies in the face. Yes, there's a video. The Brown Daily Herald reports:
A female audience member ran on stage last night and threw a green pie at New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, who had just begun a lecture on environmentalism in Salomon 101. The woman had been sitting in the south side of the auditorium's front row when she pulled the pie out of a Brown Bookstore plastic bag that had been tucked in a red backpack and leapt out of her seat.
At the same time the woman threw the pie, a male accomplice seated a few rows back ran down the aisle and onto the stage, throwing small pamphlets explaining the actions into the crowd.
After the pie hit Friedman and splattered on his face and torso, the two jumped offstage and ran out of the southeast exit of the building, followed closely by a man trying to catch them. A police officer also ran toward the exit but stayed inside.
The thrower was eventually caught by police, who detained her in Salomon's lobby before moving her elsewhere.
The pamphlet accused Friedman of being too much of a capitalism-triumphalist to truly be "green," and featured a negative review of one of Friedman's books published in the journal Revolution, "The Voice of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA."
--Dana Goldstein
