Texas Tech Speaking Engagement A Huge Success Despite Critics

Angela Davis spoke at Texas Tech to an overflow crowd. The former sixties radical spoke on incarceration, but her appearance made a statement on a whole other level.

The Texas Tech College Republicans spoke out against the appearance saying she was a "very radical communist which is a view that doesn't really resonate at Texas Tech".  The group later showed it's lack of knowledge about Miss Davis by using a picture of a different black woman named Angela Davis on it's materials.

Congressman Carl Tepper contributed to the ignorance by saying he'd "rather hear from someone who has the respect of the community".

This is where I come in and why this blog is happening. The problem with America right now is that the "different" voices out there aren't being heard.  You have a large portion of the population listening to eight hours of news that is the news they want to hear everyday.  The popular message is "Obama is bad" over and over again. I'm not even disputing that message, I'm saying is there are a thousand other messages and viewpoints you should be hearing. Some of those messages are repellent, some are wrong, some are right and some may just make you think. It takes people who think differently to invent and explore. For instance on an energy level you don't people thinking "gas is the only answer" over and over again. You want people who say "gas may be the answer now, but we have to look at the damage it does and the fact that it can run out, so we should investigate, solar, wind, electricity and any other form of energy we can find". People with big brains always ask questions, even when everyone else thinks they know the answer.

Having Miss Davis, who is a living piece of history, good or bad, speak at Tech was a victory for free speech and a great forum for alternative ideas.  Who knows if her message "resonated" as the young Republicans wanted, or if she "had the respect of the community" as Tepper wanted? What is important is that an overflow crowd had the opportunity to hear it and judge for themselves.