A backstory to the McCarthy Lecture
This is a letter to the editor.
While we are all student employees at the Eugene J. McCarthy Center, this piece is our own opinion, not that of the Center. This opinion also in no way signifies our stance on Line 3. We believe that Minnesota needs to divest in fossil fuels and protect water sources that keep us all alive. This piece is simply our opinion about the events at the lecture with Sen. Tina Smith this past Thursday.
We’d also like to thank Sen. Tina Smith and her staff, some of whom are CSB alumnae, for coming to speak on our campus without compensation. Additionally, thank you to Professor Matt Lindstrom, Professor Claire Haeg, Victoria Evens and our fellow student coordinators for working hard in an attempt to make this event a successful learning experience for those in attendance.
To provide background, this was not the first time something like this had happened to Sen. Smith or other Minnesotan politicians. Several politicians have been cornered at recent speaking engagements and it has created safety issues. McCarthy Center employees, Life Safety, Stearns Country Sheriffs and Sen. Smith and her team all had a plan for if protestors were to interfere with the lecture. When the first person stood up, we all looked at each other and collectively thought, “we knew this would happen.” This interruption was not unexpected, but it was disappointing.
In order to dissolve any potential safety risks for the Senator, the plan was that if she was interrupted, the protestor would be removed, and she would continue her speech. If she were to be interrupted again and it was clear that there would be no way for her to continue safely or effectively, she would leave the stage and the event would be over.
The interviewers, Sydney Richter and Haeg, also had several questions prepared about Line 3 that the audience would’ve had the opportunity to hear answers to if protestors had given Sen. Smith the chance. If she didn’t give an answer that was definitive, audience members could’ve waited for her to finish her opening remarks and allowed the interview to start, where there would’ve been an opportunity to ask her questions directly. The protestors that stood up and chanted at the lecture interrupted the chance to have a productive dialogue.
If the Senator had deflected both the prepared interview questions and audience questions, then water protectors have the right to be upset. Standing up and interrupting her instead of using the proper channels to question her is disrespectful to both the McCarthy Center staff and the Senator. If we were in her shoes, we wouldn’t have responded either.
We’d also like to thank the Climate Justice Club and the other student protestors who peacefully protested outside the event. The protestors who stood up and disrupted the lecture were not CSB/SJU community members, nor were they affiliated with the Climate Justice Club protest that happened outside. Your protest is an example of how a protest should be done. Your message was heard and acknowledged without being disruptive to the event or the Senator.
The McCarthy Center hopes that we can bring Sen. Tina Smith back to campus sometime this semester. She personally called after the incident and apologized for not being able to finish her lecture and voiced her hopes to come back and have a more productive conversation with student leaders.