A letter from a member of Highland Park’s ‘entitled mob’ to his latest victim.

Finally! A well reasoned and articulated analysis of my arguments. I think that it is great that we can have this discussion. Ultimately I think we agree on alot but you misunderstand a few points.

1st) I would never claim that he is a bad or irresponsible person for not being able to control the audience. It is neither the responsibility of the students nor the guest to deal with disruption, but I was advising him for the future if he ever comes upon a similar issue. He should have handled it differently and I was advising him on how to do this. Leverage your ability as the speaker to correct and present the ideas you did on your blog. As for the idea that students are responsible for controlling the audience: That's stupid. I tried to control the people around me by shushing but I would never take over the role of Mr. Ford or of the administration by assuming authority over the event and brawling with rude students or yelling at them. I decided to attempt to let it fizzle out or have the faculty address it. The students had no agency in solving this. Also the group was a captive audience not a volunteered audience for clarification and it was somewhat his role to correct it given he was a paid employee of the school to speak to this audience(not that I think he was acting badly but he is not free of responsibility.). 2nd) I wrote an entire article full of justifications(i.e the link above) for saying he acted hypocritically. He generalized a group based upon the actions of a minority and prescribed a bad interpretation of the students. I believe everything I said to be factual. The truth value on whether hypocrisy of a statement is not a matter of opinion but it is a matter of fact. People can have opinions regarding what they think the truth value is but they can frame them as facts because they are speculating on an issue of fact. I am not sensationalizing I am expressing a view on why I think his comments were inappropriate and I prescribed a better way to frame them in the future.

3rd) This is the part of the post I disliked. You came off as disrespectful and combative. I sent the email to the author. I also posted it on his facebook. My dad published the article so others can evaluate my thoughts and we can have a productive discussion where maybe someone can convince me I am incorrect through logical argumentation. We aren't excusing the actions of the students but we didn't comment on them because they aren't a matter of controversy. Everyone agrees the students sucked in the situation but I was communicating that our "hero" Jamie Ford should also do some evaluating on his end. The school made a few mistakes but they handled it within reason. The principle and school have already admitted they messed up so blaming them again and again doesn't move our discussion forward. They will handle this better if it happens again. Mr. Ford appeared to be having a lack of self-reflection on this so I was attempting to get him to do some reflection.

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