The Daily Sun had a in the paper today. A heated, yet thoughtful discussion on this can be found in the comments of my last post.

I think I was a bit harsh at first and Cody helped me realize that I might have gone into the event with the wrong expectations. Here is a section from the paper that helps me illustrate why I was a little disappointed.

Enthusiastic applause met most of his hot topics:

On being Native American: “Denial is a ceremony for Indians,” he said.

Being famous: “You know, in the book world, I’m Brad Pitt. In the rest of the world, I’m Ernest Borgnine.”

Homophobia: “It kills me when Indian men are homophobic; like we’re not the most androgynous men on the planet!”

Gay marriage: “I’m for gay marriage; I want them to share in the suffering.”

Knowledge and wisdom: “You got nothing. You don’t know anything. The world is epic, and you don’t know anything.”

On politics: “I’ve never experienced more pure joy in my life than when Cheney was in that wheelchair.”

On the audience: “I offended at least 10 percent of you tonight, and I was tame!”

On the quote about Cheney, what does that comment have to do with politics? Is this really what passes for political commentary? He talked about deeply moving, engaging, political topics all night, but he didn’t do anything with them. It was, perhaps, wrong of me to expect him to hit on the “where do we go from here” topic. I was just disappointed (not offended). I left feeling entertained and I was just hoping for something more.

AND, his fee for speaking at NAU? $17,500! WTF?? I know Terry Tempest Williams did not cost that much. When I heard Toni Morrison speak at Purdue, her fee was also much less. When I brought Derrick Jensen to NAU in the spring of 2007, his fee was $3,000 with university support and if I were organizing the event with no help from the university, it would have been $1,500. We could fight over who is a better speaker or a bigger name, but that’s a gross amount of money for a two hour comedy routine.