hEIL tRUMP <jthomq@gmail.com> wrote in
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> Bradley K. Sherman wrote
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>> |
>> | A leader of the Texas Republican Party offered to have Merrick
>> | Garland dealt with like the Democrats did JFK.

'Politicized speech' made 'students like me feel unwelcome,' Harvard grad
told Fox News Digital

College graduation season this year is nearly here � and scores of schools
already have announced their commencement speakers ahead of the special
occasion.

As students of higher education finish up their coursework and prepare for
commencement, a woman who made waves for standing up and walking out of
Harvard University's commencement ceremony last year while Attorney
General Merrick Garland was delivering his address said she would repeat
her actions.

Emma Heussner of Washington, D.C., earned a master's degree in psychology
from Harvard. She walked out of her own graduation ceremony last year �
fed up with the speech.

HARVARD GRADUATE WALKS OUT OF MERRICK GARLAND'S COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS

Heussner, who works in social media, said she absolutely would repeat it.

"I would do it again," she told Fox News Digital this weekend.

She explained why. "Conservatives are coined as the �silent majority� and
look where that�s gotten us," she said. "Students and their parents are
now fighting for regular, not sexualized, curriculum in K-12."

She added, "As long as conservatives are silent, we are compliant with how
far we let the left push their agenda."

Heussner also said, "Universities [should] be places that teach students
how to think and challenge our beliefs. They should encourage students to
debate and learn from other perspectives."

"As long as conservatives are silent, we are compliant with how far we let
the left push their agenda."

However, given today's reality, Heussner said that "standing up for myself
and my beliefs by walking out on Merrick Garland�s speech was a way for me
to honor the time, money and energy spent earning my degree � while also
honoring those who actually supported me throughout school."

And the ones who supported her, she said, were "my friends and family who
were cheering me on."

She also told Fox News Digital this weekend about the response to her
actions last year, "The support I got from strangers on the internet was
overwhelmingly positive. So many people I�ve never met rallied behind me,"
she added.

She explained, "I think that�s partially because there aren�t many signs
of intelligent life (AKA conservatives at Ivy League schools) who make a
statement by speaking out against the propaganda otherwise pushed on us as
students."

KIRK CAMERON REJECTS DRAG QUEEN STORY TIME, IS INSTEAD SPEAKING ABOUT
FAITH, FAMILY AT ARKANSAS LIBRARY

Said Heussner as well, "I understand the criticism I received from a few,
too. They believed it was hypocritical and ungrateful of me to not endure
Garland�s speech."

Merrick Garland "didn�t represent me or what my academic career taught me
to think independently [about]," said the Harvard graduate.

However, she said, "I think it was more important to spend my graduation
with my family than waste time sitting through a politicized speech that
made students like me feel unwelcome and complacent."

Garland's ideas, she said � and the content of his speech last year �
"didn�t represent me or what my academic career taught me to think
independently [about]."

Rather, she said, his speech "was ostracizing."

Last year, igniting strong reaction from many corners, she shared on
Twitter that she had "just walked out of Harvard�s graduation because I
didn�t want to listen to Merrick Garland talk about himself for 30
minutes."

She added that what she did hear was "pretty rich."

Heussner earned a master's degree in psychology from Harvard in 2020.

"But because of the pandemic, they weren't able to give us a formal
graduation" back then, she explained last year.

"Harvard did not have tickets for my parents � so they couldn't go in and
watch the ceremony."

Instead, the graduation ceremony during Memorial Day weekend of May 2022
celebrated those who graduated in 2020 and 2021, she said.

"So I went up with my parents," she said about last year's graduation
ceremony.

"But Harvard did not have tickets for my parents � so they couldn't go in
and watch the ceremony," she said.

Instead, "they had to watch it" as it was "broadcast" from another
location, she said.

Heussner said, "I sat there with my classmates for a while" under the hot
sun that day.

She said there were a lot of "graduation formalities," including singing
and Latin pronouncements by various members of the administration and
faculty.

OHIO UNIVERSITY'S STUDENTS DITCH SMARTPHONES IN FAVOR OF FAITH AND
FRIENDS: �AMAZING THING�

And "by the time Merrick Garland finally started speaking, it was very
much � I think he was trying to be inspirational and motivating, as in,
�You guys are responsible for making the world a better place,'" she said.

Garland seemed to be saying, "This country sucks and you guys can fix it,"
said Heussner about the attorney general's commencement address. That
"didn't sit right with me."

"But the way it read," she continued, "was very much like, �This country
sucks and you guys can fix it.�"

That "didn't sit right with me," she told Fox News Digital.

She said she thought to herself of Garland during that address, "You're
the attorney general � you're someone who could make an immediate
difference based on the actions and decisions you make as attorney
general."

She added, "So it was a very easy decision for me to walk out and meet up
with my parents" instead.

Heussner added of her parents, "They're the ones who were there for me and
who supported me � and I didn't want to be preached to by Merrick Garland,
when he was talking a lot of talk but not really walking the walk that he
was preaching."

Among Garland's comments at Harvard last year during his commencement
address: "It is a great comfort to see all of you in your robes. You look
like little judges. I feel right at home," he said. (Some people laughed.)

"One of the reasons young people struggle so much with mental health these
days is the societal fall from God."

Garland also said, according to a transcript of his remarks, "When I was
sitting where you are sitting today, there were many things to worry
about. But it never occurred to me that the right to vote would again be
threatened in this country."

He also said, "At the same time that we are witnessing efforts to
undermine the right to vote, we are also witnessing violence and threats
of violence that undermine the rule of law upon which our democracy is
based."

When Heussner walked out last year, did she notice any others walking out
with her?

She said, "We were sitting in the hot sun for a while � so unless it was a
spectacular speaker, I could see that people would want to walk out [of a
speech like that] for other reasons" as well, she said.

Heussner graduated from the University of Alabama in 2018, earning a
degree in psychology.

She then went to Harvard for two years to earn her master's in psychology.

Today, in 2023, she told Fox News Digital, "I�m still working in social
media, at a PR firm based in Virginia, as a digital account manager."

Recently on Twitter, Heussner commented, "One of the reasons young people
struggle so much with mental health these days is the societal fall from
God � no one is giving them a normative moral right and wrong anymore, so
Gen Z are finding their identity and god in �wokism.�"

She has nearly 14,000 followers on Twitter as of publication time.

<https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/conservative-college-grad-walked-
merrick-garlands-commencement-speech-would-do-it-again>