Demonstrators decry climate change at a Richmond Forum speaker event…. that had nothing to do with climate change, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline or Dominion Energy. Source: Virginia Student Environmental Coalition Facebook page.
The Richmond Forum brings high-profile speakers — from George W. Bush to Barack Obama in recent seasons — to Richmond. I’ve been attending the events for 20 years, and the audience is invariably respectful and welcoming to guests of all political stripes. That changed last weekend. As Executive Director Bill Chapman described the event, which featured astronaut Scott Kelly, in a missive to ticket subscribers:
After intermission, our program was briefly interrupted by two young women who staged a demonstration in the theater. Both are students who obtained tickets for the evening’s program, but are not Forum subscribers.
While free speech is a bedrock value of this series, we also cannot allow the disruption of our programs. Twice, the students were asked to take their seats, and when they did not, they were escorted from the theater. Looking at video recorded by the demonstrators themselves, exactly sixty seconds passed from the beginning of the demonstration until security began moving them from the theater. To many of you, and to me, it seemed longer. …
Also of great concern to me is the manner in which a few of our subscribers responded to the demonstration, including one man who shouted profanity from the rear balcony. (I did not actually hear this from stage, but it is widely reported in the program survey comments.) Incivility will not be tolerated at The Richmond Forum and poor behavior such as this will also be grounds for removal from the theater and revocation of a season subscription.
Chapman gave exactly the response he should have, and I expect that the overwhelming majority of Forum patrons will support him. As coincidence would have it, during the same event he announced an initiative that should combat the incivility he decried.
Richmonders have long understood that the ability to civilly articulate and debate ideas and points of view is critical to a functioning democracy. In that local tradition, we believe our region’s students should have access to strong speech and debate programs in our public schools. These programs teach research, critical thinking, construction of logical arguments, assessment of audience, self esteem, and engagement in world events–skills which build better students, better college candidates, better employees, and better citizens.
The Richmond Forum has provided a grant to Chesterfield County Public Schools to enable all eleven high schools to be able to offer speech and debate programs this school year. The grant will fund training for coaches, and entry fees and travel costs for tournaments.
And that’s just the start. Bravo! The counter-revolution against public rudeness, belligerence and incivility begins! Donors can contribute here.
