Although her arrival had been anticipated with mixed emotions on campus, I was surprised that more people did not turn up to protest that USC, a research university should give platform to Ann Coulter as guest speaker during the ‘Islamo-facism’ awareness week. 

Guest of the college Republicans, she walked on stage dressed in a short, black cocktail dress that revealed her mid-rift.  Either she had the occasion wrong or the dress; perhaps she had plans after the event.  Regardless, on center stage, talking about Islam and fascism among a bunch of university kids in jeans, she looked out of place.  Given that she was  introduced as being one of the top 100 intellectuals of the country and a few other accompanying remarks, I was surprised to hear her insistence at wanting to divide the country, albeit that the invitation was extended to her on behalf of the Republicans.

I had never heard so much liberal/Democrat bashing.  In her eyes, they were on the same footing as the terrorists.  Coulter did not believe that the Democrats wanted to defeat the ‘savages’. As with the Bush Administration, she continued to link Iraq to 9/11, glorified the successes, and claimed that the Democrats deliberately wanted to lose to the ‘camel-riding Nomads’ by “rooting against their own country”

She colorfully compared Guantanamo Bay to ‘freshman dorms’ where one eats well and gains 20 pounds, not foregoing the damning reports from the neutral Swiss-based Red Cross, and as her hatred of Muslims spewed out, she exclaimed: “ “they are savage, and I  want to kill them.”

It is this hatred, this desire for ‘going for the kill’ that made her give the advice which shocked me.  During Q & A,  a ‘college Republican’ asked her opinion about what should be done to the ‘Moslems who go around take out their swords and want to kill and convert every one’ (seriously, in the 21st century, do they even make swords any more?) After delivering a few words here and there about pain, Coulter remarked; “We dropped a couple of bombs on Japan and they are as tame as sheep, a few well placed bombs should do it”.   My friends gasped.  She was inciting genocide on a large scale.  The young Republican seemed pleased.  I took a mental pause to save my sanity. 

Ann Coulter is known for her controversial remarks.  She makes her living by being hateful.  My apprehension comes from the fact that so many follow her blindly and are in total agreement with her.  They buy her books, seek her autograph, and cling to every word, considering her to be an absolute authority.  The effect that she has on so many minds is a sad reflection of our society today.  Ann Coulter not only influences young minds, but older people who are intrigued by her and according to one man (who was recording me hoping to catch me saying something ‘unpatriotic’ as we were discussing Coulter) “I would like the 14th Amendment repealed”.  His wife was standing next to him. 

Ann Coulter is their heroin; she is not a heroine by any stretch of the imagination.  She is  a fix that makes them high so they can feel good about who they are, about themselves, but it is all a temporary illusion, induced.  When they come down, they need a stronger fix, and the time will come when such hateful discourse, the fix, will have to turn into action in order for it to be effective.  Herein lies the danger, and this is why she is dangerous. 

I have always been able to separate the ordinary Americans from the government.  Tonight was the first time that the two became inseparable.  For the first time in 21 years I witnessed hate in America  – and what an ugly spectacle.   Thankfully,  I was rescued by that America that I cherish.  As I was leaving, I saw more protestors.  I joined them  and we started chanting.   Rabbis,  priests, and practicing Moslems were among many who held signs reading: “Thanks Ann, you have united Moslems, Jews, and Christians”.  She had.   Tonight,  as I review the hateful words spoken, the reaction of some in the college that I still love, the signs, the unity, and the warm embrace of the rabbi will chase away  the ugly hatred of Ann Coulter and her clan.