Don’t let the biting sarcasm and all the talk about firearms fool you. There are times when I am wholly lacking in courage and simply afraid I have bitten off more than I can chew. In fact, I was feeling that way just last week when I arrived at the University of Minnesota- Morris to give a speech called “How to Win Friends and Irritate Feminists.”
When I walked into the room - which initially had only 100 seats – they were bringing in extra chairs for the overflow crowd. That helped eventually squeeze 168 people into the room. With the crowd running out the door and down the hall, well over 200 people were able to hear my speech. The vast majority were there to protest by walking out or by simply peppering me with hostile questions. Among those hostile individuals was Dr. P.Z. Myers, an associate professor of biology at UMM. Here’s how he described me on his website the day before my visit:
“Mike S. Adams, columnist for TownHall, Horowitzian shill, anti-feminist, creationist clown, homophobic bigot, warrior for free speech, professional racist, gun kook, academic-by-accident, beauty contest judge, and just generally contemptible far, far right-wing nutcase.”
Myer also took a few shots at UMM conservatives while he was insulting the school’s next guest speaker:
“I'm very disappointed in our students. We're far off the beaten track and we don't get that many speakers passing through our area, and they had to go exhibit the poor taste to invite this sorry sack of rethuglican excreta to our campus. Couldn't they have at least tried to find an intelligent conservative to bring out here? Why'd they have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for this guy? At least we're seeing our rather dismal right-wing campus rag's fading credibility implode with their sponsorship of such a low-wattage guest speaker.”
So, given the atmosphere, it might not surprise my readers that this was the one time I walked into a campus auditorium and drew a complete blank before I started to deliver an important speech. So, I did what I always do when I am lost. I said a prayer, recited a verse, and asked for guidance.
When the speech began, all the words came out to my satisfaction. In fact, the event went so well that students from both sides (politically) were peppering me with compliments afterwards. One said that he had never in his life seen a man turn such a hostile audience in his favor so quickly and so effortlessly.
But, of course, such compliments are misplaced. I didn’t do anything impressive or praiseworthy Thursday night in Minnesota. I simply took a situation I could not handle and turned it over to a Higher Power. If I were not such a faithless and flawed character the request for guidance would hardly have been necessary.
Contrast what happened to me that evening with what happened to Professor Myer. He had stated on his website that the university “paid good money to ferry this stiff here” saying “let's at least have him put on a show and argue with him.” And he speculated about what he might ask me if he could make my talk: “I'm tempted to ask him to simply expound on the distinction between micro- and macro-evolution, so that he can scuttle himself with his own words…”
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