A little decorum, please

Well, three Mouseland Press Speaker Series events are now in the books. Local punk rock author Chris Walter kicked off the series on November 12th at the West End, and this past week saw two more speakers engage with U of W students and members of the greater community.

Afghan politician, feminist, and courageous critic of both the warlords and the Western forces which rule her country, Malalai Joya spoke to a packed (like, out to the hallway packed!) crowd at Convocation Hall on the 16th. Joya spoke for nearly two hours about all kinds of issues which are currently facing her country, including the status of women there, the likelihood of foreign-troop withdrawal, and dodging the assassination attempts.

Then, on the 19th, award-winning author Sandy Tolan spoke to a near full house at the West End about the possibility for restorative justice in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Both Joya and Tolan fielded questions from the crowd following their speeches. Unfortunately, as is often the case when people speak about political issues, some of the questions asked were either innapropriate to the topic of the speech, overly convoluted with ‘personal’ stories, or were not questions at all. Anyone who has attended a speaking event at the university recently knows what I am talking about. Some members of the crowd seize the opportunity of having a mic in their hand and a captive audience, only to bore the crowd with long-winded preaching. 

Most moderators tell the crowd that they should keep their questions short. There is a reason for this. Many people have questions at the end of a speech, or lecture, and it would be nice to get in as many as possible before the event ends.

So, if you should ever find yourself with a mic in your hands after seeing a particularly thought-provoking speaker, remember to keep the questions short. You may think that your additional comments are important to the crowd, but you’re probably wrong.

The time to take up personal issues is if there is time after questions to speak with the speaker one-on-one. Not while many other crowd members are waiting their turn to ask a question too.