As for the two teachers, I believe that their actions were an “understandable human reaction” and I imagine that they “want to honor the memory of King in standing up against injustice.” I’m certainly “not going to fault these individuals” and I’m even more certainly going to judge them or their motives.

As for Ken and Randy, I don’t know them and so they may prove me wrong, but I still hope they will seek reconciliation rather than retaliation.

But I also can’t help but notice how you prejudged two people you don’t either.

Rather than booing at speakers and responding with threatening campaigns, I hope these groups of people can return their focus to the life and legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.; which is the reason the assembly. Somehow, we’ve gotten horribly sidetracked.

I hope that Randy Thomas and even Ken Hutcherson will call for an end to any attempts to have these teachers fired. Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of a country where we stood hand-in-hand together.

Is booing something that honors Marin Luther King, Jr.’s memory? Is booing the best way to enact positive social change? I’m not sure.

That being said, I’m not going to fault these individuals–these real life people with real wounds inflicted by Hutcherson–for their very human reaction. I do hope that we can learn from this and find better ways to go forward together.

At the end of the assembly, after Hutcherson had spoken, someone (it’s not clear to me if it was the same teacher or another individual) asked Hutcherson how he can speak of MLK’s vision of equality for all given Hutcherson’s own view of gay rights.

I fail to see anything particularly objectionable about either of these actions. While booing someone while they take the stage is not generally considered polite, it’s certainly a valid and civil form of expressing one’s displeasure.

What I find more disconcerting is that people like Randy Thomas are now trying to make it sound like Hutcherson wasn’t even given a chance to speak or was “shouted down,” when it is quite clear Hutcherson did indeed give his speech.