Shame on you, BYU.

I felt like I had to revive this blog from the dead to comment on BYU's confirmation of Dick Cheney as the speaker at spring commencement this year.

As a graduate of BYU, I have to say that I'm extremely disturbed, ashamed, and disappointed by the adminstration's decision to invite a man whose least troublesome PR problem is that he shot someone in the face.

Supposedly, BYU is an institution that stands for honor, honesty, and integrity. All indications suggest, however, that Vice President Cheney does not represent these qualities. Instead, his record is scandal-ridden and ethically questionable, from his ties to Halliburton and role in the CIA leak controversy to his promotion of torture and use of manipulated intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

I don't have a problem with inviting a vice president to speak on campus. In fact, it'd be a breath of fresh air compared to traditional commencements that simply feel like extensions of firesides or Tuesday devotionals. But it seems wrong and unwise to welcome a vice president who is so obviously at the center of a number of major political and moral controversies. No matter what the intention behind the invite, the bottom line is that it can be interpreted as a political statement and an endorsement of a divisive, corrupt individual who has repeatedly demonstrated his abuse of power and lack of respect for human rights.

I can't get behind that, and neither should BYU.