Logan Rozos Is a Real One
The NYU student is being punished for standing up for Palestine. But he's on the right side of history.
On Wednesday, John Beckman, a spokesperson for New York University, issued the following statement:
NYU strongly denounces the choice by a student at the Gallatin School’s graduation today—one of over 20 school graduation ceremonies across our campus—to misuse his role as student speaker to express his personal and one-sided political views.
He lied about the speech he was going to deliver and violated the commitment he made to comply with our rules. The University is withholding his diploma while we pursue disciplinary actions.
NYU is deeply sorry that the audience was subjected to these remarks and that this moment was stolen by someone who abused a privilege that was conferred upon him.
Harsh stuff. This apparently devious, abusive fraudster must have done something really bad to warrant this kind of public denunciation—and the withholding of his diploma~ Did he start throwing racial slurs around? Did he yell that 9/11 was an inside job? Did he chant “Andrew Cuomo for mayor”?
No. This evil troublemaker, whose name is Logan Rozos, talked about Palestine.
Here’s some of the monstrous speech:
As I search my heart today in addressing you, all my moral and political commitments guide me to say that the only thing that is appropriate to say in this time and to a group this large is a recognition of the atrocities currently happening in Palestine.
I want to say that the genocide currently occurring is supported politically and militarily by the United States, is paid for by our tax dollars, and has been live streamed to our phones for the past 18 months. And that I do not wish to speak only to my own politics today, but speak for all people of conscience, all people who feel the moral injury of this atrocity. And I want to say that I condemn this genocide and complicity in this genocide. Thank you to the class of 2025 and congratulations.
Judging by the thunderous applause Rozos received, that audience must have been packed with Jew-hating fiends. Or maybe most people don’t like genocide. You tell me.
You’ll notice that at no point does Rozos mention Israel, or Jews, or Hamas, or anything except the fact that there is a genocide in Palestine, and that the United States is supporting that genocide. And it is a fact. I could list all of the reputable people and groups that acknowledge this, but we’re more than 19 months into the genocide. We all know that it’s happening. Israel is killing hundreds of people a day. Even Donald Trump said this morning that the people of Gaza are starving. The world is watching this. There’s no hiding from it.
And, because he had the temerity to address this fact—to refuse to turn away from the reality that the crime of crimes is taking place in front of our eyes, 24 hours a day, with the full support of the U.S. government—Logan Rozos has not just been rapped on the knuckles for veering from his prepared remarks. He is being threatened with the nullification of the years he put into his education. He is being treated as though he is the problem, not the genocide.
What a world we live in, where doing something brave and kind and morally just is seen as so unforgivable. But Rozos should take comfort from the fact that he’s on the right side of history. When he looks back, he will be able to say that he did something good in a time that needed people like him to be good. So thanks, Logan. You’re a real one. And go to hell, NYU.
I've made some hard calls in my life, but don't think I would have had the guts to do what Logan did. Good for him.
Kind of pleasant to see a commencement address that isn't full of platitudes and feel-good statements about "On the long road of life, we..." bullshit. But some snowflake on the board of directors/benefactors/sugar mommas/daddies must have been triggered.
That said, when NYU pulls the diploma (which I don't think they can do after the final review of credits and requirements and such so I'm going to assume that they will just send it to the guy, probably folded up in a legal envelope), can he demand his tuition money and expenses back?