My conversation with Ann Coulter

by Rob Levine

POSTED APRIL 19, 2005 --

Anyone familiar with rhetorical bomb-thrower Ann Coulter knows there's usually no point in listening to her speak. She doesn't believe in facts, decency, or honest discourse. She is, without using hyperbole, a lying, racist (2) who wants to invade Muslim nations and force them to adopt Christianity. In short, Coulter stands 180 degrees against the values of Christianity, let alone those held by any respectable educational institution. Which is probably why I became enraged at hearing that Coulter was going to speak at the University of St Thomas on April 18.

The University of St Thomas in St Paul, Minnesota recently created a new law school amidst a glut of Twin Cities law schools. One of the stated reasons for this new school was to provide legal education with a Christian/Catholic twist. Unremarked were the ways in which the state's largest law school at the University of Minnesota already makes extra efforts to serve the state's less affluent citizens. And the St Thomas law school further confounded its own reason for being when it hired a Bush Administration lawyer who co-wrote controversial memos justifying the use of torture. So much for Christian values.

Anyways, I thought I would drive over to St Thomas to see what the ambience of the event was like - would there be protesters, how many people showed up, etc., and maybe take a few pictures of the presentation and the audience. When I showed up one of the many uniformed guards at the scene informed me that there would be no photography of the event. That's odd for a University, I thought, which is dedicated to learning and openness, whose student organizations and right wing foundations reputedly paid thousands of dollars for Coulter's appearance.

I walked outside and ran into another photographer who was going to try and get a shot of Coulter walking into the auditorium where she was scheduled to speak. At one point one of the uniformed officers informed my photographer friend that there was to be no photography on the entire St Thomas campus. For some reason that guy walked away and the two of us photographers just continued to hang around, and from then on no one tried to stop us from taking pictures outside.

Eventually Coulter appeared, walking out the back of a building about 100 yards away from us. No doubt we had guessed correctly which door she would be entering, because she and her entourage were walking directly towards us as we both snapped our shutters.

As Coulter neared us I switched cameras to one with a wide-angle lens. She and her entourage climbed a short set of stairs next to us, and one of her guards asked us to step off the sidewalk, which we promptly did. I stood on a small wooden bench and continued snapping away. When Coulter was about eight feet away from me I gave her a big "Hi Ann! How are you today?" with the biggest smile I could muster. She responded quite typically, asking if my pictures would be part of a "vicious slanderous attack." At that point I broke my own rule and replied that I hoped so. With that she turned her back to continue on her way, and in earshot of all the guards and others who surrounded us, Coulter gave me a big "Fuck you!" and entered the building.

After our "conversation" Coulter walked into the building.