PRICE CENTER

BALLROOM EAST

May 11, 2010 7:00 P.m.

Admission: FREE

We all have our fair share of foul-mouthed gaffes and professional faux pas in the closet. Thing is, most of us aren’t serving an appointed position in President Barack Obama’s administration.

Van Jones was. And it seems his closet wasn’t shut tight enough.

When Jones was selected as special advisor for green jobs in July 2009, Fox News Channel talk show host Glenn Beck launched a 14-episode campaign to expose Jones’ “radical” history.

Along with being accused of signing a petition suggesting that 9/11 was planned by the Bush administration, Jones was cornered about his membership in Socialist International — an umbrella organization of smaller political parties — in the early ’90s. To make matters worse, he was recorded calling Republicans — as well as himself — “assholes” at a UC Berkeley lecture.

Needless to say, conservative assholes were royally pissed — Glenn Beck included.

While it probably wasn’t the first time the party’s members had been called a mean name, the latter comment sealed Jones’ resignation on Sept. 6 last year.

Lucky for us, Jones has since gone back to lecturing.

Peeling off the bestselling success of his book The Green Collar Economy, published in 2008, Jones will be joining a long list of speakers — including Toni Morrison, Noam Chomsky and Carlos Fuentes — who’ve participated in the Helen Edison Lecture Series, UCSD Extension’s free quarterly talks on humanitarian topics. A nongovernmental organization entrepreneur (he’s started two) and seasoned advocate of whatever your cause, Jones will be speaking on the potential growth of green jobs within the U.S. economy.

Jones’ talk comes at an appropriate time, since the president has made it clear the country is gunning to carve a global niche of green technology in coming years.

Readers can contact Edwin Gonzalez at e8gonzal@ucsd.edu.