Are protests at Y. voice of minority?

PROVO — Less than 48 hours to go before Dick Cheney is scheduled to speak at Brigham Young University's commencement exercises, and the campus unrest here at Berkeley East is so thick, so palpable, so intense that ... you can hardly find it.

Cancel that order for the extra Dobermans and the tear gas. And those Maytag repairmen will be fine for extra security.

According to my research — compiled Monday between the hours of 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. in the heart of the BYU campus — there is, yawn, nothing, big stretch, to get too excited about as far as opposition to Vice President Cheney's visit is concerned.

On a cross-campus walk from the Wilkinson Center to the bookstore to the library to the Administration Building, I talked randomly with a number of students, 30 of them by the time I hit the Brigham Young statue, and a resounding majority — 29 out of 30 to be exact — said they have no problem with the vice president speaking at BYU.

The silent majority spoke up.

They said they're happy to have him here.

Some used the word "proud." Others "honored."

And quite a few voiced irritation with Cheney protesters who have been getting an inordinate amount of attention the past few weeks.

"They're small but really loud," said Kristin Mecham, a freshman from Alpine. "I think it's embarrassing that we have the honor of having the vice president here and it's made out like there's this controversy. I think most people are just fine with it."

That summed up the prevailing sentiment among those I talked to.

"It's a speech," said Josh Carter, a senior about to graduate in economics (providing he passed Tuesday's final). "I'd say there's maybe a couple, 300 people who are appalled that he's coming and maybe another two or three hundred who really care on the other end of it. For the rest of us — what's that, twenty-something thousand? — we're just fine having the vice president come. We think it's an honor."

Having said that, Josh admitted the speech hasn't exactly been the top thing on his mind.

"I just want to get out of school," he said.

Nate Frischknecht, a master's-degree candidate in accounting, said, "I think people ought to respect the office. I'm a Republican, but I'd have gladly gone to see Al Gore if he were still vice president. I think most students here feel that way. I haven't personally talked to anyone who opposes it."