Univ of Washington Student Senate Slams "Evil" War Hero
Aero-News Opinion By Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien
Student senator Jill
Edwards spoke for the student body when she "questioned whether it
was appropriate to honor a person who killed other people." She
"didn’t’ believe a member of the Marine Corps was an
example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce."
Ashley Miller agrees. "Too many monuments commemorate white
men," she sneered. They should probably tear some down until
pygmies, eskimos and victims of gender dysphoria have caught up in
the heroism department, then. It might take a while (The white guy,
by the way, wasn't all white -- he was part Native American, Sioux
specifically. But maybe joining the "evil" Marines bleached
the red out of him?)
Jon Lee said he "didn’t want to see a campus inundated
with memorials." Hey, they already have a memorial to someone with
University values -- the Lincoln Brigade, a group of American
Communists who fought in the Spanish Civil War. The survivors used
to march in New York City in solidarity with Hitler, and then
against him, oddly enough changing direction on June 22, 1941.
That's University of Washington values for you.
The occasion: a meeting of the University of Washington student
senate, in which Andrew Everett committed the moral equivalent of
Danish cartooning, by proposing that the school erect a small
statue to Marine Lt. Col. Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, UW '34, who
with 28 victories remains the Marine Corps' all-time ace. Boyington
grew up in hard circumstances, and long before there was the sort
of lavish student aid that makes college an extension of childhood
for today's students, put himself through the University and went
on to become one of the school's most distinguished alumni.
So Everett and a small group of students and faculty thought it
would be a great idea to honor him, and to give today's students a
reminder of a hero of days gone by.
As the reaction of Edwards (below right), Miller, and Lee
show, it went over like an offer of a golden calf to a synagogue,
or a statue of Satan in the Vatican, or, well, a Marine on a modern
college campus.
Some students sought
compromise. Deirdre Lockman said "the resolution focused more
heavily on the negative aspects of war, and should instead focus on
more positive aspects, such as the awarding of the Medal of Honor."
Yeah, you know, like all guys who won the MOH for acts of genteel
kindness, like Audie Murphy, or Bob Howard. (Look 'em up. You in
the UW shirt, put down that bong).
Mikhail Smirnoff apparently thought he was seeking middle ground
when he "understood the sentiment of not wanting to reward those
who fought in the war," but he pointed out that "those who fought
in WWII were heros [sic]..." unlike, he helpfully added, those who
fight in Iraq. To quote someone with the same last name as young
Mikhail, "What a country!"
Defending his decision to diss Boyington, Director of
Student Senate Operations Karl D. Smith thought he was going for
middle ground, commenting in a regional blog, "We also are home to
civil rights leaders such as Gordon Hirabayshi and a major
contributor in the eradication of smallpox William Foege, and the
Nigerian statesman who worked for peace Alex Ekwueme." Yep,
household names all, just like Boyington. I was just wondering
today, what's Al Ekwueme up to these days? You hardly hear his name
any more. By the way, I am not the Great Punctuator, but I'm
willing to send Karl some commas. You know, to bring his writing up
to the junior-high-school standard expected at UW.
Smith issued the plaintive call of today's university dweller,
confused, intimidated, and relativistic: "How do we decide who is
and is not deserving?"
Well, Karl, it looks like you just did, despite your girly-man
waffling. Did you say that he was evil for shooting down enemy
airplanes?
"I stand by my comments in support of removing the language
regarding the Japanese planes shot down." (Geez, the kid talks like
a bureaucrat already. He'll be making everyone's life miserable in
the DMV some day). "In war, killing is a necessary evil. Because of
this I am all the more grateful for those who endure the effects of
war.
But I do not believe our honor of him should focus upon the evil,
regardless of how necessary."
Yeah... make a resolution about Gramps Boyington, just
don't mention that he was a Marine, and skip the bit about 28
planes he shot down.
It might offend
airplane-Americans. ("He's really famous for something, but we
can't tell you what, because this is a university, and we have to
keep a lid on the information"). If this is the courage that they
inculcate at UW, Boyington must have had all of his already, on the
day he got there.
Or just maybe the campus has changed in seventy-two years.
The University of Washington student senate is a strange
organization, with many seats reserved for particular races,
ethnicities, and extracurricular activities. The seat that Jill
Edwards represents belongs to -- I am not making this up -- the
Honors Croquet League, which appears to be the pinnacle of the
deep- thinking Miss Edwards's accomplishments at UW. (A personal
page notes that she posed in a swimsuit for a calendar of UW women
-- I won't comment but every male who reads this and sees her
picture will make a snap judgment on what the dating scene is like
at UW. Swimsuit, croquet, knowledge of history half as deep as a
bird bath: she's the complete package, men).
Boyington died in 1988 and is buried in Arlington -- which is
the national cemetery in Washington, DC, where we bury people that
most in the nation think are heroes -- which detail we spell out
for any of those suffering from a Washington (University of)
education.