It's Not Quite Crying "Uncle!"... It's Not A Statue... Maybe
It's Better?
Aero-News wasn't the
only outlet to give the University of Washington
hell for the unbelievable-but-true tale of the members
of the Student Senate who thought that "Marines are not what we
should be producing." Not by any means. The blogosphere and talk
radio are also in full cry, and the University is in full defensive
crouch.
An AP report quoted one unidentified blogger as saying, "How
dare these snot nose, hemp-wearing, pot smoking, drum beating,
dreadlock wearing, 'gee when is the financial aid check going to
arrive,' brat kids diss Pappy Boyington?" (If anybody knows what
blog that is, drop Hognose a line. He wants to read the rest of
it).
Another student claimed to have been offered a beating by a
Marine. (If you're a collector of beatings, kid, our advice is to
take it. It will probably be a thrashing to remember). In all
seriousness, though, these kids need a clue, not a clobbering...
but if you haven't got a clue by college age, you will probably be
living with Mom and Dad and still trying to find yourself at 35. We
have no idea how to give a clue to people like that.
But there's one very positive bit of reaction. The UW
Foundation, which among other things steers UW-related generosity
to deserving recipients, has set up a Lt. Col. Gregory "Pappy"
Boyington Memorial Scholarship Fund.
"This fund will provide scholarships to undergraduate students
who are either a U.S Marine Corps veteran or are the child of a U.S
Marine Corps veteran," Renee Fricke, Director of the Annual Giving
Programs at the University of Washington Foundation, emailed to
columnist Michelle Malkin, another writer outraged by the Student
Senate's bizarre reasoning and results.
Maybe the answer is to
flood the place with Marine vets and offspring -- and a flush
scholarship fund would help with that. It would sure help the
Marine vets who are there now on what is clearly a hostile campus.
(Still, Marines did Belleau Wood, Tarawa, Hue City and Fallujah.
The contempt of the student senate is unlikely to faze them, as
"hostile" goes).
A cynic might say it's an attempt to cash in during a time when
the university is getting more than its usual share of publicity
(they say there's no such thing as bad publicity... this would be
proof of that). But maybe money in this fund will do some good --
make your own decisions.
Boyington, whose famous self-assessment was, "Show me a hero and
I'll prove he's a bum," might actually like the idea of a
scholarship a lot better than the statue. He might have been
uncomfortable with the idea of a statue of himself.
If it's a "real" Boyington scholarship, winners should have to
maintain a 3.0 GPA in Aeronautics or Aeronautical Engineering (his
majors) and commit one alcohol-related act of gross insubordination
per semester. Somehow we don't think that requirement will see
light of day, but he'd definitely have laughed at that.
We'd also like to point out one factual error in Hognose's
opinion piece. A reader pointed out that he quoted Ashley Miller as
sneering that there were memorials enough to "white males," and
actually she said "rich white males." Boyington was even less rich
than he (part Indian) was white, but we've learned better than to
expect common sense from the denizens of the UW student senate. But
if we're going to quote fools, we ought to quote them
completely.
Finally, thanks for all the mail on the subject, most of it
running pretty strongly pro-Pappy. (Not all; and we note that
we'll always welcome a decently-written opinion piece from
our readers, even, or especially, in response to an op-ed or
Aero-Views of our own).
There's a lot of Marines out there, we're learning. And oo-rah
back at ya.
http://www.uwfoundation.org/ They
currently have the Boyington Memorial Scholarship linked on the
front page. Here is the direct link to make a gift to the
scholarship, in case you read this some time in the future and
their home page has changed.