State of the Campus

Imagine there were a "State of the Campus" address, in which someone who best represented our nation's students and faculty on the campuses of the finest universities in the world gave a report to the nation as to what was going on at those universities.

What do you think that address would sound like?

Here's what the University of Washington Student Senate would have to say:

"Our campuses are the most tolerant places on earth. We not only have banned guns everywhere, thus showing our intolerance of those who would like an automatic means of rape prevention, but we have also banned remembering and commemorating those who used guns to allow us to still have a campus. In fact, we're simply embarassed by them. We really wish our grandparents and great-grandparents had simply surrendered to the Japanese when they attacked Pearl Harbor. Afterall, Hawaii was just another territory we annexed from aboriginal peoples. Or maybe we got it from Great Britain. We can't remember."

It would go on and on and you'd probably either laugh at the hilarity of it or cry at the state of our country.

Here's the proof:

No, it's unlikely many of the University of Washington's student senators knew any of these things [details regarding atrocities Boyington endured at the infamous Camp Ofuna] when they considered a resolution to erect a memorial on campus to the legendary fighter pilot Col. Greg "Pappy" Boyington, who was a Washington graduate, a Medal of Honor winner, and a Camp Ofuna alumnus [for information on the horrible atrocities at Camp Ofuna, read the beginning of this article].

During debate on the resolution, student senator Jill Edwards "questioned whether it was appropriate to honor a person who killed other people," according to the minutes of the meeting. Karl Smith said Boyington should be honored for his service, but Smith was also bothered by the killing thing. Senator Ashley Miller was against the resolution because "many monuments at UW commemorate rich white men." The debate went downhill from there.

Wow.