University of Washington Students reverse course, vote to approve memorial

The event went past me at a point I was having trouble with my blogging software and I missed writing on it myself, but it certainly made the news: the student senate at the University of Washington voted down a proposal to erect a memorial to Gregory "Pappy" Boyington of the famous Black Sheep Squadron in WWII. The story was being followed quite ably by Michelle Malkin at the time. The comments made by the student during their debate generated a backlash almost instantly. Boyington was a UW alumnus and a Medal of Honor recipient. For students at that school to say things like they "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce," and "many monuments at UW already commemorate rich white men" only proved how unbelievably out-of-touch and historically ignorant they were. The school got flooded with calls and e-mails to that effect and the students got an education in knowing what they were talking about before flapping their gums.

Last week those same students voted again on the matter of a memorial and, like the little politicians they are, they managed to sidestep actually acknowledging their mistake while making a correction for it anyway. They voted to back a memorial to all former students who were Medal of Honor recipients.

After a sometimes-heated debate and an unusual roll call vote, the University of Washington student government Tuesday night backed the creation of a campus memorial to honor former students who have received the Medal of Honor.

The vote followed an earlier attempt by a UW student to create a memorial in recognition of Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, a pilot with the Flying Tigers and later the Marines in World War II.

The UW student government rejected the proposal for a Boyington memorial by one vote at a February meeting. News of the decision — and comments some students made that questioned if the university should honor a Marine who killed people, or a rich white man — became public, and hundreds of people wrote the university and undergraduates, many expressing outrage at the students.

A video at Fox News on the matter (which I cannot link to directly, apparently) shows some of the proceedings, including a cute little sound bite by one of the students still in opposition to the memorial claiming – with a straight face – that the resolution to support the memorial was "leveraged by the conservative, right-wing movement, which can be characterized as quasi-fascist" because of the reaction the students had received after the first vote.

Get that? A student at an institution of higher learning feels completely correct in considering it to be fascist to disagree with her. Who's the fascist here, honey? I would say: the person who thinks they shouldn't be questioned or argued with, and that would be you.

The student senate at UW got it right this time and for that I applaud their actions. I recognize that expanding the memorial to "Medal of Honor Recipients" sidesteps the issue of honoring Pappy Boyington directly. I feel confident that Boyington would think it's good enough and I'll defer to that. Here's to you, Pappy.

(Thanks to the Greyhawks for the open post.)