Boyington finally gets memorial

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The student senate at the University of Washington finally approved a monument to World War II hero Col. Greg "Pappy" Boyington along with four fellow Medal of Honor-winning UW alumni.

The vote took place April 4, with 27 of the 100 student senators opposing the memorial or abstaining. Deidre Lockman, a student leader who voted against the memorial, said the issue had "served as leverage for the conservative right-wing movement, which can also be characterized as "quasi-fascist" according to the baqcklash we've all received for speaking out against it."

Ms. Lockman is obviosuly suffering from participation in the left's dearly-held belief that their dissent is the only dissent which is protected by the First Amendment, and that anybody's dissent against them is the equivalent of "quasi-fascis[m]."

The original debate regarding a proposed memorial to Colonel Boyington sparked nationwide controversy, as student senators were "concerned a military hero who shot down enemy planes was not the right kind of person to represent the school." Student Jill Edwards "questioned whether it was appropriate to honor a person who killed other people," and said she "didn't believe a member of the Marine Corps was an example of the sort of person UW wanted to produce." Ashley Miller, another senator, argued that "many monuments at UW already commemorate rich white men." Apparently Ms. Miller, at the very least, needs to take remedial Research 101, as it takes about 5 seconds on the internet to look up the fact that Boyington was both Native American and largely indigent.

The UGA College Republicans were on top of this issue, and a column on it by PR Director Jeff Emanuel finally made it into the Georgia Red and Black a month after the event.

It is good to see that the majority of student senators at the University of Washington listened to their fellow Americans and decided to do the right thing. Several others, though, are badly in need not only of Free Speech education--they are not the only ones allowed to speak their minds--but, even more, of education on the role the military has played in their having such a right in the first place, and on the rights (none) which they would currently enjoy were America not full of people like Boyington who were willing to die--or possibly worse--for such rights.

France gives in to student rioters

"French President Jacques Chirac has announced that the new youth employment law that sparked weeks of sometimes violent protests will be scrapped," reported the BBC Monday.

The First-Employment Act, or CPE, was passed to help alleviate youth unemployment (currently at 23%) by making it easier for employers to fire subpar workers--thus making it more attractive to hire them in the first place than it is now, as youth who are hired currently fall under the union-like state laws which make it almost impossible to fire employees regardless of job performance.

Chirac said that the CPE would be replaced by other measures to tackle youth unemployment. This ann0uncement comes on the heels of riots and protests carried out by millions of students and union members, who took to the streets over the last month in protest against the law, often by burning cars and attacking police.

Union and student leaders called Chirac's cave-in a "great victory." However, they refused to specify whether or not the protests still set for Tuesday would be cancelled.

Campus media report on Iraq, but ignore those with experience

The University of Georgia's award-winning student-run newspaper Red and Black is no stranger to reporting and commenting on America's situation in Iraq. However, whatever "balance" in reporting they may have been previously paying lip service to has been cast off with this week's events.

On Tuesday, April 4, the paper ran an editorial entitled "Troops in Iraq not praiseworthy." The column, written by a student and endorsed by an editorial board which contained an aggregate of zero military veterans, included such statements as "[these troops] should not be placed in the same class as or valued like the sacrifices made by the veterans of many of our past wars. Does all of this devalue the lives lost and the sacrifices made in the War? Of course it does," and "For many, this will be a hard pill to swallow, especially those who have been personally involved in the War. Everyone reading this should be angry. But, you should not blindly direct your anger at those who bring this fact to light. Instead, you should direct it at those who are responsible for causing this mess."

The paper then abandoned any pretense of objectivity by completely ignoring a speech made by an actual Iraq War veteran the next day. Jeff Emanuel, a Special Operations veteran of the war and member of the Joint Task Force responsible for the rescue of POW Jessica Lynch and the capture of Saddam Hussein, addressed a packed room of UGA College Republicans Wednesday night, speaking on the first stages of the war and on the subsequent occupation. Not only did the campus paper refuse to mention the upcoming address during the week before it was scheduled to be held--although they were repeatedly notified--but there was also no representative of the paper present at the speech.

When contacted about the lack of promotion, the paper's Associate News Editor, Rebecca Rudolph, told UGACR Chairman Katie Flanigan that the paper was forced to "run several corrections" this week, and thus did not have print space to promote many student events. However, though they apparently did not have the space to present an alternate, experienced view to Tuesday's reckelssly uninformed opinion column, the Red and Black apparently did have enough space to promote such things as "African Nite" ("dispel[ling] the myths about African culture"), the Gay-Lesbian-Bisexual-Transgendered student alliance's demand for special treatment, the factuality of the movie "V for Ventetta," Athens Brew-fest, and the performance of the melodrama "The Devil's Disciple."

This is both enlightening and dissapointing. The best that can be said is that now, at last, the mask is off--and the Red and Black has publicly abandoned any pretense of objectivity and journalistic integrity, revealing its purely partisan stance.

Kerry calls for telling terrorists when we're leaving Iraq

In an op-ed printed Wednesday in the New York Times, Senator John Kerry again called for a definite date of US withdrawal from Iraq.

Schools ban patriotic colors

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"In the wake of last week's immigration-reform protests, one school district is taking drastic measures, banning all symbols of patriotism, both U.S. and Mexican," reported NBC San Diego this morning.

"Beginning Monday, the [San Diego] Oceanside Unified School District is banning all flags and patriotic clothing...School officials in Oceanside now say that flags -- whether they are U.S. or Mexican or any other country's -- have now become a divider on campuses, saying that some students are using them to taunt other students."

Patriotic clothing banned at CO school

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A middle school in Westminster, Colorado last week banned all clothing with any type of patriotic message--even camouflage--in an effort to defuse tensions over immigration reform.

"A letter went home to parents last week that explained for student safety, no clothes were allowed with political messages or flags of any sort," reported Denver's CBS 4 News Monday night.

""It upsets me that we cannot support our troops, the military," said Kirsten Golgart, an eighth grader who was told she'd be suspended if she didn't change her clothes. "We can't support our country. If we're American, I think we should be proud to be an American."

Principal Myla Shepherd said that "tensions over the immigration issue were apparent when more than 20 students came to school wearing camouflage jackets and pants, apparently to show what they call their patriotism and American pride."

"We started seeing name calling," Shepherd said.

Mexican AND American flags banned at CO school

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Skyline High School in Longmont, Colorado enacted a measure last week aimed at cooling off increasing tensions over immigration reform: banning both American and Mexican flags from the school.

Rocky Mountain news reported that the ban will last

"only as long as it takes for tempers to cool in the wake of Congress debating a contentious immigration bill, principal Tom Stumpf said.

"The flags no longer were being used as symbols of patriotism or of cultural heritage, but of ethnic intimidation, harassment and blatant bigotry," Stumpf said.

The American flag still flies on the flagpole in front of the school in east Longmont, and each classroom has an American flag. But tensions between Hispanics and non-Hispanics were building, Stumpf said, and the flags were being used as the wrong kinds of symbols.

The ban includes T-shirts and other clothing that have replicas of the flags. At least for now, it also includes Mexican or American flags flown from the antennas of cars parked on school property.

"My obligation is to secure the safety of students," Stumpf said. "The flags were being flagrantly misused to incite violence.'"

Maybe we're out in left field here, but banning an American flag at an American government (public) school? Really?