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.