Pappy Boyington to be honored by UW afterall :)
Karl at Leaning Straight Up has the details.
Hooray!
Updated to add link (just found it on Google News):
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.
Several students brought up that public scrutiny during their nearly hourlong debate and vote, which was recorded by a national television news crew.
UW junior Deidre Lockman said the meaning of the memorial had been “hijacked” by people for political purposes, noting the “horrible” treatment some students received from the public after they voted against the Boyington memorial. She feared that some students might be intimidated by the public reaction.
“The true intention of this resolution will not be achieved,” she said.
Others, such as sophomore Cailin Magruder, thought the Medal of Honor recipients should be recognized.
“I think these men left a legacy of great character that we can all cling to,” she said.
Senior Andrew Everett, who brought forth the idea to honor the Medal of Honor recipients, said the issue had become bigger than he had intended. He encouraged his peers to vote based on their conscience.
“Do what you think is right, please,” he said.
Though most of the students’ votes are typically done by voice or placard, students were asked to support or oppose the memorial individually during a roll call vote — a move that prompted at least one student to storm out of the meeting room before the vote.
More background on this story can be found in the following posts: