A significant amount of time has passed since my last Senate report, and I’m sure all the members of the League are wondering what HAS been happening in Senate since my last update.

As you may recall, at the last meeting some things were said, then summarized, mis-summarized, quoted, misquoted, publicized, and blown out of proportion, intentions were misinterpreted and some people were offended. As my hopefully final statement on the manner: I am sincerely sorry that this happened, especially that people were offended. On an upside, lots of people have been reading these reports; on the downside, I apparently can’t spell (no wonder crosswords are so hard for me).

Just so everyone is clear, as I feel I owe you at least, the people I’m representing in Senate an explanation, I am pretty sure I didn't discuss the worth of the Marine Corps as a whole. The Secretary summarized my comments, paraphrasing them in a way that added an extra layer of meaning I didn’t intend and by the time it became an issue, people didn’t think the difference in meaning was significant. To clarify, I was merely questioning the idea that Boyington deserved a memorial above ALL other UW alumni and if he was indeed the BEST example of a person the UW wanted to produce (people may disagree with me on this point, fine, but I hope they realize it was not intended to be offensive). I never intended to imply that Marines are not good enough for our institution. Also, when I questioned honoring Boyington for killing people, I meant to question if that the one thing of all of his achievements we wanted to choose to honor, instead of his sacrifices, bravery etc, not that we should not honor him on the basis that he killed people. I am NOT anti-military at all. I support the people in the military so much, I would like to see them not killed as much as possible. I realize that in the past war has been unavoidable and I have the utmost appreciation for people who have served and are serving.

Of course, some of you may have heard about the bill to force me to apologize. All I can say about this is the idea of forcing someone to retract their statements because other people disagreed does not hold with what the ASUW stands for.

Now that that is over with: At this meeting, a bill opposing the denial of federal financial aide to anyone with a prior drug conviction passed almost unanimously as I recall. If anyone in the League has been denied federal financial aide due to a previous drug conviction, please contact the ACLU. There is more information on the Senate website; they are trying to create a case to challenge this law.

As usual, a lot of other important things were discussed. Check the Senate web-site or come to the meetings, Tuesday nights at 7.

Quote of the week: From the Simpsons Episode “Bart-Mangled Banner” in which Bart accidently moons the American flag: [Interior of Springfield Shopper newsroom] Editor: (holds up photo of Bart mooning flag) “Alright, who can take a story and blow it waaaaay out of proportion?” Reporter: “I’m your man, boss!” Editor: “I want you to overhype this story so much it makes the New York Post look like the New York Times. Or the New York Times look like the New York Post. I forget which one the good one is.”

Jill