Without the Marines, there's no America

The Wall Street Journal John Fund writes about "'Pappy' Shot Down by Campus Ignoramuses:"

It's well known that college students today aren't as educated in our nation's history as they should be, but it's still hard to grasp the mind-bending political correctness just displayed by the University of Washington's student senate at its campus in Seattle.

The issue before the Senate this month was a proposed memorial to World War II combat pilot Gregory "Pappy" Boyington, a 1933 engineering graduate of the university, who was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service commanding the famed "Black Sheep" squadron in the Pacific.

The student senate rejected the memorial because "a Marine" is not "an example of the sort of person UW wants to produce."

Digging themselves in deeper, the student opponents of the memorial indicated: "We don't need to honor any more rich white males." Other opponents compared Boyington's actions during World War II with murder.

"I am absolutely bewildered that the Student Senate voted down the resolution," Brent Ludeman, the president of the UW College Republicans, told me. He noted that despite the deficiencies of the UW History Department, the complete ignorance of Boyington's history and reputation by the student body was hard to fathom.

After all, "Black Sheep Squadron," a 1970s television show portraying Colonel Boyington's heroism as a pilot and Japanese prisoner of war, still airs frequently on the History Channel. Apparently, though, it's an unusual UW student who'd be willing to learn any U.S. history even if it's spoonfed to him by TV.

As for the sin of honoring a rich white male, Mr. Ludeman points out that Boyington (who died in 1988) was neither rich nor white. He happened to be a Sioux Indian, who wound up raising his three children as a single parent.

"Colonel Boyington is luckily not around to see how ignorant students at his alma mater can be today," says Kirby Wilbur, a morning talk show host at Seattle's KVI Radio. Perhaps the trustees and alumni of the school will now help educate them.

I followed the shameful exhibition by UW student senators. Fund gives us an accurate account.

A few reactions:

When college students say a Marine hero is not "an example of the sort of person UW wants to produce," what they're engaging in is far worse than political correctness. They're engaging in anti-Americanism.

If you think that's too harsh a description, ask yourself: Without the Marines and the rest of our military, could any of us live an American life? Of course not!

So people who don't want to produce and honor Marine heroes want to leave America undefended.

Can you think of anything more un-American?

There'll be plenty of people excusing the student senators with "There just kids!"

Really? College kids shouldn't know at least enough to realize how lucky they are to have our military defending them?

We shouldn't expect college students to express deep gratitude for the military that protects them while they sit sip mocha lattes or down microbrews? C'mon.

Besides, there are plenty of college students who do appreciate the military; some of them are vets just back from Iraq and elsewhere.

Denying or excusing anti-American statements and sentiments from our young people only gets in the way of salvaging those we can save.

More about that soon.

A final thought: A lot of people are saying the students opposed to honoring Boyington have been let down by a lousy and leftist UW History Department.

I don't know anything about the UW History Department but if you're going to blame it for those students, how do you explain students with similar attitudes you can find on campuses all over America?

More about that soon too.