"Cub Driver" usenet AT danford DOT net wrote in message
...
Well, it honors all MOH recipients from the University, men and women,
young and old, dead and alive.... So how many MOH recipients d'you
suppose there are among University of Washington alumni?

I don't know. I should, because I believe the number was mentioned in the
press. I think it's on the order of a dozen or two, but I could be
misremembering.

And yes, when I wrote "ALL" I simply meant all of those from UW.

Sounds to me like a way of dodging the incoming fire, still without
singling out for honor a man who (horrors!) *shot down enemy
aircraft*.

Yes, it's a cop-out IMHO. Presumably, there was a reason to single out
Boyington in the first place. One of the other silly objections was "aren't
there enough memorials honoring old, dead white guys already?" By making
the memorial more inclusive, they dodged that one too ("look, we're honoring
the medal, not the race").

Possibly the students believe deep down in their hearts that it's
possible to win the MOH for digging wells in Africa.

Hard to say what they believe. They obviously have the usual idealistic
view of the world that people that age usually have. Personally, I don't
worry about it too much...that idealistic view comes in handy in a variety
of other ways. If it means that occasionally there's a silly dust-up like
this, c'est la vie.

Pete