I'm sure everyone missed this morning's MSNBC, but

Be sure to watch Patriot Staff Writer Steve Sexton square off with Graduate Assembly President Jessica Quindel on MSNBC Saturday, Sept. 7 at 7:00 am.

Damn, forgot to set my alarm clock.

What a sad, pathetic controversy this 'white ribbon, RWB ribbon' imbroglio is. In the end, both sides of the eternal Patriotism fight won their own battles. BCR got plenty of publicity, stuck it to the Left, and embarassed their campus yet again. Quindel and Co. got on MSNBC, made Jesse Gabriel look like completely ineffectual, and got good and riled up.

In the meantime, actual students have to face yet another spate of news stories about how stupid Berkeley is, and find their resumes damaged by just that much more.

When did embarassing your own campus become such a useful sport for BCR? And lets not kid ourselves: they jumped on this intending to drag it before Matt Drudge from the very start. Yet if the issue was red/white/blue ribbons, it could've easily been handled through quiet diplomacy or internal pressure. Get President Gabriel to stand up to Quindel in some meaningful way. Sponsor a bill. Or at the very least, make clear that it's a very small subsection of this campus that's pushing for 'remembrance' and 'non-patriotism.' Instead, BCR continually chooses to peddle the self-serving myth that they are the defenders of freedom and patriotism on this campus, and everyone else has to be shamed into doing so.

I used to be a big fan of BCR, and I'm a big fan of red/white/blue ribbons. But if their tactics continue to be self-serving media blitzes bent on perpetuating an old stereotype of a uniformly anti-American campus, then screw them. I'm tired of being a pawn in this old BCR/CalSERVE game.Email This Post!