Stop screwing us, ASUA

Wildcat File Photo Arizona Daily Wildcat Brad Wallace

Granted, the Wildcat must strive for the highest levels of journalistic professionalism, and sometimes we fail, but to have representatives of ASUA speaking as if they were accomplishing important and profound feats for humanity made me want to puke.

Consider for a moment, Tara Taylor. Last year, when she was campaigning, you couldn't help but see her or one of her well polished sorority minions distributing fliers and spouting platitudes about how much she "wanted to represent the student body." I would see her on the UA Mall for no less than two or three hours every day during campaign week.

If you really want to represent us, where are you now? If the concerns of the general student population are what you really want to vocalize, how come you're not on the Mall this very second conducting interviews? Could it be that you were just looking pretty in attempt to get elected?

Also remember this year's ridiculous Jeremy Olson controversy. In the wake of the tragedy of Matthew Sheperd, the need for strict monitoring of hate crimes and the attitudes that foster them has never been more urgent.

Nonetheless, I'm glad ASUA spent countless hours in emergency meetings to debate the issue, almost as if there was an issue, or that the Wildcat was condoning hatred.

Not only does ASUA appear to have no sense of humor, the members conduct themselves with self-righteous idiocy.

I cannot help but be reminded of my very own experience in ASUA. I was an aide for former president Gilbert Davidson, when he was just a mere senator.

When I signed on to ASUA, he had just returned (along with several other student government types) from a two week tour of student unions throughout California, all out of public funds. The result of this was a several hundred page document that I proofread, which essentially said how neat it would be to have a Wendy's on campus, and proposed that the new student union would be open by fall '97.

I'm so thankful to have such a productive and important organization allocating our funds and representing us!

I would argue that ASUA is utterly unnecessary. Our campus is home to a prestigious law college, an excellent political science department and thousands of young minds that are well-trained in the fields of finance and rhetoric.

Why don't we switch to a pure meritocracy then, with a diverse and uniformly intelligent group of representatives appointed from candidates recommended by professors and administrators?

It seems quite plausible that the results would better serve the student body than a glorified high school beauty contest where the largest voting bloc is the greek system. There is no need for ridiculous and irrelevant "Senate" that has no direct accountability or interaction with the vast number of students.

This isn't an independent city-state with matters of war and trade to consider. This is a collective of students, and power should be reserved for those who are fit to wield it, not those who look best in Capri pants.

Of course, I expect ASUA to disregard this statement completely, or at best have a pissing contest to see who can have the most vehement and empty reply appear in print. I will return the favor by continuing to treat them with the lack of respect or consideration that they extend to the 35,000 students that they supposedly represent.

We deserve so much better, and we're not getting it.

Brad Wallace is a creative writing and molecular and cellular biology senior and can be reached via e-mail at Brad.Wallace@wildcat.arizona.edu.