Reprimand ASUA, not "Billy"

Recently, ASUA senator Maria Rodriguez stated that "as a student government, we need to look out for the freedom of every student."

She was referring, of course, to the resolution she helped draft stating that ASUA disapproves of the comic "Looking for Billy."

Never mind that freedom has nothing to do with the comic, or that the students we elected are devoting their full energies to condemning a comic; no, what disturbs me is our student leaders' inability to understand a joke.

Jeremy Olson's comic was an absurd mockery of homophobes; but it was a realistic one too. I've witnessed testosterone-bloated gay-bashers whale on someone because they thought he was gay (he wasn't).

The incident was as random as the one depicted in the comic, except their playground cut down of choice was "bitch" rather than "homo."

The misinterpretation and subsequent public demands for Olson's head in a noose is as much a mystery to me as it is to him.

And to avoid another misinterpretation, I'll try to be blunt here.

With their letter denouncing the comic, the Bisexual, Gay, and Lesbian Association looks stupid. An organization that should champion open-mindedness, they actually said "there can only be one interpretation of this tasteless comic."

Maybe that's true, but they obviously couldn't figure it out; apparently, the word "homos" is considered too inflammatory to read in context.

And by condemning something that was condemning homophobes, they are, in a pathetically stupid way, undermining the cause for which they are fighting.

But it's not really fair to pick on them; a lot of people were put off by the usage of "homos." Instead, I'll pick on those members of the ASUA Senate that are prone to misread a comic, state that it has negatively impacted "our sense of community," draft a senate resolution about said comic, and then announce proudly that they're just looking out for freedom.

Senator Maria Rodriguez said that she would like to see Jeremy Olson reprimanded by the Wildcat, and that she also wants him to apologize. What I'd like to see is Maria Rodriguez and her supporters in the Senate - Sens. Josue Limon, Janet Rico, Emily Dunn, Ferdie Echiverri, and Ben Graff - reprimanded by ASUA for wasting Senate time on an issue that shouldn't have been one in the first place.

Dan Hoy

Creative writing and media arts junior