Princeton Kim’s column spouts campaign mud

Tuesday, April 2, 1996

By Patrick Doyle

Feeling so much school pride after reading Princeton Kim’s
column ("Lack of pride tears apart Bruin unity," March 6), I figure
that ­ as a fellow UCLA student ­ I should do something
to help him out by declaring his candidacy for undergraduate
president.

In case anyone missed it, his attacks on York Chang and Students
First! were not by any means the observations of a careful observer
or a critical academic (neither description could in anyway
describe Yale, oh, I mean Princeton Kim). Rather, they were the
overtly subtle kick off of Columbia Kim’s presidential
campaign.

Brown’s campaign platform is clearly one to be reckoned with. So
far, he has done what every candidate for seventh-grade class vice
president does: center his campaign on the critical issue of
increasing school spirit. And although I wouldn’t mind seeing
Cornell wear a skirt and carry pom-poms at basketball games, I
would hope that a political science student could think of more
substantive issues around which to center a campaign.

On the subject of affirmative action, Dartmouth has much to say.
He would like to extend his ideas about school pride to racial
pride. He goes on to say "I intend for you and me to cherish the
traits which gain us respect for our individuality and yet enhance
our solidarity." So, Penn’s insight is that by emphasizing our
individuality, we become a more cohesive group. What a mind!

When he attacks York Chang for stopping traffic, taking over a
building and getting arrested, I would like to remind Columbia that
these same criticisms could be made of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin
Luther King Jr. and César Chávez.

We all know what kind of leaders people like that made. I’d hate
to think we had elected one of those! I would also like to question
how someone who comes up with hundred-dollar monthly fraternity
dues feels that it’s a struggle just to be able to afford to attend
UCLA. What a martyr Cornell must be ­ saying, "Would you like
fries with that?" ­ all the while thinking about the huge
fraternity party he’s missing.

Attacking student government representatives for not knowing
their duties or responsibilities is a criticism Dartmouth should
not make lightly. Perhaps Yale doesn’t understand that some offices
come with seemingly conflicting and constraining time commitments,
which is understandable, seeing as how the most important "duties"
he has had in the last year involve guarding the secret stash of
Heineken upstairs.

Kim’s column was so full of insubstantial rhetoric and
unsubstantiated attacks, that I am surprised The Bruin would print
such an overtly political column and title it "Lack of pride tears
apart Bruin unity." I hope The Bruin editorial staff was not fooled
into thinking Kim’s column was about school pride.

The most relatively substantive point made in Kim’s column was
that "if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the
problem." With the lack of any coherent ideas, it is obvious on
which side to place Princeton Kim.

Doyle is a first-year pre-political science student.