Perhaps the College Republicans are having a hard time understanding why they’re the vilified organization on campus. I honestly wonder if their members genuinely think, even now, that there was anything insensitive about last year’s “Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day.” It sure seems that way, as now four officers of their organization, including their president, have written into The BG News in an effort to scapegoat their organization and try to shift the finger-pointing to someone else.
As a student who attended the debate, I was appalled that the first words out of the College Republicans’ mouths weren’t an apology for last year’s fiasco. If I were an organization that was genuinely sorry for personifying actual human beings as animals to be caged, that would be my No. 1 concern.
They want to blame reporter Tim Sampson for only focusing on the 20 minute uproar at the debate in regards to their activity last year. Evidently, since every debate bullet point wasn’t outlined in full, Sampson didn’t do his job as a journalist.
This rationale, of course, is silly and nothing more. If a world leader gives a speech and spends two minutes talking about how his or her nation is going to initiate an Armageddon, instantly, those two minutes are what reporters around the world are going to write about. A reporter, at least to my knowledge, isn’t going to spend equal time talking about the leader’s plan to switch from gas-based cars to hybrids; the actual “news” is that the world might end.
Similarly, the debate talked about an issue most people are already on the same page about. Basically, we need to make sure the borders are secure for our own personal safety. Yes, we get it.
But the reason the debate even occurred was because some member(s) of the organization might think it would be fun to cage their own members in an effort to raise awareness about illegal immigrants. I wanted to hear their rationale on that more than anything else. And of course, I never got that.
Their members planned a full-scale assault with the basis being Sampson is to blame for their PR misfortunes. This would be a great strategy if it weren’t so transparent that the only people they are fooling are themselves.
Krissy Hernandez is a sophomore majoring in political science. Send responses to her column to [email protected].
