Dateline: April 12, 1994. Election day. In this very paper, a column by none other than yours truly is printed, entitled "Sugahara for President." In it, I stated: "[Danielle] Moore's middle name is politics and she is a walking controversy . . . I guarantee that if she were to be elected, the politics and infighting [in the Student Assembly] would increase exponentially."
Funny how things turn out. So here we are in November with, yes, politics and infighting in the Assembly. But I was wrong about one thing -- Danielle Moore was not the cause of this fall's fiasco, but rather a casualty of it.
The problems in the SA thus far this term relate to the fact that the SA itself is a foolish organization. Every year, there exists at least one member who chooses to treat his or her position as if it were a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Last year, it was Matt Berry '94 and his brigade who called for President Nicole Artzer's '94 resignation. This year, it is John Honovich '97 and his BlitzMail extravaganza.
People like Berry and Honovich, however, ultimately defeat their own purposes. Their actions help perpetuate the overwhelmingly negative student opinion about the SA, and consequently SA members find themselves fighting an uphill battle against the very people they claim to represent.
So, this year, Danielle Moore decided to resign after dealing with Honovich and other obstructionists for far too long. Who can blame her? No matter how dedicated and focused she might have been, childish members succeeded in turning her Assembly into a circus.
Moore realized (whether or not she admits it) that the SA, in its current state, is not worth her time. And she's right.
However, the mistake our exiting SA President and many others have made is worrying about Danielle Moore rather than examining the real problem at hand -- the foolishness of the SA. Moore's laughable attempt to attribute her SA problems to sexism is truly unfortunate. Now, instead of any meaningful discussion happening with regard to the state of the SA, all that will happen is useless banter about Moore's political swan song.
In sum, all I can say is this: I told you so.
