Council Gay Marriage Bill Oversteps Bounds

To the editors:

We'd like to thank the Undergraduate Council for so graciously undertaking to represent our "interests" in the same-sex marriage legislation currently before Congress. While we do not necessarily support this legislation, we are certainly grateful to the council members for deigning to make this choice of endorsement for us. It's a good thing the council has so boldly and judiciously determined where students' best interests lie in this sensitive and extremely controversial national issue. What a lucky break not only for these readers but for all students to have a student government so generous with unsolicited political judgements and representations! Without the council members' infinite wisdom and elevated sense of these matters, most students no doubt could scarcely begin to form their own judgements and opinions about these things. That is why we most like having a council which decides for us. These kinds of political issues are always fraught with controversy in other parts of the country (as backwards as all other parts of the nation doubtless are). It's comforting to know, however, that here at Harvard not only does our council apparently always know the "right" answers to all of these questions, but also that whenever we as individuals misstep from its exalted judgement in forming an opinion, we are fortunately protected from ourselves and from our own foolishness by its beneficence. So, thanks again--we only hope that collectively we can somehow repay the debt of gratitude which all students, especially the misguided ones, owe to the council.

But on to the matters of pressing concern in Burma and China! Those are, after all, the issues which our council members were elected to address; and Capitol Hill surely awaits their pronouncement with bated breath. While neither of us is quite sure where we stand on these issues, we can't wait to see what the council decides for us on our behalf. And we're certain that action by our commanding Undergraduate Council will be not only prudent but also effective. Chinese President Jiang Zemin must be quaking in his boots. DAVID J. MILLER '01   KAJ VAZALES '01   March 24, 1999