College Republicans host 6th Morals Week

Conservatives are admittedly a minor voice at UNCG. So when the College Republicans have a week to show what they believe in, you better believe they will hold no punches.

This past Monday commenced the College Republican's Sixth Annual Morals Week, a weeklong showcase of conservatism on campus with events such as Pro-Life Day, Support Our Troops Day, Joe the Plumber Day, Fine Upstanding Democrat Day and PETA BBQ Day, PETA in this instance standing for "People Eating Tasty Animals."

They also hosted two speeches.

On Tuesday, as part of Support Our Troops Day, Flagg Youngblood, the director of Military Outreach for Young America's Foundation, addressed a small group of students along with fellow military veterans.

On Thursday, Fine Upstanding Democrat Day, Daniel J. Flynn, a political pundit and author of Why the Left Hates America addressed another group of students on "how liberal ideology, prevalent in the Democratic Party, is wrong for America," as stated in a press release by the College Republicans.

As for Joe the Plumber Day, which coincided with the April 15 deadline for filing taxes, College Republican members went around campus asking students if they would like to give up their GPA points to bring up the GPAs of other students.

"Obama told Joe he wanted to share the wealth." said Jamie Freeze, vice president of the College Republicans and a columnist for The Carolinian. "Obama's proposed tax policies amount to wealth redistribution in our opinion, so we hosted Joe the Plumber Day."

As for the now famous nationwide tea parties, the College Republicans, while supportive of the action and the demonstration that happened the same day in downtown Greensboro, were more focused on UNCG's campus.

"We wanted to be more localized," said Freeze.

According to the same press release, "the purpose of Morals Week is to provide students with an alternative to the messages that they hear every day. The College Republicans endorse and promote the message that morality and values are absolute, and that Americans need to return to those traditional principles." By the College Republican's own admission in their press release, certain events "have sparked outrage and intense controversy." This year proved to be no different.

On Monday, during Pro-Life Day, an unknown vandal walked into the College Republicans office and wrote an inflammatory statement on their whiteboard.

"The vandalism wasn't a big deal," said Freeze. "The immature action was simply a hassle. A police report had to be filed; we had to meet with the cops. All while we were hosting Pro-Life Day and guests from Alamance Pregnancy Services. It was ridiculous."

This is not the first year something of this nature has occurred. In fact, according to Freeze, back in 2007 the writing on the whiteboard was tantamount to a death threat; a Pro-Life Day speech was interrupted by "feminist stripping" and, during PETA BBQ Day, N.C. House candidate Jim Rumley was physically assaulted.

Aside from the desecration of the College Republican whiteboard, this year's Morals Week went off with relative peace and civil discourse.