Senate felt the need to apologize for President Megan Marzec’s ‘blood’ bucket challenge. But was that the best political move?
Megan Marzec, following in the footsteps of many elected officials, voiced her opinion on a sensitive topic and has since taken heat for it.
The difference in the Marzec case isn’t that she poured a bucket of what she called blood on herself or that she added fuel to an already fiery relationship between herself and Cutler Hall.
It isn’t that people are asking her to resign, calling her names, offering up death threats or writing dozens of letters to local newspapers — including this one — and trashing her on social media. This is what happens in American society, where it’s not a crime to speak freely.
The difference between this situation and others is that as Marzec continues to take heat for her video, the organization she leads has apologized for her “bucket of blood” stunt even though Marzec herself has stood by her actions, calling the video an independent act separate from her role as Student Senate president.
These are conflicting messages. How can she say she stands by her actions while the organization she leads has already apologized?
If President Obama stood in the Oval Office and told the nation the U.S. should divest from Israel, and then the White House’s Twitter account apologized, but Obama said he still backs what he said, what would the nation think?
“It leads to confusion in terms of other people looking at what’s going on,” said Kevin Mattson, a professor in the History department who has a background in political studies and ideologies.
Of the apology senate offered as Marzec stood firm, Mattson said: “Usually, the historical precedent would suggest the organization is about to kick out the leader.”
Mattson said he thinks senate should not have apologized for Marzec’s video, and in doing so inadvertently attacked her right to express her opinion.
“The fact of the matter is, she never said she speaks for the entirety of Student Senate,” Mattson said. “It was very clear that it was her own opinion, and the president title gave her a platform.”
He added bluntly: “I am not saying senate should say they support her,” rather the body should let the act stand as Marzec’s own opinion.
Contrasting my comparison to the U.S. President, Katherine Jellison, professor of History, said“the clearest parallel on the national level between the president of Student Senate is the President of the U.S. Senate, which is of course the Vice President of the United States.”
She said “it’s a difficult scenario to envision” — that is, the Senate or The White House apologizing for Vice President Joe Biden’s actions even as he stood firmly by what he said or did.
Jellison noted that, obviously, the ramifications of Marzec causing a stir are nowhere near as high as the Vice President of the U.S.
But “this is a good lesson for (Marzec) about taking a principle, personal political stance that may not be in sync of the body of which she presides,” Jellison said. “There are real-life consequences for that.”
Jellison said in professional politics, actions like Marzec’s blood bucket challenge “may cost you the leadership position or public platform that has allowed you to make that public position in the first place.”
She added that she believes forums such as Student Senate to be an important proving ground for future politicians, where they can make mistakes and learn from them.
A simple reminder from senate via its Twitter account that Marzec spoke for herself and not senate as a whole would have worked better. That’s a clear message, free from any conflicting apologies and non-apologies. As those on Student Senate continue to learn on the job, hopefully they consider more carefully that what they say — and perhaps more importantly, how they say it — matters.
This is politics, after all.
Joshua Jamerson writes a weekly column for The Post’s news pages. Jamerson, a senior studying journalism and senior editor at The Post, writes for Wednesday’s newspaper.
