<p>What do you mean WAS disillusioned?</p>
<p>Why does it take 3 articles published in the Capital for this issue to “come to the surface again?”</p>
<p>People, this issue has been eating at the Academy for at least 30 years, and it’s our job to fix it.</p>
<p>These 3 articles are just a jab and preview of what’s to come. What’s next, the honor staff resigning their stripes? Something noteworthy needs to be done in order to show AMERICA that the Brigade honor staff cares about the quality of NAVAL OFFICERS that are being produced at USNA.</p>
<p>Everyone, there are a lot of hands in the Naval Academy pie (athletics, academics, etc), but without HONOR, there is no pie. Nothing means anything without our reputation for honor and excellence. Cynical mids live in the brigade, and there are many because they had an expectation of the standards of honor upon arrival. When we preach high standards, but we see mids in the brigade who have committed honor offenses running around, it makes my commission feel tainted in a way, do other mids agree?</p>
<p>The Brigade Commander thinks that it is his job to tell everyone what the administration wants him to tell people. The honor staff of 2010 is a tight knit group of mids who has known something is not right with honor here, and it has not been right for a long time. Take it from someone who intricately knows the system, the process, how mids feel about this, and most importantly, how the administration is handling this. The honor staff is working hard to give honor “teeth”, but after awhile, you have to wonder when the staff is going to go into the 'Dant’s office, throw the stripes down on his desk, and ask him to pick a new staff, or restructure the way we do business.</p>
<p>The biggest issue is ownership. They say honor is run by mids, but the only fate we can control is by forwarding midshipmen to the Commandant for separation. After that, that person’s fate is out of our hands and we leave those decisions up to an 0-6 in the United States Navy to determine whether that mid should stay or go.</p>
<p>Make no mistake, MIDS WANT PEOPLE OUT WHO CAN’T FOLLOW A STANDARD. It is not up to us whether or not someone gets the boot. We are asking for support in a passive-aggressive manner to get OWNERSHIP back to be able to determine whether or not particular mids deserve to stay here.</p>
<p>Our degrees and commissions should be EARNED and held in high regard by those whom we lead and to the American people. </p>
<p>The wrong message is being sent here everyone. Here’s the problem in a nutshell:</p>
<p>A mid will get kicked out, no doubt for sexual misconduct, drug abuse, prt failure, and academic deficiency. However, a “slap on the wrist” is given for academic dishonesty, lying, cheating, or stealing. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? </p>
<p>Unless the honor process gets some teeth, MIDS will always weigh the punishments in their minds before doing something or telling a story. If we start kicking people out for lying, the first time, people will understand that it is ok to own up to mistakes of conduct, and in fact, those could be mitigated in the process if an emphasis is placed on being an HONORABLE PERSON FIRST. </p>
<p>I don’t care if you got a 2.1, failed every PRT…If you are honest and competant at your job, that is the officer I want. If you were a Rhodes Scholar who lied about everything, then what are you worth to the men and women of our Navy and America?</p>