Fighting for the firefly

Indiana does not have a state insect, and frankly, we at the Indiana Daily Student are not happy about it.\nFortunately, there is a bill being proposed in the Senate to make the state insect the Karner blue butterfly. \nUnfortunately, this is not a fair assessment of the public's opinion and is not fair to the citizens of Indiana. \nIn the March 3 edition of the IDS, Dr. Robert Waltz, Indiana's state entomologist, said " ... the choice for state insect will say something about who we are and what we value as a people."\nOur first response to this is: "we're paying tax dollars for a state entomologist?"\n But our ultimate response is the Karner blue butterfly just won't uphold the values of which Waltz speaks. \n The Karner just flies around being blue. His name shouldn't be Karner blue butterfly, it should be pretty boy blue because that's all he is -- a self-centered, egotistical butterfly that likes to look at his blue self in the mirror all the time. \n Another strike against this insect is the fact that it reproduces by itself, and we all know the Republicans will not like that. Furthermore, the Karner blue butterfly is only native to Lake County and is endangered. If the Hoosier state insect died off in five years, it would leave our citizens state-insectless.\nInstead, we side with Purdue University entomology Professor Tom Turpin, who co-authored a bill in the 1990s to make the Say's firefly the state insect. \nWe feel the firefly reflects the attitudes of so many Indiana residents. This great insect can reflect all Hoosier personalities because, in reality, it is just a little Hoosier. It's energetic and playful, displayed by how it lets so many children catch it in jars during the summer nights. It literally lights up when the weather turns warm, like so many citizens from Valparaiso to Bedford. Also, the firefly will mate its opposite gender, thus maintaining the sanctity of marriage. \nNow, we know some of you are probably yelling various curse words by now because we left out perhaps the most prevalent insect in Indiana. But the cicada is not a viable candidate for this position. We know Bloomington is going to have the largest cicada influx in 17 years this summer, but honestly people, these things are more of an annoyance than a reflection of who Hoosiers are or our values as a state. Really, do you want people from Kentucky to say Hoosiers are annoying "just like that stupid state bug they have?" We at the IDS don't. \nWe feel if this bill is brought up again without the change requested, the senators should walk out of the senate to delay the vote of the bill. We know this would not be too hard for the senators to accomplish, considering they have employed this method before. We feel this measure would send a message to all the Karner blue butterfly lovers that the firefly and its supporters are here to stay, and we are willing to fight for our choice of state insect.