Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Guess the controversy

Wherein found at Bainbridge


An open letter:
What ever the origin, what emerged was, unfortunately, a kind of organizational self-righteousness. Self-righteousness has wrecked havoc in the guise of good throughout history. Once the self-righteous come to believe in the absolute correctness – political or otherwise – of their point of view, they proceed with a zeal that leaves no room for reasonable doubt, thoughtful consideration, or fairness.

...Arrogance may not be a criminal offense or cause for civil action, but it smells bad and it may be a cause for litigation when it leads to careless, irrational, arbitrary, capricious, and ultimately harmful behavior.


Any idea? Maybe a little more will help:
Imagine a scenario in which we bow to the NCAA and remove every vestige of our connection to our traditional nickname, and we earn the right to host one of the exempted schools, say Florida State, in a championship game. Your policy would allow Florida State to come into town with its logo and nickname proudly displayed, led by someone who paints himself up like an Indian “on the warpath” and carries a flaming spear. He could ride into our stadium on a horse and lead FSU fans in a tomahawk chop and an Indian chant. This, while our fans, then the obvious victims of an unfair and irrational policy, seethe in rightful anger.

The NCAA is trying to force University of North Dakota* to change all logos and nicknames. The phrase abitrary and capricious is used five times. Letter is written by the university president and it's a good argument. Of course, anyone paying attention to how poorly the NCAA treats its member schools and the students it's supposedly there to protect won't be surprised by any of this.

*edit. I incorrectly referred to the school as NDSU.

5 Comments:

Blogger Pooh said...

NDSU is somewhat of a special case, in that the major donor for all the Sioux stuff in the new hockey arena (et seq) is a semi-open Neo-Nazi (allegedly) which adds something to it...

6/13/2006 02:17:00 PM  
Blogger bill said...

yes it does. I'll have to look into that. Still doesn't excuse Florida getting to keep a screaming Indian.

6/13/2006 02:51:00 PM  
Blogger Pooh said...

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't the Seminole Nation support FSU using the mascot?

For me, I draw a distinction between "Seminoles" and "Sioux" and "Illini" on one hand and "Braves" or "Redskins" on the other...

6/13/2006 03:19:00 PM  
Blogger bill said...

Depends on which Seminole is being asked.

Oklahoma Seminole Nation says no.

Florida Seminole Tribe says yes.

I'm a fence-sitter on "Braves." Depends on usage and other imagery. Redskins is just offensive

6/13/2006 03:33:00 PM  
Blogger bill said...

Crap, just realized I called University of North Dakota NDSU. Better fix that.

6/13/2006 03:34:00 PM  

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