Time for a rant. I am quite certain that this will offend some of you. I apologize in advance for doing so. For the last week or so, THE primary story on our local news has not been something important, or even actually newsworthy, like the fact that Toledos drinking water is tainted by toxic algae blooms, or the fighting between Israel and Hamas. No, our local news coverage has been obsessed with.....drumroll, please.....the richly-deserved firing of the OSU marching band director. Now, let me say this, so theres no question about it: I cannot begin to imagine anything that I care about less than I care about Ohio State University or the terminal illness that is its football program (a horrible, terrible affliction that turns otherwise normal, rational human beings into slobbering morons who insist that the world is going to end if, God forbid, the football team actually LOSES a game and who insist on yelling O-H at you and who get offended if you respond like I do, which is to say E, I, E, I, O). I likewise could not possibly care less about its marching band (WTF does a God-awful song like Hang on Sloopy have to do with OSU, anyway?). Indeed, if I never heard of any of those things again for the rest of my life, it would not bother me in the least. In fact, it would make me terribly happy. Apparently, the OSU marching band has some pretty disgusting rituals that are pretty degrading. It sounds just like good old fashioned fraternity hazing to me that goes on due to the philosophy of I went through this shit and its a longstanding tradition, so you have to go through it too. Theres a really easy way to end it. All that OSU needs to do to bring it to a screeching halt is to do to the band what it does to fraternities that violate the rules: suspend the band and all of its members for four or five years until every single existing member has graduated, and then start over. Thats really the only way to get rid of this stuff. It works for fraternities (hell, its happened to mine twice since I graduated from college). It will work for the OSU band too. But it will never, ever happen with the OSU marching band. Theres too much money and too much politics involved, and the its all in good fun mentality is far too entrenched. So, instead, the band director was forced to fall on his sword, because its a lot easier to can him than to actually do something courageous that would actually bring about real change. And with his firing, a gargantuan tempest in a teapot was triggered that continues to rage and waste time on local news broadcasts and in the local newspaper, diverting attention away from things that actually matter and that are actually newsworthy. And to all of it, I say: who really gives a damn? Why is this garbage newsworthy? Other than perhaps the band alumni, why should anyone give a large furry rats ass? I surely dont. End of rant. To those of my friends who are afflicted with that horrible, terminal disease called OSU football, I apologize if I offended any of you. But you may rest assured that my opinions about that horrible affliction of OSU football will never, ever change. I am nothing if not consistent in my loathing of it.
Posted on: Sun, 03 Aug 2014 23:09:48 +0000
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