Or, at least, double-secret probation!
Posted on 10/04/2016 11:14:37 AM PDT by Altura Ct.
To say the East Carolina University Marching Band struck a wrong chord with fans would be an understatement.
Furious North Carolina football fans booed the band after several members refused to play the National Anthem – while others took a knee.
East Carolina’s blatant disrespect of the Star-Spangled Banner happened Oct. 1st at Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium.
Local reports indicate about a dozen members of the Marching Pirates disgraced themselves on the football field.
At halftime – outraged fans got to have their say.
The stadium was filled with booing as the band prepared to perform its halftime show.
“I am ashamed of this school for letting the band do this,” one irate reader posted on the university’s Facebook page. “Shame ECU, shame!”
“What are you teaching these kids,” one parent asked. “I believe the students have the right to protest but not on that field in uniform.”
And another reader offered this suggestion: “What if those of us who write checks to the university stop sending them as our way of using our voice?”
If the children have a First Amendment right to desecrate our national anthem, certainly the American taxpayers have rights to not fund their anti-American horseplay.
ECU Chancellor Cecil Staton released a statement defending the marching band’s disgraceful actions. Mike Shanahan Interview
“While we acknowledge and understand the disappointment felt by many Pirate fans in response to the events at the beginning of today’s football game, we urge all Pirate students, supporters and participants to act with respect for each other’s views,” the chancellor wrote.
He also affirmed “the rights of our students, staff and faculty to express their personal views.”
Oh really?
So what would have happened if the marching band had formed the words “All Lives Matter” on the football field? Or “Make America Great Again”? Would that have been permissible?
It’s doubtful.
“Civil discourse is an East Carolina value and part of our ECU creed,” he wrote. “We are proud that recent campus conversations on difficult issues have been constructive, meaningful exchanges that helped grow new understanding among our campus community.”
What about disrespecting Old glory and the national anthem and our brave military personnel? Is that part of ECU’s values and creed?
Kiernan Shanahan, a Raleigh attorney and member of the ECU board of trustees, told me he was shocked and appalled.
“The strong boos from the crowd when they realized what was happening certainly echoed the sentiment of the board,” Mr. Shanahan told me. “It was unfortunate and poor judgement for these few band members to disrespect our country, to take advantage of the uniforms they were wearing as ECU Pirate band members – to advance a personal agenda.”
It’s just too bad the chancellor’s statement did not reflect the outrage from most of the community.
“We foster and encourage free speech but that has to be tempered by time, place and circumstances,” Mr. Shanahan said. “It was not the right time, place and (it was) the incorrect manner for these students to articulate personal dissent. It reflected poorly on the band.”
I feel bad for the folks there in the Carolinas because their taxpayer-funded university has been infested with a bunch of left-wing educators spewing this nonsense. Here's a list of email addresses for the university's board of trustees.
Perhaps one of the grownups in charge could muster the courage to tell the marching band to take its anti-American propaganda and blow it out their woodwinds.
they certainly would not allow them to be members if they formed “..uck u” instead of “love u”...why is this allowed...
Always stirring the pot, aren’t you, lol? Eastern NC pork barbecue is awesome when prepared correctly, let me just go on record with that. I haven’t met too many styles of barbecue that I dislike. The only one I can think of involves mustard and emanates from Baja Carolina.
nonsense...first of all we can have no more wars because we have so few men with testosterone and knowhow...we have two generations of mamby pamby boys who play video games and date girls on the computer for sex....
second of all, the only patriotism is any that will shown is when most of us are jailed....then they'll all cheer...
Why didn’t they just all walk out? That would be more effective then bitching and crying. Good grief make a real statement. Walk out.
It’s white kids in the photo.
What are the names of the 19?
“...of the 19?”
I don’t know. I didn’t realize there were 19 that participated until I read the apology letter. I think the original article said “several”.
19...that’s a LOT of stupid.
“He also affirmed “the rights of our students, staff and faculty to express their personal views.”
Not on the taxpayers dime, they don’t. They can cram their their sticky little personal views down their throats sideways. No one is interested in their freaky personal views.
On a positive note, I took my youngest Grand Daughter to school this morning...7 years old...We were about 15 minutes late...When we entered the office there were about 5 other kids who were also late...
Before they were allowed out of the office to go to their classrooms, one of the office personnel had them turn around, put their hand over their hearts and recite the Pledge of Allegiance to The Flag of The United States of America...
I told them thank you as I was pretty proud of the school...
LOL! Bet they were ever ready to show their disapproval.
Or, at least, double-secret probation!
And I, for one, am not going to sit here and let you badmouth the United States of America! Gentlemen!
Cherry, you are right. We were attacked by Islam on 9-11 and there was about 5 days of unity followed by liberals attacking the war, the president and the troops, ceaselessly, giving hope to the enemy and leading to casualties by our forces. They coddled our enemy and feared our patriots. It has gotten worse over time since then.
This dynamic was embedded with a crisis of authority; any claim regarding an overarching purpose, any statement of a unifying principle could be trumped by an appeal to personal sovereignty -- the political aspect of the Protestant dynamic to which the philosophical aspects are subordinated. So the whole thing was bound to be revolutionary. This revolution happened to play out in stages.
When many of the universities became businesses or tools of government, that was a pivotal step in the long process of incremental revolutions. The crisis of authority persists -- there is no one willing to "displease the entitlement brats", as you say. There is no one to identify or nominate an explicit authority empowered to fix the problem, because the old dynamic will instantly shoot it down. So the entitlement brats, or rather the government who manipulates them, are the de facto authority.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.