Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Tennessee Court of Appeals strikes a blow for Ole Dixie
At the same time, the court showed that not even the stuffed shirts at Vanderbilt University are above the law (in this case, the power of contract).
This suit just proves that Vanderbilt has too much money. Instead of fighting for ridiculous name changes because one demographic's ignorance leads to their being offended, why not pass on some savings to your alumni (particularly my wife)? Or perhaps put a football team on the field that can keep up with the rest of the SEC?
And what is so great about "Memorial Hall," anyway? After all, that offends me. Maybe it was all of that time working on cadavers in med school, but dead people freak me out now. And dead people are what I think about when I hear the word "memorial." Is that rational? Of course not, but neither is a group of people who are supposedly at an excellent institution of higher learning thinking that the Confederacy was all about slavery. Better find another, non-offensive name, Commodores. Oops! The court won't allow that, either. Guess you'll have to stick with the bargain you made a few decades back.
MORE: There is a discussion about the Vanderbilt issue at Pith in the Wind. Fair warning - I said it was a discussion, not necessarily a good discussion where neurons were firing on every comment. In fact, the discussion shows that a) many people don't understand the rule of law, b) many people don't understand history, c) generalizations abound when people don't have anything concrete to write, and d) none of the above will stop some people from arguing one way or the other. In all seriousness, my wife spent four years at Vandy, and she has told me on many an occasion that the only people who were complaining about the dorm in question were administrators. The students were too worried about other pursuits.
This suit just proves that Vanderbilt has too much money. Instead of fighting for ridiculous name changes because one demographic's ignorance leads to their being offended, why not pass on some savings to your alumni (particularly my wife)? Or perhaps put a football team on the field that can keep up with the rest of the SEC?
And what is so great about "Memorial Hall," anyway? After all, that offends me. Maybe it was all of that time working on cadavers in med school, but dead people freak me out now. And dead people are what I think about when I hear the word "memorial." Is that rational? Of course not, but neither is a group of people who are supposedly at an excellent institution of higher learning thinking that the Confederacy was all about slavery. Better find another, non-offensive name, Commodores. Oops! The court won't allow that, either. Guess you'll have to stick with the bargain you made a few decades back.
MORE: There is a discussion about the Vanderbilt issue at Pith in the Wind. Fair warning - I said it was a discussion, not necessarily a good discussion where neurons were firing on every comment. In fact, the discussion shows that a) many people don't understand the rule of law, b) many people don't understand history, c) generalizations abound when people don't have anything concrete to write, and d) none of the above will stop some people from arguing one way or the other. In all seriousness, my wife spent four years at Vandy, and she has told me on many an occasion that the only people who were complaining about the dorm in question were administrators. The students were too worried about other pursuits.
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well done. confederate revisionist history, especially here in the South is most unpleasant.
Daniel
http://booksfilmandmusic.com
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Daniel
http://booksfilmandmusic.com
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