This nonsensical faux controversy over the names of sports teams is one of my pet peeves – it’s ridiculous.
On another level, the fact that a handful of malcontents can keep annoying the rest of us with this nonissue is a miniature case study of America’s legal system and the country itself.
Witness:
- A small group of people who have a grievance have the legal right to be heard (and use it, as opposed to say, shooting athletes in the streets because they wear shorts to practice). Good.
- Offended parties quickly exhaust resources but are “befriended” by special interest groups who, seeing an opporunity to grandstand on the legal stage and advance their agenda of a multi-cultural, gray-faced America, lend dollars and marketing expertise to “the little people who need their help”. Bad.
- Indian mascot haters, flush with cash, keep the battle alive in the legal system long after the real decision, the one that matters, is made in the court of public opinion. The horse (in this case the right of state-run schools and privately-held sports teams to choose their own mascot) is long since dead but the losers are unable to accept defeat gracefully and continue to rub our noses in their own bile. Bad.
- Florida State University, lead by men and women of no small courage, defy the NCAA and the nattering few who continue to worry the issue, saying they will not change their mascot from the Seminoles. “Bring it on!” They said. Good.
The whole issue is just plain wacky.