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University band harassed by cadets at Citadel
Published: Monday, September 22nd, 2008
The University band (PUB) faced physical abuse, harassment and taunting on Saturday while accompanying the football team to its away game against The Citadel, a military college in Charleston, S.C.
Following the game, Citadel commanding officers and the president ...
(back to the article)
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A radically different account of events from the perspective of a Citadel defender:
http://charleston.net/news/2008/sep/21/shame_on...
The article above is clearly biased (and awfully contemptuous of Ivy Leaguers), but perhaps the Prince article could have included some other details that would have complicated the narrative. In any case, it sounded like a sad and bizarre confrontation. Imagine if the Citadel cadets were dealing with a band from a really liberal school like Oberlin or Bard!
The confrontation began after the band tried to march down the Avenue of Rememberance, a memorial dedicated to graduates killed in combat, while performing simulated homosexual acts on each other. The cadets asked the band to take their act to any other part of the campus, and warned that "the Avenue" was sacred. The scuffle began when the warnings were ignored and they attempted to continue down the Avenue.
The cadets were not the only ones booing, about 7000 alumni on the other side were upset as well.
I visited the Princeton's webiste and noticed alot of self-congratulatory praise of Princeton's diversity and tolerance. It never ceases to amaze me that those who pride themselves of these sensitivities are the first to behave in an offensive manner- (name calling and mocking) those who hold a more conservative view. The band members who were humping one another on the Avenue of Remembrance and who were chanting anti-war slogans into the faces of cadets were certainly acting in an intolerant and ignorant manner. Scramble bands usually march and perform around the alumni. The band knew EXACTLY what it was doing. Anyone with a minimun of obersevational skills could see that the Avenue was a memorial to those thousands of Citadel graduates who became United States military officers and died in war. Shame on you for distorting the facts.
I don't think this is a free speech issue, or a gay rights issue. If anything, the PUB was making a statement about homosexuality by using it to provoke thier hosts.
Sounds like something out of West Side Story. Were the cadet's dancing and snapping as they rushed the band?
I just can't wrap my mind around why they were attacking their fellow Americans. Are they joining the military to defend freedom and justice for all or only like-minded Americans?
And the harassment of female members of the band is particularly disgusting. I can't imagine, as a woman, being attacked by large men and being spat on and then later performing in front of hundreds of booing sacks of testosterone.
"The scuffle began when the warnings were ignored and they attempted to continue down the Avenue."
That's nice, but when the administration gives you explicit permission to do what you're doing, warnings from cadets are worthless.
Alum, as I stated earlier, the band did not do what visiting bands (including scramble bands) do pre-game- perform around their alumni. They ambled into and interrupted a field day exercise. They mocked those who fought and died for their freedoms. They name-called and humped one another. No girl was attacked. She was made uncomfortable by a taste of her own medicine. As a strong women, I believe I don't dish out anything I can't take!
Columnist Ken Berger described not only the Princeton students, but most of the residents of Princeton when he wrote:
"All those pseudo-intellectuals and not a single brain among them."
Having served in the armed forces with plenty of Citadel and VMI grads (and yes, there are plenty of similarities despite what they each claim) I can tell you neither set is particularly capable of tolerance. But tolerance is only part of the issue. If you act like a disparaging mob of assholes, you should expect a reaction. Citadel cadets are not the Queen's Guard. They're college students who probably overreacted. But I don't think they're terrorists; at least I don't think any of them will vote for Barack Hussein Obama II.
@Citadel Mom: Whether or not the cadets were being mocked, the cadets' behavior is inexcusable. PUB had the explicit permission and invitation from your beloved educational institution to be on that Avenue, doing what they were doing. If PUB was so heinously out-of-order, the cadets should have simply remained above the matter and complained to their superiors. Instead, like a bunch of middle-school bullies, they took matters into their own hands. I thought the military was supposed to teach, discipline, decorum, and respect. But according to you, they can pretty much do whatever they want, whenever they want, if they've been mildly ticked off by a bunch of comedians. How very childish and sad.