For those who doubt the authenticity of the Chief’s clothing: www.savethechief.com/foolscrow.htm
[recurring hijack]
Try Merriam-Webster: http://www.m-w.com/ .
Enter the word in your best effort and click “Look it Up.” Often the word will come back with several “best approximation” matches to choose from on a drop-down list.
If the word is not found, you can substitute an asterisk for some letters to broaden the search. For example, apolegise returned both the Brit and Yank variants, apologise and apologize. apol*****e returned both of the preceding variants as well as apologue and apolune. [/recurring hijack]
Tom~
And now the Pickininnies take the field. Their opponents today, the Rhode Island Republicans, who are entertaining the crowd by killing unwed mothers and trampling on the rights of everyone who doesn’t look like them! And it’s the Carolina Conservatives now, calling everyone who doesn’t agree with them a PC thug (you’ll remember that the PC Thugs swept the Conservatives last year). The Conservatives’ mascot is beating up a Muslim while applying skin-whitener to the victim’s face.
And to avoid insulting anyone living in the area, the Stupid Dago Wops from Italy but not their progeny living in america take the field, executing each other mob style while enjoying a big slice of calzonne. Mamma Mia! That’s entertainment!
Bucky
ha ha bucky you think you got me this time but i saw your name on the post bucky it said so i put my coffee cup down first.
neener neener
“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast!” - the White Queen
Even though I attended the U of I as an undergrad, grad student, and now part of the faculty here; I have never attended a sporting event in which Illinois played. I could care less if sports functions completely ceased to exist at the college level; and, as such, I could care less what they want to call themselves (my personnel preference would be F.L.O.B.s or Free Loading Oxygen Breathers). However, if you work here, you can’t escape the controversy.
The two most interesting ironies (to me) are:
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The pro-chief crowd wants to protect what they feel is their college identity, tradition, and heritage. While the anti-chief crowd wants to protect what they feel is their identity, tradition, and heritage.
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The same Native Americans that are leading the charge to eliminate the chief are the descendants of the Native Americans responsible for wiping the Illini out in the first place. Sort of finishing the job. (Yes, I know there are ~2000 Peoria tribe members living in Oklahoma; but by all accounts they haven’t retained any of the traditions of the illini)
Oh well, for what it’s worth, as a good Norwegian boy; I’m still pissed that Vikings have horns.
Well, if they could keep their wives satisfied. . . .
Ah, nothing like a good cuckold joke…
(And that was nothing like a good cuckold joke. :D)
Stupid quote-within-a-quote UBB. ::grumble::
Thank you, Random, for the link. I was wrong, and I will accept that.
However, something is going on here to make people feel offended. End of story. That is not acceptable.
Honestly though, it is one of the less offensive examples of this situation and I don’t really care what happens one way or another in this case. I just hope everyone can end up being happy with how things work out.
Rather, I was in the position of a spore which, having finally accepted its destiny as a fungus, still wonders if it might produce penicillin.
–Ayi Kwei Armah
“Egad, who bumped THIS, and why?”
Me, because the Chief is in the news again and I wondered if people’s opinions have changed in the last few years.
(And, FYI, I used to be Notthemama, and there’s a fairly lengthy explanation for why I didn’t just do a name change which I won’t go into here. But that’s why the OP says “Guest” and “Not Registered” and why people are addressing someone named “Notthemama” who doesn’t seem to have posted. So don’t worry about it.)
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/11/13/sports1220EST0313.DTL
My local paper added that she thought she had the votes, going in, but that some folks backed out at the last minute. The presence of 500 people at the meeting, both pro and con, no doubt had a lot to do with it, hence her promise to re-introduce it next March when the students will be gone on break.
Anyway, after all this time, and all this foot-dragging, they still can’t decide.
Myself, I think it’s not that big a deal, but political correctness having become even more firmly entrenched in our society, I think maybe it’s time to let it go.
My local paper also reported that after the resolution was withdrawn, things got kind of noisy, with a shout of “Coward!” being heard, and then Christina Carr, representing the Progressive Resource/Action Cooperative, called out, “No! You’ve had enough time. Shame on you,” and then the anti-Chief faction began chanting, “BOT, shame on you!”
So if that many people hate it that much, shouldn’t we just let it go? How far can you stretch the emotional protests of “It’s tradition!” before it starts sounding a little thin?
I notice some very clear battle lines here.
http://www.illinoisleader.com/news/newsview.asp?c=9872
First of all, for you non-Ill-i-NOYYYY-ans, that “She’s from Chicago” is the standard “Chicago vs. Downstate” slam, roughly comparable to New York’s “Upstate vs.The Big Apple”. So if her opening salvo is going to be the old, “She’s from Chicago, she doesn’t understand how we do things Downstate”, then she doesn’t score many points for her cause with me.
Second, it looks to me like it’s the students and alumni who are the most passionate about keeping it. I’d be more convinced that it should be kept if there were people who were not either students or alumni who were equally passionate about keeping it.
And, either way I’m with Christina Carr–they’ve had enough time.
Certainly not passionate one way or the other, and really not nostalgic for the 8 years I spent in C-U, but I’d just as soon keep it.
Show me a significant group of Illini indians who are harmed by this portrayal, and I might change my mind. But maybe not.
I find it interesting how the offenderati claim the characterization in intended as mocking, while the supporters claim honor and respect. Who would know better?
I do not understand exactly how the designation “the Illini,” the Chief, etc. offend exactly what group. Of course if all that is required is for someone to claim that they are offended, well …
All I know is that I didn’t notice the date until someone mentioned Wally as if he were still extant. It certainly read like a more recent thread…
But if the intent is to honor, and the intended honorees don’t feel honored, then what is the point?
Can you point me to a reliable study documenting that a significant portion of any relevant subset of native Americans are offended or “not honored”?
Or is it sufficient that a few - and of what groups exactly? - proclaim their offense loudly enough.
The simple answer is that at that time, the U of I, and many other schools, had policies both overt and covert, of ensuring that only white kids attended. At some schools it went beyond skin color- Richard Feynman, eventual winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, mentions in his autobiography that he had attend MIT as an undergrad because of the “Jew quota” imposed at some of the other Ivy League schools. (Including, IIRC, Columbia, which is particularly ironic given the now-substantial numbers of Jewish students who attend Columbia.)
Fraternities at the U of I in the early part of the 20th Century had officially designated Klan Representatives among their officers. So people of color just weren’t all that common a sight at the U of I. I’m not sure when people of color began enrolling in significant numbers at the U of I, but I’m pretty certain it wasn’t 1926.
Shouldn’t he be molesting choir boys, to get the fully-offensive effect? 
Why are you implying that only the offense of native Americans matter here? If I saw a child-molesting pope run out onto the field as in the above example and got offended by it, is my offense nullified just because I’m not Catholic?
Dunno, rj. As a lawyer, I tend to get hung up on the concept of standing - who has a right to bring suit.
My personal view is that claims strike me as somewhat less meritorious when people claim to be offended by a slight aimed at someone else.
I guess we should all be striving for a more compassionate universally respectful society, but someone expressing outrage over another person’s injury - when the other person may not even exist. Just not a claim that I give a lot of weight to.
And the folk who describe the Chief’s activities as “clownish” are certainly viewing things through different eyes than mine. IMO - a far cry from a “child molesting pope” which could be objectionable on grounds of poor taste, if nothing else.
Hey! Since when have guests been able to post? If i had been able to post as a guest lo-those-many-years-ago I’d still have a life!
You all realize, of course, that the most disgraceful aspect of the Chief is the fact that he’s associated with the University of Illinois football program. That’s a disgrace.
Hell, Homie. I hear you. Take away the Chief and there won’t be a single damn thing to cheer at U of I games!