I dragged my soapbox from the storage facility in order to compose this posting. It was dusty, needed cleaning, and, besides, after listening to a radio interview this morning, it was personally required that I get my soapbox out and stand on it.
The radio interview that incensed me took place recently at a place of higher learning in the state in which I live. (Is that obfuscative enough?) The topic was whether or not having a football team was good for the university. You may remember that I've written about how, when I was in college, I stayed through the half time band performance at my Big Ten University.....but when the band left the field, so did I. The band was great and, fortunately, I had many music major friends so to follow the band back to the Music Building was fun and always unpredictable.
Today's interview with the university representative was predictably inane as "he" rambled on and, toward the end of the interview, he must have felt the need to promote the "boys" on the football team. He explained that since they had been in national bowl games for the past however-many years, that fact had really boosted the university's ranking in both polls and perception and......here comes the kicker......the university was now credible. Excuse me???????????? This university had a nationally recognized jazz program LONG before the football team got its lackluster act together. While I can agree that a successful football team might bring attention to a college or university, that particular fact does not impart credibility to it any more than having a picture of a Porche Cayenne in my office and telling people that I drive it every day.
Let's get the proper perspective of a university with a marching band and a football team. Any music major in his or her right brain (pun intended) knows that the real reason the football team exists is to allow the marching band time to perform between halves.
My soapbox is clean now. Time to put it away.
Ancora imparo
