TSWRA stands for
"The South Will Rise Again," something that is said (not chanted, as a chant is defined by repetition) at the end of
"Dixie, With Love" when it is played at Ole Miss football games. There has been quite a bit of controversy over the phrase,
opponents stating that it is a
throwback from a racist past;
supporters of the phrase claim that it means something different now, that it represents all that the South could be--they claim
it's been redefined as a battle cry for progress.
Which group better defines
TSWRA is not important; what is important is the University's official stance on the issue: any student caught "chanting" (I've already went over why it's not a chant) this phrase will be punished. What "punishment" is exactly has not been specified: it could be something as simply unpleasant as being escorted from Vault-Hemingway Stadium or it could be as severe as a fine (the bane of every student's existence) or even expulsion. The chancellor has reserved the right to dish out any of these punishments by not saying how students will be disciplined for their participation in saying
TSWRA. This is a problem.
Another problem is the restriction of free speech inherent in this sort of stance. Racist or not, progressive or not, shouting out,
"THE SOUTH WILL RISE AGAIN!" is every student's right as defined by the Constitution. The bleeding hearts will tell you to have compassion on those who used to be oppressed under the phrase;
I say that if men can constitutionally speak out on abortion (something that is supposed to be a woman's right), I should be able to voice my opinion concerning my own right to shout whatever I want at a football game. This phrase has been screamed out in Vault for 7 years & only now that we have a new chancellor is it being brought up. And people thought our former chancellor was being unreasonable with the taking away of
Colonel Reb. Yeah, that was pretty stupid, too, but at least it was within his right.
Colonel Reb was a school emblem, therefore, he could do whatever he [the chancellor] wanted to with the mascot. TSWRA is not an official school anything; it was started by the students in 2002. This means that the university should have no control over it.
The most valid reason I have heard over banning
TSWRA is that we will lose funding, but even this is a
weak arguement. It would be like calling for the disbandment of
CAN because a pro-war financier of the university was offended by its activities on campus. It's bogus. If someone is anti-Constitution (which you are if you agree with the unreasonable restriction of freedom of speech), then I don't want your money anyway.
I'd rather pay more tuition (especially, admittedly, since I don't pay my tuition--ironically, the government does) than have my rights restricted because some people think it's wrong to not hide
"the bad South," as
TSWRA has quickly become associated with, in a closet & pretending it didn't happen. I'm not racist, I just don't believe that the freedom of speech should be restricted because someone finds it offensive.
Now that I've gotten that bit out of my system, I'm onto slightly less dire sources of controversy, such as the ending to
Breaking Dawn. Many people believe that the ending would've been better served with a
death; I disagree with every fiber of my being. I'm not normally an
HEA kind of girl, but I felt this was the most appropriate ending to the series. Someone on a discussion board actually suggested that
Renesmee should've never been born (which is pretty common, even though I think it's rather bogus)
and that Bella & Edward should've sacrificed themselves for their family. WHAT?! That's like letting the bad guys win. Even if Edward & Bella's family defeated the villians or the sacrifices they made directly caused the villians' downfall, it still wouldn't have felt like victory to me.
"Well, it's the last book, might as well kill everyone," is J.K. Rowling's style, not Stephenie Meyer's. If Bella & Edward would've died, I would've taken my copy of
Breaking Dawn back to the store & demanded that they let me exchange it for something a little less lame and sold my copies of the other books on Amazon. I wouldn't have ever been able to see the
Twilight Saga the same way again.
I feel terrible for not updating in weeks like I haven't, but I promise, I will start updating more often. Life just keeps getting in the way of my blog updates--ugh, stupid responsibilities.