Monday Column Response

By November 9, 2011

Apparently, my last column regarding school spirit hit a nerve with some people. The headline might as well have been “UA student hates the UA.”

If my prior experience had been at one of the other 1,598 colleges, I do not think there would be this kind of vitriol spewing on the comments section for my Monday column on the Traveler website. I used my personal experiences as a frame of reference. Occasionally I see schools from California to North Carolina represented on campus. This is a good thing.

To clarify: For the most part, my experiences here have been positive and I have enjoyed my interactions with my professors and fellow students. I have made friends, even wearing my hat.

People who were so upset by my column, which was about expansive thinking and overcoming silly prejudices, have made my point with their personal attacks.

An extension of the narrow-mindedness has been the emphasis in the commentary on old sports rivalries, which misses the point of my column entirely. Students seem upset by football games that happened in a conference that was dissolved before most of them were even born. Get over it, already—life is too short.

Most disturbing is the lack of argumentative ability some people who responded to my column exhibited in their comments. Rather than formulating cogent arguments, some chose to jeer and call me names, resorting to the ad hominem fallacy that ancient rhetoricians cautioned Western philosophers to avoid. It is incredibly disappointing to see people who are supposedly seeking a higher degree of education resort to such simplistic and juvenile measures.

In the spirit in which I have been attacked, I assume that Razorback students, fans and alumni, upon arriving at the doorstep of any another college campus, should immediately perform the following acts of absolution. They should remove their Razorback license plate, tear off their Razorback decals and right there on the side of the road set fire to all other Razorback paraphernalia. Then they should immediately run to the nearest campus store and buy products that represent the school that they are about to enter. You certainly do not want to stand out by being proud of your alma mater.

I am not a chameleon who changes colors at every state line.

 

Emily Hilley-Sierzchula is majoring in journalism. She is a Traveler columnist. Her column appears bimonthly, every other Monday. 

  • Gayle

    Good Job Emily!

  • Jack Ruby

    My friend relates a story where his company was trying to secure a contract with a particular cell phone manufacturer. An employee foolishly left his personal phone on during the meeting and pulled it out when it rang. That employee’s phone was manufactured by a rival brand.

    Surely you can understand how the guests felt insulted by that.

    A few years ago, I went to see President Clinton deliver a speech on behalf of then-candidate Obama. I took the Cain/Palin bumper sticker off my car when I parked at the event – not out of catering to any imaginary close-mindedness – because I was raised to be courteous and to avoid causing unnecessary offense.

    If I had chosen to left the sticker on and was jeered by Democrats who saw my sticker, I would have understood.

    Or, imagine you went to Steve Jobs’s funeral while wearing a Microsoft baseball cap.

    I don’t mean to belabor the point, but I genuinely do want to help you understand the side of the people you’re dismissing out of hand.

    I’m not sure why you’re making this out to be some sort of civil rights issue. Perhaps you generally just are oblivious to certain social cues and norms, and don’t always understand when you’re causing offense.

    Maybe you don’t care much for football or put much stock in rivalries. That’s perfectly OK. Maybe you think they are silly. That is also OK.

    But most of the human beings around you enjoy the rivalries and the passions they stir up. If you choose to deliberately insult the people around you, you have to expect some negative feedback. That doesn’t mean they’re being close-minded or not being expansive. It means you’re being rude.

  • Jack Ruby

    My friend relates a story where his company was trying to secure a contract with a particular cell phone manufacturer. An employee foolishly left his personal phone on during the meeting and pulled it out when it rang. That employee’s phone was manufactured by a rival brand.

    Surely you can understand how the guests felt insulted by that.

    A few years ago, I went to see President Clinton deliver a speech on behalf of then-candidate Obama. I took the Cain/Palin bumper sticker off my car when I parked at the event – not out of catering to any imaginary close-mindedness – because I was raised to be courteous and to avoid causing unnecessary offense.

    If I had chosen to left the sticker on and was jeered by Democrats who saw my sticker, I would have understood.

    Or, imagine you went to Steve Jobs’s funeral while wearing a Microsoft baseball cap.

    I don’t mean to belabor the point, but I genuinely do want to help you understand the side of the people you’re dismissing out of hand.

    I’m not sure why you’re making this out to be some sort of civil rights issue. Perhaps you generally just are oblivious to certain social cues and norms, and don’t always understand when you’re causing offense.

    Maybe you don’t care much for football or put much stock in rivalries. That’s perfectly OK. Maybe you think they are silly. That is also OK.

    But most of the human beings around you enjoy the rivalries and the passions they stir up. If you choose to deliberately insult the people around you, you have to expect some negative feedback. That doesn’t mean they’re being close-minded or not being expansive. It means you’re being rude.

  • N.T.

    You want US to understand you DON’T care? OK. Now it’s YOUR turn to understand that we DO care. Can you expand to that?
    Jack illustrates it well. Respect as you step.
    And for what it’s worth, you are right about the name calling and lack of tactful responses which have become rarities these days. But you must remember you intentionally stepped on toes! Respect as you step.

  • Tom J.

    I’m going to walk around insulting people, claim I don’t understand what the big deal is, then attack people for being insulted. Are they being oversensitive or are you being insensitive? Well, you’re never wrong, so clearly its someone else’s fault.

    All your articles can be summed up in one sentence: “I like how University ____ does ____, why doesn’t the UA do it like that?” The answer is because UA isn’t University ____, its UA. You knew what it was like when you signed up, and now you want UA to change. You made a choice with all the facts in front of you and now you want things to change for you because you’re here. How illogical is that? The UA is what it is, and if you want something different, go somewhere different and spare us the bi-weekly moaning.

  • Tom J.

    Also, googling big words doesn’t make you a good writer, it makes you sound pretentious.

  • Morgan R.

    Nobody is making you throw your Longhorns stuff in the garbage (even if that’s where it belongs). We are just telling you that if you wear rival sports logos and university apparel, expect a response. It sounds as if you like getting all the negative attention, so carry on wearing controversial clothing and UA students will continue letting you know it’s unwelcome. If you think Hog fans are too passionate and crazy about their team, we say “Thank you!”.

  • Kate

    “Respect as you step”? Did N.T. help co-write Save The Last Dance or Bring it On?
    And Tom J.- good job, now all your professors and your peers know that you have to google words that are more than two syllables. I guess that is why you had to dumb down Timothy to Tom… just too much for you, eh?

    Emily, as a journalist myself, I find it admirable that you have the ability to stir up so much feedback (both positive and negative). Column writing 101: stir the pot or find another niche.
    By the way… I showed this to my editor and he said (and I quote) “We need to hire this girl! It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a columnist write an article that kept me reading until the last sentence, and then left me wanting more! Do you know how we can get in touch with her?”

    So, although some of your delightfully intelligent peers may not see the value in your work, it appears that an editor with over 30 years of experience finds it remarkably fresh and daring. Good job!

  • Morgan R.

    Kate, don’t you know that Tim is a shortened version of Timothy and Tom is a shortened version of Thomas? You can Google that if you don’t believe me. Also, it’s painfully obvious that “Kate” is a pseudonym of Emily because she doesn’t want it to appear that nobody shares her opinion.