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Kansan
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Wednesday,September 16,1998
Clay McCuistion/ KANSAN
Perspective
'Show Me State' does not show signs of intelligence
have learned a lot about the dangers of generalizations and closed-mindedness here at the University of Kansas, and Lam becoming more aware and compassionate toward groups that offend me. However, I'm going to need someone to hold my hand as I try to lose my insolent attitude toward our neighboring state to the east. There are some unnerving imponderables about Missouri, but this will be the last time I ask:
Missouri: What went wrong?
My question is posed mainly at MU fans, but in the true spirit of stereotyping, I'll paint a broader stroke upon a state that seems to enjoy a unique brand of backward mean-spiritedness
Now for those of you who didn't know, MU beat KU in football on Saturday. OK, so they
have a War Drum. Fine. Let them have it. They've been fighting a losing battle with us for more than a hundred years. The least we good sports over here on the western flank can do is give them a meaningless football trophy.
Jonathan Huskey
option@kansan.com
What Missouri really should struggle for is First World transportation and educational systems. And although it's kind of cute, like a baby who poops its pants, shouldn't they learn to pronounce the name of their state? I know phonics has reached even the most desolate of Missouri's nether regions.
MU students are the most unhappy students in the nation, and its no wonder in a state whose motto is a strange and snotty statement. What do they want to be shown, anyway? Maybe a way out. How else do you explain the foreign-place list on the Missouri map. Moscow, Memphis, Paris, California, rather peculiar wouldn't you say?
We might get closer to answers for our questions by examining the darker side of the "Show-Me State"'s past. Remember the whole slavery thing? How about Quantrill's raid and plunder? Pendergast, and the hospitality shown to the Mormons?
Missouri's antagonistic nature was revealed more than 150 years before Jason Sutherland threw his first elbow. If you think I'm upset, listen to the disdain of Massachusetts exSenator Charles Sumner describing Missourians during the buildup to the Civil War as
"hirelings picked from the drunken spew and vomit of an uneasy civilization."
What happened to them so many years back? The
more I ponder, the less I understand. It is clear that Missouri has had it in for Kansas for most of its history. Maybe its hatred is really a hackneyed inferiority complex that transforms itself into reactionary and insipid tantrums. Call it the Rush Limbaugh Syndrome.
Yes, it may be a small number of people who actually take the attitude of which I speak, but they are just so rotten. You'll never see a KU student body take on such riotous behavior as MU fans will.
The Missouri faithful have a weak sense of the right and good. They don't understand that rivalry doesn't have to entail alcohol and
throwing things.
Missourians might retort about Kansas' own backward ways - yeah, there are some - but the difference is that Missouri is content to revel in its idylocy.
Missouri was more than happy to turn a rather pretty area of their state into the hick-kitch capital of the U.S. How can a state be taken seriously when it allows Ray Stevens and Yakoff Smirnoff to perform more than once a decade?
There are lovely places and remarkable institutions of culture in Missouri, like the Nelson-Atkins Museum, but perhaps these are masks disguising their true society; one that is built around booze and bullying.
But, everyone can change, and we Kansans are a forgiving lot. We can get over their vile past. Missouri need only repent its dastardly ways in order to form a new rivalry that doesn't require the carrying of a six-shooter when going to an away game.
I'll not wonder about Missouri's seemingly dark psyche. I've gotten no closer to an explanation anyway. I'll not judge anymore, Missouri. It's up to you now. Let go of the bottle and shake my hand. I'll just wait for Missouri to come to its senses and lighten and sober up.
Huskey is a Prairie Village sophomore majoring in political science.
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Class was the real loser in the KU loss Saturday
Perspective
tradclaling each side of the Missouri River, the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri played out their annual "Border War" football game
When the game was over, the Missouri student section rushed onto the field to tear down the goal posts. After 20 minutes of trying during which a young woman was injured, the goal posts finally came down and the Missouri students stumbled to the exits.
But no, in the second half, the bottle throwing continued — this time directed at the KU sideline. A sideline reporter was nearly hit by a half-finished bottle of Jack Daniel's, and the downpour of profane words grew stronger (it's amazing how many words thousands of Mizzou fans can think of that rhyme with KU when they put their minds to it).
I just sat there in awe. Not only did I just witness Kansas lose (again). I had just witnessed the single worst display of class I've seen in my life. But I wasn't really upset. Heck, I was glad the MU fans had just made complete fools of themselves on national television. It just makes us look that much better.
They partied like rock stars. I didn't want to spoil their fun and tell them they had just beaten Kansas, a team picked to finish second-to-last in the Northern division.
Michael T.
Rigg
Guest columnist
You see, the Missouri fans just don't get it. After they eventually graduate, they will head into the real world and finally understand that there are more important things in life than beating Kansas.
But with their lack of sportsmanship, the Tiger fans sent a message to everyone in the stadium and on national television: Missouri may have won Saturday's battle, but if class is the indicator of who's winning the war. Kansas is far ahead.
After the classless halftime show the fans put on, you would think the Missouri fans would have had the intelligence to sit down and think, "Wow, we really look dumb," or something along those lines.
sion section with their collector cups. After a steady downpour of boos and debris tarnished their show, the band took cover under the stands on the south side of the stadium.
On Saturday morning, I set my alarm, jumped out of bed, and made the three-hour trip to Colum-
But after I purchased a $20 scalped ticket outside the stadium and sneaked down into the Missouri student section, I wished I was back in my beat up car on I-70 heading home.
out for the game. I have a friend who I graduated high school with me in Columbia, so I met up with her after hours on I-70 and another hour of traffic in Columbia.
Decked out in a "neutral" green shirt, my plan was to simply sit in silence without letting anyone know of my KU roots and watch a friendly afternoon of poorly played Big 12 football in 90-degree heat. But instead I witnessed the single worst display of sportsmanship ever.
An overweight man behind me that looked like he had been an undergraduate longer than I have been alive chucked a bottle of Naya that almost took out our horns section. In the section next to me, a group with "Screw KU" T-shirts took aim at our percus-
As is tradition at most Big 12 schools, our marching band traveled to Missouri to play their halftime routine. When the band walked onto the field, instead of facing the usual insults and profanity encountered at most Big 12 schools, they instead took cover from a steady downpour of bottles, pennies, and about anything else that the rowdy and inebriated Mizzou fans could get their hands on.
The border war didn't end on Saturday. It's a lifelong competition, battling for class and what you think is right. I'll concede to Missouri the lousy football game — a battle — but I took home from Columbia the knowledge that Kansas was winning the war by the way we fought — with class — respecting our opponents. War, after all, is hell, and so is Columbia.
Rigg is a Greenwood Village, Colo., freshman majoring pre-journalism.
Feedback
Missouri fans were offensive at game
Last weekend a few of my fellow freshman hall mates and I skipped the Jayhawk Music Festival to support our football team in Columbia. Before we attended the game, we did not realize the extent of hatred the MU fans feel toward anyone wearing crimson and blue. We arrived expecting minor teasing and ribbing — after all we were the minority drowning in a sea of black and gold — but there were several instances throughout the game where we felt that the MU fans went too far.
This game was meant to be fun, but the MU fans crossed the rivalry boundaries and ruined the game for us. My parents found the behavior of the fans to be appalling. Neither was expecting the level of harassment their daughter and her friends were to receive. My mother was offended by the way 30-to-40-year-old alumni men were treating 18-year-old freshmen women. My father who is a MU alumnus also was shocked at the behavior of the fans.
The harassment did not stop when we left the stadium. It continued through out the night. After the game, we went to try to eat at a local restaurant in peace, but instead we were gawked at like some circus showshow. The teasing did not stop until we left the city limits of Columbia.
For example, as we walked through the MU tunnel we encountered derogatory comments and extreme profanity, which we took in stride, trying to ignore it by smiling and walking on. It seemed to us that the line between rivalry and mean spiritedness was crossed. When talking to other KU students, they told us of similar experiences, which also involved physical intimidation. I later found out that the harassment went as far as glass objects being thrown at the Crimson Girls.
I found the behavior of the MU fans to be so offensive that I never want to attend a sporting event there again. I hope that KU students will be able to create a fun environment for all visiting sport spectators. I also hope we are able to show class while we are cheering on our teams without being degrading toward others
Stephanie Couch Blue Springs, Mo., freshman
KU band acted with integrity, pride
I am a native of Raytown, Mo., and have lived there my entire life. Last Saturday I was embarrassed to be a Missouri resident. I expected to hear some friendly teasing, but the language and gestures used to express the feeling of the Missouri fans were insulting and repulsive.
Upon arrival, I was flattered to see signs reading, "Beat KU" posted around town, but later I learned MU fans cared more about seeing Kansas lose than Missouri winning. I always heard about the rivalry dating back to the Civil War days but thought that there was no truth to the story until I saw all of the "kill 'em Tigers" buttons, the Jayhawks being hung from the bridge near the dorms and a cannon being fired. I was repulsed to see MU fans still living in the Antebellum Period.
To add insult to injury, several drunk men sat behind the KU band shouting insults and encouraging the students to throw more bottles on the field. I was stunned to witness a student several rows in the front of me motion to a water vendor, buy a bottle, take one drink and then chuck the bottle into the flute section.
The most disgraceful act occurred at the close of the first half when the Kansas Band lined up to perform at the halftime. I was amazed at the quantity of items being thrown by the MU students. Thankfully, no one was injured.
Saddest of all, the ushers, security guards, and policemen did nothing to stop the students or protect the KU band. One announcement was made asking everyone not to throw things on the field, but it went ignored and unenforced. I cannot understand why the University of Missouri would allow such deplorable acts to occur. The Kansas Band represented the entire University well Saturday with the class they displayed on the field. They did
not entice or provoke any of the Missouri actions but stood their ground and performed very well.
I am terribly embarrassed to be a Missouri native, but tremendously proud to be a Jayhawk.
Justin Mettlen
Raytown, Mo., freshman
Some groups must finance themselves
The Supreme Court definition of free speech includes the right of persons to spend or not spend their money so that their speech can be heard. It's wrong to force someone to spend their money to promote the speech of others. It's a person's right to say no. There is a difference between a group which is directly linked to the educational mission of the University, such as athletics, and groups which espouse political and ideological views.
In Smith v. Regents of California, a right of students not to organize, in effect saying that students at public institutions have the right to withhold mandatory fees which are used to support organizations who they disagree with, was upheld. Now comes further validation of this ruling at the University of Wisconsin.
We live in a democracy where the rights of the few are protected even if the exercise of those rights violates the will of the majority. Just like we are unable to discriminate based upon race or religion a historical protection for the few, we can't trample on a person's right to not fund speech they disagree with.
Student groups espousing political or ideological views should fund their own activities. Otherwise, we better be willing to support any student group that comes along and asks for money including religious and political groups.
Heck let's fund everybody and everything. I myself would want funding for "Save the African Penguins," a group whose sole mission is to raise awareness and support about the plight of those majestic penguins in Africa.
Scott W. Strawn Lawrence graduate student