Daily Sun Article 11/11

[Ben Rocky \'04]

You have proved my point! Why punish a few people?  It doesn't change the behavior of the masses.
 If Athletics wanted to seriously reduce swearing, as opposed to just angering a few who they do kick out, they should go all out.  As is, all they are doing is having their ushers act like PC-police and annoy and anger a few people, while failing at backing up their own policies, which leads me to call for their repeal.

[Keith K \'93]

The PC police may not stop the swearing and it may anger some.  But it may comfort some in the fanbase who object to the swearing.  So the AD has made the subjective judgement that the the steps to curb swearing, however ineffective, are worth the trouble.  His decision.  And in a sense, he may have it right.  I doubt students will stop going to hockey games because of the language enforcement.  They may bitch about it or argue that it should be more fairly applied, but they will probably continue to go.  OTOH, the family of four who is sensitive to the issue may decide to stop going.  Now I'm sure that this year the school would have no trouble filling the seats of those who stopped going because of language.  But that may not always be the case.

[DisplacedCornellian]

There needs to be a smiley that is eating popcorn while he watches this drama unfold....

[Beeeej]

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

Would someone please let me know if anybody ever says anything new on this thread again?  Thanks so much.

Beeeej

[Jordan 04]

Jeffrey "Beeeej" Anbinder '94 wrote:

Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH

Would someone please let me know if anybody ever says anything new on this thread again?  Thanks so much.

Beeeej

But if you don't want to read the thread, you don't have to click on it!!!  ::nut::

[jy3]

wow this thread is long and i have to sleep.
just wanted to give myself a nod with this topic b/c last year (2 years out of school) I sat in A and C a few times and for some reason students stopped doing the "you goon cheer" - I noticed this and loudly remedied it. pretty sure it was last year but it may have been 2001 - these years in med school all blend together

as for profanity I am always one in favor of freedom of speech but if you know you are going to get tossed and you wish to watch the hockey game then dont say asshole or fuck 'em up. ESPECIALLY when u can see the gustapo right next to ya looking at your lips. i say save the asshole'ing and the fuck'ing ::scared:: for after the game (no pun intended, sorry to offend - what is 2.5 hrs of using creative cheers and near-curses instead of obsenity that is known to be banned.
I also dont see the need to go off on this guy so badly but whatever. i missed about 20 posts. LGR! this weekend

[DeltaOne81]

How much you wanna bet that this article will make a difference?

Also, I do think the tossing has made a difference. A few times they pick someone right from the middle of the section and then people definitely cut it down after that.

Btw, Ben, I never told parents what to care about. I merely said they can care about whatever they want, and obviously some (many?) care about swearing. I didn't judge their parents or say if they were right to do so or not. I simply pointed out that many do, and that we should respect the community standard and the AD policies that stem from that.

You're not only telling parents what to care about while raising their kids, but then are indignant about the rules set forth so far as thinking that punishing people from breaking them is inappropriate.

[rhovorka]

Sheez...go away for a day, and look what can happen to a thread.  :-)  Yeah, Beeej, we seem to go through this every 2 years or so...and it has been going on for longer as Arik says.  But like our hockey team, the fanbase and forum population also has a certain rate of turnover.  So let 'em have at it.

For the record, I went through a period of arguing exactly what Ben Rocky is arguing.  One of my favorite movie lines is from "South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut": "Remember what the MPAA says: Horrific and deplorable violence is ok as long as you don't say any naughty words."  After a while, I just became more accepting of the fact that many, many people get wound up about hearing what they consider to be filthy language.  That, and really, I care more about watching hockey than changing that part of society.

I remember on my freshman floor, non-hockey fans (some call them "facetimers") were talking about why going to games at Lynah is such an attraction.  One of the draws was simply put, "you can go and swear really loudly."  And that fact was the one that actually garnered more interest in the group that was discussing it.  It was then when I realized that I might be a little more interested in the hockey than a good number of my fellow students in the stands.  I'm no psychology major, but perhaps some who relish participating in the profanity, do so because in a small way, it feels good to do something "bad" and that environment is a place where they can "be bad" and feel safe in their anonymity.  Or so they thought.

After the now-famous Schafer speech (he gave 2 I believe...one to the season ticket purchasers during the ticket buying and one on-ice) we saw the hiring of the "gray-hats."  When they came along, boy-howdy did the young CHDF ever explode.  The term "Gestapo" was used.  I heard rumors that employees would sit across the ice with binoculars and attempt to read lips during certain cheers and radio across to the police to pull people out.  We were pissed at that crackdown.  Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't some of us threaten a boycott of a home game (or period) because of it?  Or sitting down for a period in B or something like that?

But then most of us realized 2 things: 1) not even 20% of the student section reads this forum, or even cares that it exists.  2) We really, really, really like CU Hockey.  So much that we didn't want to miss any of it, nor did we want to hurt our team, or deflate them by not cheering.

My biggest problem now isn't with ejecting people.  It is what that power does to certain ushers.  Just what we need: changing cranky, mean ushers into cranky, mean, ushers on a power-trip.  One particular bearded man in a red windbreaker prodded me in the back row of A once and said "I'm watchin' you!"  Hey, just because I'm tall and loud doesn't mean I'm going to start spewin' F-bombs, and I calmly told him so.  He threatened to boot me for sassin' back.  And I was harassed by him several times that season for nothing that should've even been an issue.  Prick.

I now sit in sections where there are families and children nearby, and I try to curb my own language out of respect for those around me.  You know what?  Doing so hasn't lessened my enjoyment of the games, and it hasn't given me cancer either.

So, to sum up, I agree with what Ben Rocky is saying.  But I also respect my fellow fans' wishes.  Basically, I don't care enough anymore to fight.  There are more important battles to wage.

One more thing:
[q]What they *should* do, is have Arthur get everyone's attention (not just the standard ramble at the beginning of the game, but a "may I have your attention please" kinda thing). Laying out the fact that people WILL be tosses, and that Athletics has tossed out an average of xx people per game so far. Coach Schafer and that A.D. want you to loudly support our team with family-friendly language. Do it once a weekend for a semester, or every game for 4 or 6 games, and people'll get the message. But this half-hearted announcement and quiet, arbitrary enforcement doesn't seem fair to the average fan.[/q]
Oh, that would work.  All that would do would provoke a giant, organized effort to get 2,000 people to drop a loud, unified F-bomb at an appropriate moment in Arthur's "no really....listen!" announcement.  Because it would be hilarious.

[Will]

With this talk of the Gestapo, isn't it time we deleted this thread?

[Pete]

Here you go DisplacedCornellian:





Post Edited (11-13-03 09:28)

[kaelistus]

FWIW I remember that one of the reasons Schafer wanted to curb swearing was because we lost a recruit due to that. I believe the year was 1997 and the kid's parents were horrified and refused to let the kid apply.

Now, irregardless of what you may think of those parents, we were hurting the team by swearing. And I ask what is more important to you - to cuss loudly, or Cornell Hockey.

---

On the other hand everything Rich H said about the Powertrip ushers is true. It wasn't all of them, but some really got a kick out of harassing people, even if they were not actually swearing. Other times, they randomly picked people, and I know that they were grabbing innocents more than a few times. Luckily, I sort of emit an innocent aura, so I never had problems myself.

Also, I did stop swearing when Schafer asked me to.  It wasn't hard to switch F*em to R*em, Ref F* Sheep to "Baaa" and later "I'm blind..." etc. Plus, "Poop" sounds funnier than "Shit" anyway.

[ugarte]

Felix Rodriguez wrote:

It wasn't hard to switch ... Ref F* Sheep to "Baaa" ...

I couldn't hear it from where I was sitting at Princeton, but someone claimed to have heard the band saying "the ref is overly promiscuous with sheep" or something to that effect.  A great line, if it is in use.

[jeh25]

big red apple wrote:

Felix Rodriguez wrote:

It wasn't hard to switch ... Ref F* Sheep to "Baaa" ...

I couldn't hear it from where I was sitting at Princeton, but someone claimed to have heard the band saying "the ref is overly promiscuous with sheep" or something to that effect.  A great line, if it is in use.

While not the originator of the cheer, I've always been a big fan of the "The ref likes sheep. He really likes sheep. He likes them a lot. Baaaaaaah" variant.

[jeh25]

Felix Rodriguez wrote:
 Plus, "Poop" sounds funnier than "Shit" anyway.

In my experience, "Rip off his head and poo down the hole" gets one funny looks.... ::rolleyes::

[Pete]

The profanity issue gets a mention in Heros and Villains this week:

http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/10054/