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Show MFSPAY, MARCH OPINION 11,2009 DIXIE SUN - 9 Rebel meanings aside, students should choose back the Rebel Bring MCK 9 against brothers on opposing sides, DSC has also divided its students. MIHALOPOULOS Staff Writer Dixie Sun The most common reason have heard for changing our mascot is that the Rebel name could be offensive to Among all the bickering and fighting over a new mascot, I wonder if our completely lost of who keeps it in busi-tjs- jhas jack s; students. myphoik 4,000 miles from State Alaska to attend Dixie Just like many College-saw the other students, all over the but it Fernet by drove I Las Vegaj mers, prop-jandap- DSC. This colat let made claims that than more just Duue you are mingssac number. can dor OPAand With no minimum small class sizes, I rthinghas to myself, Wow, is the one for jus college ne,ane me. when ut it thought es out. during my first But d, Im a semes-ta-a- s student here, I realithat this college saw me a so Im zed s just a number. I wonder if DSCs new ad campaigns nil say, Come to Dixie! We ,t care what you think. You dont get to speak. We think of v-tomeup )rd the choices for you. DSC has herded its stud- make creating! m the online voting booth, telling us to pick a new mascot. Then a committents to the male stations staff and has the gall to for us. Is it really ng or artb ee of faculty, e Web ministration site f similar i choose good opper each really good for the college to sell our traditions in order to obtain a politically correct status on the worlds stage? I think thumbs feb site con- to these in not gradm Abraham Lincoln, in a speech for the Republican tarn music stud- ents? Is it son;, tions one for the college to ignore the voice of the station o stations Convention, said, A divided against itself cannot stand. It seems that DSC is a similar house. Just lie during the Civil War 'when brothers would fight : users Slate house nces. Ml, a jut r from id she use nd new I some people or that somehow our schools name could have racist connotations. First, we must all realize that the word rebel does not only have Civil War ongins. According to Encyclopedia.com, a rebel is a person who rises in opposition. One of our nation's most famous rebels was George Washington. He gained his military experience from England during the French and Indian War. Then he rebelled against the British during the Revolutionary War. Our nation's founding father and face of our currency was, in fact, a rebel. Another myth is that being a rebel is a bad thing. Rebels come in all shapes and sizes. If you resist using drugs or drinking when your friends are pressuring you to, you are a rebel. If you see something going wrong in the world and you speak up when others would rather look away, you are a rebel. If you decide to pursue a college degree and resist the urge to drop out or fail your classes, you are a rebel. Rebels are not just slaveowning Confederate soldiers. The rebels of the Civil War era committed horrific crimes against humanity, and to lop DSC in with those racist Confederates would be completely wrong. Here at DSC, I believe any person would be hard pressed to find a single ounce of racism on campus. We have truly changed from the controversial DSC of the past into a conservative, upstanding source of higher education. The Rebel name is the last piece of tradition we have. To strip this college of its name would be abominable and far more unethical than keeping the name Rebel itself. The argument can no longer be made that we must Leave the Rebel retired change our name to become a major university. There would be nothing wrong with keeping the Rebels. It has worked out just fine for nickname will stay gone, I find myself contemplating the fact that I was a Rebel. I proudly wore my Rebel attire to games and loved the play on words when I told my high school friends 1 had become a Rebel. I was a Rebel until I found out what Rebel used to mean at Dixie State College. The Rebel name may have started off innocently upon its adoption in the 1950s as a play on the idea of seceding from the northern part of the state. However, that innocent meaning diminished into a association with the area of our country that once fought to the death to continue using human beings as machin- major schools like the University of Mississippi ("Ole Miss") and the University of Nevada Las Vegas. Both of those schools use the Rebel nickname. Both of them even have Confederate soldiers as mascots. Ole Miss and UNLV are also much bigger schools than DSC is (or probably will ever be). We cannot let the administration just walk all over our votes. The fact is that we have been duped by our own college. The people we pay tuition have decided that our voice doesn't matter. This is not right. This administration should seriously rethink the black spot it is going to leave in DSC's history if they do not recognize the voice of the students. If the Rebel does go, it should not be ripped away. It should be fairly voted out. First, students should vote on whether they want to keep the Rebel. If the majority votes to do away with the Rebel, then we can escalate to voting for a new mascot. But in no way should the board of trustees decide for us. It's very simple: DSC must ask its students what they want, and then do that. After all, no college can function without its only customers: students. BY HITNEY PHILLIPS Dixie Sun Opinion Editor In the midst of the current deliberation on whether or jnot the Rebel 1987 yearbook a bit of a contradiction if you ask me. In addition to those other links to the Confederacy, the colleges mascot was one of the most recognizable symbols of the Confederate states: a Confederate soldier. For a while a student simply dressed in a gray uniform, but Rodney the Rebel, a cartoon-lik- e character dressed in a Rebel uniform, eventually appeared to pep up fans at sporting events. The next connection is, to me, the most sinister of all. According to old editions of the Dixie Sun ranging from the mid 60s to the early 80s, during Homecoming Week, students held a mock slave sale that was modeled after the same slave auctions Southerners fought so hard to continue. One Dixie Sun article by Barry Kawa, Slavery was Outlawed or Was It? ery. Many students and alum- ni back the Rebel nickname, denying any connec- tion between the DSC Rebel and the states of the Confederacy. However, the truth is that there are several solid connections. First off, the yearbook for Dixie State College was called The Confederate. You wont find a connection that is more blatant than that one. Also, as depicted in several of the Confederate publications, students flew Confederate flags during events. They sometimes waved the Confederate banner alongside the American flag, like on page 63 in the published in the Oct. 30, 1980 issue, described the auction as follows: Slavery is alive and doing well at Dixie as the annual Forensics Slave Auction will be held next Thursday in the Sunroom. Bidding begins at 7 p.m. sharp, with the auctioning of ten selected male and female students to the buying Dixie College public. The slaves will do kitchen work, window their payetc. for washing, masters. ing Now, dont tell me there is no negative connotation connecting the Rebel to the house-cleanin- g, Confederacy. Some may make the argument that these seempractices ingly were acceptable at the time, that celebrating the Confederacy was not a big deal back then. Yet pleading light-heart- Weekly voice op. com sic. said n, Country tunes: dont knock em til you rock em to ho BY LALREN JONES Dixie Sun Staff Writer I which o (wnIoads de by pop- I love music. There isn't much that I won't listen to, and there - ;oerne nto. an, a 6 Weekly ed major? aid he see"' ge to nds are ien he gs he voice Hollands life: Perfect game usa- l- BY HOLLAND OLSEN Dixie Sun Staff Writer d": h I just got back from the last Dixie State College basketball game that I attend as a student, and it one of my favorite k Memories. As I was 1 going to the game realized that this would be y tost game as a student of SC. I then knew I needed to it the best game ever, at from a students standp- oint. game started off rocky when a couple of community bought tickets in e student section. Brock ybee and I were standing in e front row along with a CouPle of my other friends, Members ' and these two community members asked us to sit down so they could see. I tried to explain to them that we were in the student secnot have tion, but they would it. One man just kept showing me his ticket like it meant something to me. He kept could still telling me that we we sat if watch the game to tried I explain the down. section student the concept of is section student The to him. and where students stand up Just team. other the at yell does because we are at DSC cheernot mean that students section ing in the student don't matter. conflict, Well, to resolve the and aid our an usher came to member told the community section. to move to a different act tins that know Little did would get me in the mode for the most perfect game a fan can have. Imagine a pitcher throwing a perfect game or those are big even a accomplishments. Friday marked my perfect game; I made no mistakes. When player 24 missed an him that my I easy layup, told sister also missed moment layups. From that even he tune got on, every close to me I reminded him of his missed layup. also had a fun time tauntwas ing 14. His name we autocourse Milce, so of 1 matically thought of Milcy we cant Cyrus, and because while names real use players ob iously we them taunting thought of Cyrus' alter ego, Hannah Montana. Every time see GAME page 10 is nothing I than love more hearing new new and types of songs music. While I can't love everything I hear, I can at least appreciate most genres. However, I love country music. I know most people hate it, and I just can't understand jvhy. I have always believed that you should at least try something before making a judgment. Im sure every country music fan out there has found him or herself in a conversation with another person who makes the claim that he or she likes every kind of music for country. there is wrong What this? is Why Could it music? with country actucan that fact the be you artist the what understand ally is trying to say? Or maybe because its not about sex, drags and filth, and its good, clean, honest music you can sing while your grandmother is in the room? I've had some roommates who hated country music when we started living together. Despite their initial apprehension, I somehow managed to instill a love of country into their heprts. By simply exposing them to certain songs, I was able to after a few months help them build a tolerance to country. Then, a few months later, I noticed them asking me names of songs and singers, so they could download their own songs. Then, a few months after that, they're asking me to send them whatever I have so they can try them all. Before they know it, they're hooked. They look back at the end of the year and wonder how 1 managed to make them like country music. The secret: starting small with songs that defy the stereotype of country music. Once you like one country song, you're hooked and can never go back. I like country music because its about the things see COUNTRY page 10 1 tjMMjpjrtnauu hi'n fnw ignorance, in this and many other cases, just doesnt serve as a strong defense. It may be tine that there wasnt outside pressure at that time in our countrys history to eliminate these practices. Even so, I would think that there would be an internal movement to eliminate any negative or offensive practices from the campus. We shouldnt always wait to fix something until we are told it is wrong. True, these practices are no longer around. DSC has slowly dumped every connection to the Confederacy, the latest being the retirement of Rodney the Rebel in 2001. Still, that doesnt comfort my concerns. Because the Rebel was once so clearly tied with the Confederate ways, the only way to truly distance ourselves from that negative image is to eliminate the Rebel itself. Even though I want to move away from the Rebel nickname, this isnt how I want to see it go. I believe the Rebel reflects a negative image on our school and our area, but that is strictly my opinion. Ideally, I want other students to open their eyes to what the idea of the Rebel really means, but I have no desire to force my opinion on others. For whatever reason, many students on the DSC campus want to keep the Rebel, and I dont think anyone should have the power to make a decision that goes against the opinion of the students, who happen to be the heart of this institution. We all know that if the heart stops supporting any particular body, that body dies. DIXIE SUN Rachel Tanner, Editor in Chief Shannon Johnson, Nfiw Editor Whitncj Phillips, Opinion Editor Tjler Roberts, Sports Editor Jared Burton, A & E Editor Whitney Roberts, Lifestyles Editor Casie Forbes, Online Editor Amanda Anderson, Photo Editor Taj lor Forbes, Ad Manager Samantha Bnnkerhoff KC Chnstoffersen Enk Dorn Tler Graf Mark Green Br) an Johnson Lauren Jones JR McRay Nick Mihalopoulos Rachael Noxon Holland Olsen Tro Olsen Chnsta Roberts Bree Skinner Bn an Uhn Nadia an der 'Xatt Natasha Vu Zach Vu Jancv llding Lucas Yates Rhiannon Bent, Adiiser DIXIE SUN HOW TO REACH US Dixie Slate College CarecrFinancul Aid Bldg. 00 East 225 South St George, Phone IT 8470 (435) Fax: (435) 656 4019 dixiesun'adixie vmi dixiesunlink edu com mrihuted cxch ttednetdat during iten at a publication of Dixie Star and Sciencei and Dme Stale dirge Student Arm met The utmgned editorial on the SI N pinion page represent the potmon ot DlIL hoard Olhemt the are thot of mom expretted in DIM! 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