Bobby La Gesse @BobbyLaGesse 3m
The Ames Tribune has obtained a photo of David Irving holding a stop sign during the melee last night. Paul Rhoads has talked to Irving
Bobby La Gesse @BobbyLaGesse 5m
A story will be coming shortly.
Ruh Roh
Maybe David Irving grabbed the sign to keep it out of the hands of drunken fools who were swinging it. Or maybe he was holding up the sign and yelling "stop" in order to try to prevent someone from tipping over a car.
Seriously, why can't folks take care of themselves? If you are standing there and someone starts to tip over a car, I would hope you would try to stop him. If he had a gun and was going to shoot the driver, would you just stand there and watch or would you try to do something?
It seems that dumpster fires, couch-burning, car-tipping, and knocking over light poles has become part of the tradition. Some of us perpetuate it by being there and cheering (or watching because we think it is pretty cool). Some of us perpetuate it in the way we make casual reference all year long to these things on forums like this. I'm guilty of the latter.
Can we agree that we think it is a bad idea to tip cars and knock over light poles? Does anyone think that those things are ever acceptable? If not, then let's act like it when those things start happening. And it probably starts with some of us not being so casual about these things as we recollect and sometimes glorify the greatness of past wild events that crossed the line whether anyone got hurt or not. Somebody had to pay for the car damage. Maybe we ought to be taking up a collection for that.
Back to the athletes. I would have been very proud if one of our outstanding basketball players had been given a bullhorn and tried to get the crowd to settle down. When things get out of control in a basketball arena, the coach tells (not asks) the crowd to not throw things and maybe even tells them to identify the trouble-makers so the security can take care of it. Maybe we should hire Woody to monitor Welsh Avenue. Canceling VEISHEA isn't a solution. Some sort of self-policing, positive peer pressure is needed.
