Is UND nickname issue still bubbling?

Isn't there a "silent majority" in North Dakota?

I hate to trot out a term that was probably coined by Richard Nixon. But the term has meaning - the idea of a vast sea of people holding a certain view who aren't injecting themselves into the public arena.

We shouldn't assume the view in question is regressive or misinformed.

In the case of North Dakota, aren't most people totally ready to move on from the UND nickname issue? Haven't they been weary of this for some time? Wouldn't any sensible person have better things to do than worry about a school nickname/mascot?

Isn't there some level of embarrassment setting in?

I think the NCAA has tried to be gentle about this. Change has crept into the picture and it's just time to accept it.

What a ridiculous cause.

Education leaders in North Dakota have been ready to move on. They in fact took steps to do so, but then the waters got muddied by politicians.

I suspect the politicians, perhaps not fully adjusted to our new communications age, have been swamped with emails from the regressive and emotional forces.

Be careful about electronic communications. People with strong emotions use them disproportionately. The more temperate and reasonable crowd just expects you fools to lead.

Please pause and try to consider that a "silent majority" wants you to navigate these uncomfortable waters and just do the appropriate thing. As a political issue this one seems pretty superficial.

There is a money problem as there so often is. An extremely wealthy benefactor once had a hockey arena built for UND that had the controversial mascot symbol all over the place, or so I've read. Apparently this was a deliberate ploy to try to ensure the mascot would remain.

Erasing it would put some contractors to work on a mighty ambitious project.

Why the clinging to the nickname? Maybe it's a case of people resenting outside intrusion. The nickname has been assailed from outside the borders of the state.

The NCAA might seem like one of those outside bureaucratic forces that we like to resent. But the NCAA is in large part a political animal, trying to reflect what society wants.

The NCAA and controversy are hardly strangers to each other. So, these are people who know how to deal with this landscape. They listen to voices of change and try to adjust.

Resentment toward UND's type of nickname has been bubbling up. People have tried to be gentle in coaxing UND in the right direction.

We try to realize that tradition has a pull. We try to realize that many innocent people have gone along with the nickname. But a growing number have come to realize that the mascot and nickname are not innocuous. They are a throwback to a less enlightened time.

North Dakota's education leaders seem to have accepted this reasoning now. Oh, I'm sure most accepted it long ago.

But we're sailing through political waters here. A school like University of North Dakota depends on state support.

I have argued on this site for a long time that higher education is going to be thrown on its heels by the communications tech revolution. Higher education will have to be more concerned than ever about not offending anyone.

The UND Native American mascot issue is out in the open and isn't going away. I came across an update article the other day. This is when I learned that the politicians are muddying the waters, obstructing the inevitable shift that seemed to be proceeding.
The article was from the Washington Post.

I thought "my God, when will this issue just go away?"

It isn't going to go away if change doesn't come.

Politicians are supposed to be custodians of a state's image. If certain North Dakotans think they're going to come off looking heroic by fighting for the current name and imagery, they are out of the loop of reason.

This has become such an old issue. It appears the NCAA isn't going to budge. The NCAA has come this far with a firm stance; it isn't going to crumble now.

North Dakota politicians aren't going to have that much power. You're a long way from the Beltway, guys. Not that the Beltway people would bother pushing a cause like this.

Politicians have some mighty important tasks these days. Getting involved in a school nickname controversy would seem to put the "ass" in "asinine."

Are you prepared to see headlines about this five years from now? One feels the same kind of weariness about this as about the "birthers" vs. President Obama. Frankly, the level of ignorance seems the same.

The "Fighting Sioux" mascot supporters are stuck in another age. It's an age when college sports fans invested emotions in these things to an unreasonable degree. It's an age when male athletes in the marquee sports tended to drink alcohol as sort of a badge.

They disrespected women.

Finally, the old "Hoosiers" model of elite sports - remember the Gene Hackman movie? - gave way to a more civilized approach. My goodness, women's sports certainly helped that.

Women's sports lifted up the idea that sports ought to be a platform for healthy participation by a substantial number of students.

The number of sports offerings increased. Look what soccer has done for our University of Minnesota-Morris.

The idea of heavy-drinking football "heroes" became a relic. Along with this enlightenment came the realization that the UND nickname and logo had to go.

I'm sure administrators at the school have been pulling their hair out over this issue for some time. Many have had their arm twisted, painfully, to be courteous toward the regressive crowd. Nobody in higher education wants to be combative with any element of the public.

The silent majority in the state, I'm sure, regrets the day when the controversial name took hold. I have read that a different name existed prior. I have read this was "Flickertails." What a pleasant nickname to have adorning the school.

If you're a real adherent to tradition, why not just go back to this? The Neanderthals might say the name is "namby pamby" or something like that. Do I have to use the word "asinine" again?

The train has left the station, you guys. Put down your beer steins, if you can, and try to reflect a little.

A college sports nickname isn't even a necessary thing. Why do teams even need them? Why can't we just refer to the University of North Dakota men's basketball team? Nicknames seem juvenile.

A lot of teams fall back on "cat" names as sort of a default approach. Consider that when the National Football League expanded, we got the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars.

We here in Morris are quite safe with our cat names: Morris Area Tigers and UMM Cougars. Our football teams play at Big Cat Stadium.

Of course, we still play the "Benson Braves." I'm not sure why Benson has been able to retain this name for so long with so little controversy. It's just a little high school, I guess. They know not what they do.

But the University of North Dakota? Such institutions are bastions of forward thinking. What a ridiculous issue to be dogging what I'm sure is a fine institution.

What a ridiculous issue to be tainting North Dakota.

Who are these politicians pushing in the regressive direction? Are they tea partiers? I don't know, but we all know what the outcome will eventually be.
I'll throw out one name, Governor Jack Dalrymple, who is in with the Pickett's Charge type of effort. How atavistic.

Let's erase from our consciousness the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux.

- Brian Williams - morris mn Minnesota - bwilly73@yahoo.com