A blogger posted the following this week:
The Civil War,” as a name for a mere intercollegiate rivalry, also cheapens the word “War.” It also dishonors the 500,000 American lives lost in the real American Civil War.
Worse it suggests an ignorance and lack of respect for that event by the faculty, administration, students and alumni of Oregon’s two major universities.
I strongly disagree! As someone who has spent a lifetime studying the American Civil War and who raised a son who is a published author on the Civil War, I know something about that war. Living in Oregon I have traveled to Gettysburg, Antietam, Bull Run (Manasses) and Fredricksburg in my study of that war. When visiting Fredricksburg I was angry when I saw a housing development on the ground where so many Union soldiers died charging the stone wall. I don't need lectures from anyone on my respect for the Americans who gave their lives so that this country might live.
The author of the blog quoted above is part of the PC crowd that will squeeze the life out of this country. Already they have robbed football teams of their American Indian mascots and now they are going after our "Civil War" rivalry. Don't be surprised if in a few years the NCAA bans the "Civil War" from our in-state game. Can banning the 'Fighting Irish" be far behind? As someone from a Norwegian family I love the Minnesota Vikings mascot.
The Duke of Wellington is often quoted as saying that "The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing-fields of Eton". There is some dispute as to that quote but there is no doubt that Eisenhower and MacArthur played football for Army prior to their leading great American Army's in World War II(MacArthur was the student manager for the Army team). The MacArthur Trophy is awarded to the winner of the BCS Football Championship.
Theodore Roosevelt understood modern society could rob a country of it's warrior spirit necessary to defend itself from less "civilised" societies and viewed football as a way to maintain and channel that warrior spirit in a "civilised" way. He said:
He can not do good work if he is not strong and does not try with his whole heart and soul to count in any contest; and his strength will be a curse to himself and to every one else if he does not have a thorough command over himself and over his own evil passions, and if he does not use his strength on the side of decency, justice and fair dealing.
In short, in life, as in a football game, the principle to follow is: Hit the line hard: don’t foul and don’t shirk, but hit the line hard.
So Ducks, hit the line Hard!
GO DUCKS BEAT THE BEAVERS IN THE "CIVIL WAR" GAME!
