They're Burning Dixie Down

There are a lot of things that can be done to improve the quality of a school. However, one thing that is particularly hard to establish upon a college or university is “heritage” or school pride. Sure, money can buy books, it can lure distinguished faculty from other institutions and it can even build state of the art facilities, but all the money in the world cannot buy heritage. Just ask schools like Weber State University or Utah Valley University.

Many students at Weber are shocked to find out that the word “just” does not precede "Weber State" in the school's official title. Or how about the slogan, "Utah Valley University, because you didn't get in to BYU".

Utah’s own Dixie State College may not be the most prestigious school in the state, its facilities might not be the most state of the art and its professors may only be trending liberal instead of full blown militant Marxist like in the Ivy leagues or for that matter our own University of Utah who’s economics department is dominated by actual registered Marxists—I miss McCarthyism. But what Dixie does have is heritage and school pride, or at least it did before a bunch of moaning politically correct liberals started defacing the place of all things unique and independent.

Since the 1950’s the college now known as Dixie derived its name and heritage form the original settlers of the St. George valley of Utah who tried to harvest cotton. Since then, the school adopted the rebel as their mascot and created this unique twist on some of the charm and heritage of the Old South mixed with a Utah culture.

Moreover, the school has set their way on becoming one becoming the fastest growing and developing colleges in the state. Particularly in athletics, the school, only a few years removed from junior college status, has been able to rise to the national rankings and even competed in the national NCAA II tournament.

So what do you do when you have a school demonstrating unprecedented growth, achievement and national notoriety? Well if you’re a whining miserable malcontent like college President Lee Caldwell or Chairman of the Board of Trusties Shandon Gubler, this is a perfect time to change everything starting with the school name and mascot all in the name of ACLU style political correctness.

Sounds idiotic right? Will that is what these two losers and their go along get along pals in the administration are proposing. Pushing through an idea that will remove any property on campus identifying the school as Dixie and replacing it with the name “University of Utah—St. George” thus giving the school all the pride and independence of a pair of imitation sunglasses from Tijuana. You couldn’t have cheapened the school any less if you miss spelled the title, channeling the infamous Oklee’s brand from south of the boarder.

“This partnership will give us things we couldn’t normally get on our own,” Caldwell said.Even with the changes Gubler and Caldwell said DSC’s independence won’t be lost. “We can best govern this institution and draw on the strength of the U of U's brand name, and still seek independence as a campus within this system,” Gubler said.

So in the spirit of their view, I would like to formally announce that I am changing my name to that of my roommate in college, Joe Jepson. But since Joe lives in Utah and I live in Florida I will henceforth be known as Joe Jepson “hyphen” Florida. I am doing this to take advantage of all the benefits that come with this name. I don’t see the harm since my independence won’t be lost.

"[Rebels and its confederate affiliation] is a national, state and local concern," said Caldwell, "This is a concern this community had for many years, and it’s unfortunate that the confederacy issues have tainted a pure heritage that Dixie has that was originally started in this community," Gubler said. However, Caldwell failed to mention that the community opposes the name change about 9 to 1.

These are interesting comments, really point well taken, I mean it’s not as if any other school has adopted the rebel mascot or southern heritage. Not this day and age. Even if they did it wouldn’t be a major University. And even if there were, it would have to be miles away, perhaps in the Deep South. It certainly wouldn't be a mere hundred miles south of St. George in Las Vegas. Well you know that old stubborn non-diverse conservative city of Las Vegas, we can’t be like those racist red necks.“

To be honest we’ve had a 56-year identity crisis,” Caldwell said. “We just went along with the nickname, but it doesn’t fit the community that we want to be. We have the same heritage as U of U, so we hope to go back to our pioneer roots.” Actually the only one suffering from an identity crises is Caldwell, he is acting like the Mayor of San Francisco held hostage by a rural red state like Utah. So "rebels" is just too edgy for you huh, something you definitely want to avoid in a mascot. What would be your first choice as a replacement, how about the Dixie State "conformists", or the "lemmings" or perhaps a title after your own heart the "Stalinists".

Well, the change is already in the making the mascot of Rebel is already totally removed from the school and replaced by the fierce title of “Red Storm”. I have no idea what this means, I’ve decided that its either a reference to a certain terror coming once a month or the communist menace of the Cold War. Either would be right up Caldwell or Gubler’s alley.

The real problem with this disturbing plan is that it is wholly unprincipled. It’s essentially a plan to make up for a school’s weakness by throwing away everything its stands for. “What profit a school if it gains the whole world and loses its own soul”.

As I watched the Dixie State softball team compete in the NCAA II National Tournament this last weekend, I took a moment to admire a banner displaying the name “Dixie State”, among only a few other teams who were successful enough to make it to the national tournament in the envy of the 170 other teams who fell short.

Even more noteworthy is the fact that this was the first year that this gritty little school was eligible to go to the national tournament after only two years in the NCAA II. But that is type of thing that makes this school great and that is the type of independence and grit that will fall by the wayside as a result of this deal.

But luckily for these self interested deal makers nobody in the Dixie community is willing to really speak out against that which will effectively castrate a perfectly good school.

The Dark Side Prevails

Cheney has effectively high-jacked the congress and forced them to vote to keep Guantanamo open. Obama's last speech was the equivalent of the Democratic response to a President Cheney's State of the Union.

Cheney's approval rating has gone up 8 points since he has started taking on the Obama administration. I haven't seen Cheney like this since he told Pat Lehey to go perform a biologically impossible act on the Senate floor, ah those were the days.

Ps. this is the friendliest photo I could find of Cheney.

Utah's favorite Daddy's Boy Moves On

Probably the the best part about Governor Huntsman becoming Ambassador to the red Chinese is that we are further spared from hearing the words, "Presidential Candidate Governor John Huntsman Jr."

What would have been the point anyway? The Governor is essentially Mitt Romney minus the height, conservatism, and self made wealth. It would've have worked in the same way that Ralph Machio could play Sylvester Stalone in Rocky.

Governor may have, at times begrudgingly governed conservatively, but he is not a big "C" Conservative. He spent much of his time growing the size of the state government, impeding legitimate nuclear waste disposals and complaining about the state being too conservative.

The most ironic part of Huntsman's tenure is the state experienced success after success despite the Governor's opposition to the policies and philosophies that gave rise to that vary success.

No doubt he still is fighting mad that Utah enjoys a top position in nation wide student achievement, without having caved into the demands of the Teacher's Union. In his words Utah refuses to implement the policies that will retain and attract the most talented teachers.

Where are all of these talented teacher's governor? All they all hiding in California where they are payed so much more to hold the state at 4th from the bottom in academic achievement?

Come to think of it, I can't think of a better place for our Governor than in the Obama Administration to further normalize relations with the red Chinese.