Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation

The current Flag of the State of Georgia1 features the seal of the state which bears the words wisdom, justice, and moderation on the pillars of an arch (Which was the inspiration for the Arch on UGA’s Campus. Go Dawgs!).

All of which is just setup for the fact that I firmly believe the jackasses who rallied at Stone Mountain in support of the Confederate flag this past weekend have zero understanding of the concepts of wisdom, justice or moderation.

Take a gander at the photos of the event, if you’re brave enough. Me, I couldn’t get past the brazen stupidity of this particular ass-hat.

A wise person would realize that a symbol is defined by who adopts it and how they use, not by what anyone says it means.

A just person would realize the extent of injustice wrought under the banner of that flag; it’s very adoption was an act of protest against the cause of justice.

A moderate person would honor the true memory of the past and refuse to fly a flag celebrating the losing side of an armed rebellion against the United States of America.

The current seal & flag do more to honor the full legacy and heritage of the state – the entirety of Georgia’s history PLUS it’s future – as opposed to the any other flag. Wisdom, Justice, and Moderation: those symbols & words have proved to have a much more enduring legacy than that other flag.

If supporters of that other flag in Georgia really cared about their heritage they’d support the current state flag – and the tenets espoused on the seal – and the U.S. flag, instead of cheering for the losing side of a lost rebellion and the losing argument of a bunch of losers who wanted to protest against the policies of the Civil Rights era.

In the words of the elder Jeffrey Lebowski: “Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski! Condolences! The bums lost!”

  1. For a better story about how the flag changed from its Civil Rights era form to its current incarnation, here’s a good start. If you’re curious to see & hear Zell Miller argue in favor of changing the flag when he was governor, C-Span has that video.

Ripping the headlines

Per the AJC this morning: UGA soccer player charged with stealing hashbrowns

I heard the crowd “scattered” as the arresting officer “smothered” her to the ground. The Red & Black “covered” the whole thing, but did so poorly. This whole ordeal could only be “topped” if someone made a whole bunch of semi-surreptitious Waffle House references in a commentary.

For all the UGA football fans (myself included) at least this won’t affect the Fulmer Cup standings.

Go Dawgs!

We’re #1

I’ve been loath to mention the most recent #1 ranking for the University of Georgia, since the last time UGA was ranked #1 things didn’t work out so well:

UGA Football 2008
The last time UGA was ranked #1 in anything, it ended in infamy as well.

I digress.

The current #1 on everyone’s mind is this Princeton Review list of the Top Party Schools.

My response: smirky-shrug
UGA’s response:

“We’d rather focus on the Green Honor Roll listing as a top environmentally conscious campus, or the top 50 ‘Best Values’ listing,” Georgia rep Tom Jackson said in a press release this week. “It has no effect on who is accepted or who enrolls.”

To whit, some other rankings:

#7 – “best value” among public colleges
#8 – Business schools – “Greatest opportunities for women.”

While I was known to indulge/imbibe during my youth, I don’t think my partying was excessive in any way (at least not a regular basis), but in Athens, there are always parties to be found. What do you expect from a large state school with a downtown inches from campus and a thriving music scene? Benedictine Monks, perhaps?

Of course the best response came in the form of Mike Luckovitch’s cartoon from earlier this week, announcing Uga’s name change to “Chuga”. Classic.

There’s also been a lot of chatter, especially on the college football blogs, about a UGA Orientation video that features a version of Miley Cyrus’ “Party in the USA” re-imagined as “Party in the UGA”.

Coincidence? (In both timing and subject matter)
Evil plot?
Questionable singing?

You decide:

Since I’ve used up my quota of colons and dashes, I’ll end by saying that I was once an Orientation Leader way back during the Olympic Summer of 1996. Had YouTube been around back then you could all see our homage to “Mission: Impossible” (it was a hit that Summer) along with an oft-repeated and really obvious dick joke I used to make about the University of South Carolina mascot.

Gamecocks.
Cocks.
Funny.

So, yeah, UGA is the #1 party school for 2010 and I think we/they earned it. And yes, OLs make fools of themselves for incoming Freshmen.

I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat if I still had the stamina and the liver. 😉

Go Dawgs!

Velocity Girl

The quality of the embed video below sucks, but you’ll get the idea of the shoegaze-turned-indie-pop that jangled into my mind this morning that I had to tweet about:

Part of the nostalgia is fueled by the onset of Fall and football season and my (fading) memories of my freshman orientation – back in Summer, 1994 – and my own stint as an Orientation Leader two years later during the “Olympic Summer” of 1996.

The first concert I saw in Athens was actually on campus at UGA while I was there for my Freshman orientation. I saw Velocity Girl at Legion Field for $3.00, I think. I’m sure I have a ticket stub somewhere.

Doing a little sleuthing online, it looks to have been the end of July, since the band performed on 99x on the 29th.

I’m just swimming in nostalgia today but this band is tied to so many good memories for me: summer time, jangly (if slightly fuzzy) guitars and being on campus.

I was very much in to Matthew Sweet at the time (still am) so I’m glad I had a moment of remembrance today.

For those that want to similarly belabor a point and jump down the memory hole with me can check out SubPop’s original site for Velocity Girl.

In related news, you should really make a genius playlist with some Power Pop as the seed song. Good use of technology and your own two ears.

Enjoy!