“Now, please stand for the presentation of the Nazi flag.” The PA announcer at the Paris (Texas) High School game didn’t make that announcement, but he might as well have.
At halftime of last Friday’s high school football game, the marching band took the field for their show, “Visions of World War II.” Never mind that most of these kids are barely old enough to have visions of the first Gulf War, or that the triumph of the Allies over the Axis had very little to do with marching in formation while playing the glockenspiel. The band played music from several of the nations that fought in WWII, and one of the kids ran around with the corresponding national flag during each song: the US flag, the French flag, the British flag, the Japanese flag, and the Nazi flag.
The Nazi flag? The swastika? Yep! To make matters worse, this particular Friday night fun took place on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year!
I don’t want to say they were booed, but I think you’d find a more receptive crowd if the Dixie Chicks showed up at a benefit for the American Legion and sang a medley of Barbra Streisand songs.
Charles Grissom, the newest member of our People Who Just Don’t Get It club, is the adult (?) director of the marching band who came up with the concept. He defended the idea of his show, but apologized to the community and admitted, “We had an error in judgement.” Ya think?
What’s planned for the next halftime show, Chuck? How about “Visions of 2001,” complete with a picture of the World Trade Center going down and a kid running around with Osama bin Laden’s picture on a flag? Maybe from here on out, the kids should stick to “76 Trombones,” “Louie Louie,” and “Rock and Roll Part 2.”
Don McLean’s lyric keeps running through my head: “The players tried to take the field, but the marching band refused to yield.” No wonder. They were plotting their takeover of Poland.