The banhammer was laid down on From Dixie With Love. This much we know is true. There was going to be backlash and there was going to be vitriol. This much we also knew to be true. What is a bit perplexing to me, though, is the degree to which this vitriol would be expressed.
In perusing Deadspin, Dr. Saturday, and a slew of other sites, I see arguments which, from both sides of the issue, are lacking understanding, obtuse, and ignorant. But most of all--and this comes chiefly from the pro TSWRA camp--I see arguments seeded in paranoia and delusion. People truly believe that there are much greater forces and reasons behind this; that something other than a university chancellor's concern of his school's image is involved.
To several, anti-Americanism, Marxism, black nationalism, and a whole bushel of other nebulous and spooky forces are at work here; as the removal of an unnecessary and offensive chant from a gameday atmosphere certainly must be just one domino in a long line of encroachments on everything that make us free individuals... right?
But enough on that. I'm done trying to convince folks that I'm not the one being naive. I'm done trying to change peoples minds and I'm done with the insults and derision.
But let me run one more thing right by you, the stubborn, selfish students whose actions led directly to the removal of From Dixie With Love:
In twenty years, when you, hopefully as a successful member of the Ole Miss Alumni Association, are in the Grove with your families and old friends reliving the old times (remember, here they are not forgotten), this subject will be brought up. Folks will say, "do you remember the tune to 'From Dixie With Love'? Wasn't that a great song?"
With a grin, you will pause and say, "of course I do." You'll wave your hand left and right with a slow and rhythmic "bum bum bummm bum bum ba da da daaaa da daaa daaaa." You'll close your eyes briefly, as to take a quick pause from the conversation and remember the sensations associated with watching the Pride of the South warm up in the Grove, prepare the fans for gameday, and play the Rebels--win or lose--off of the field. You'll remember that. And you'll miss it.
It is at that moment, when you'll look down at your children, who you would never neglect to include in the Ole Miss gameday experience, and realize just how foolish you were back in your late teens and early twenties.
"What song is that?" They'll ask.
"Oh, it's a song they used to play at before and after every single Ole Miss football game. It was awesome."
"Well, then why don't they play it anymore?"
Maybe it's an emptiness. Maybe it's a qick mental flash and a very temporary lapse in your senses. Maybe it's a dull and chronic off-feeling in your gut. Maybe time slows damn near to a stand still, if only for a second. But whatever it is, it's the feeling you get when you think back on something you did, which you would later regret. Something which, at the time, may have seemed like an excellent idea, only to become something which you wish you would have never been a part of.
Sure, chances are you'll look back at them and say "because the administration didn't want us cheering at the end of the song." Hell, you may even go into specifics. But you'll immediately realize how absolutely stupid you sound. You'll even have difficulty convincing yourself of your argument.
Some of you may even say "because we were stupid and had the song taken away." And some of you may even say that it was "time to move on." But, regardless, you will know that you and the selfish, fatuous actions you and those around you took a part in did more to kill a true piece of the Ole Miss experience than anything Dan Jones and his band of God-hating, Stalinist Black Panthers could have ever done.
I'm not going to cuss you. I'm not going to yell anymore. The battle is over, despite the best efforts of many of you. Just know that, one day, you will look back on this with a great deal of remorse.
Hotty Toddy. Remember, we're all on the same team here, internet squabbles or not.