Shots fired… pic.twitter.com/waBhcXmf4Q
— Old Row (@OldRowOfficial) November 6, 2015A banner that, according to some tweets, hung briefly from a Tuscaloosa condo building is being roundly decried on social media Friday evening. The banner, which reads “Finish What Katrina Started,” reportedly appeared on a Tuscaloosa condo building Friday afternoon, the day before the biggest matchup of the year for both the Alabama Crimson Tide and Louisiana State University Tigers football teams. Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,800 people and wreaked havoc in New Orleans when it hit southern Louisiana and South Mississippi in 2005. This year, the nation marked the 10th anniversary of that storm. AL.com reporters on the ground in Tuscaloosa were not able to verify the existence of the banner.
Once upon a time, Rodney King uttered six words destined to become his legacy- “Can’t we all just get along?” I doubt he understood at the time the profound impact that phrase would have…and how far we are from achieving that goal. Just when I begin to slide into the delusion that maybe, just maybe we’ve crossed a threshold, something comes along to convince me just how far humanity is from being able to co-exist with respect and dignity for all.
Anyone of college age in the South is old enough to remember the tragedy and devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. I was still living in the Houston area at the time, and 150,000 people from New Orleans descended upon Houston, many of them never to return home. Scores were killed by Katrina, homes and livelihoods were destroyed, and lives were ruined. To think for even a moment that such a thing is an appropriate subject for sports-related trash talk is beyond unacceptable.
Trash talk when it come to sports is generally innocent and done accepting that it’s a game, and games are by nature transitory and ephemeral. Translation: In the grand scheme of things, games don’t much matter. The rivalries, when done right, are fun diversions that have little to do with day to day life. When one crosses the line to believing that invoking a horrific tragedy is an appropriate method of trash-talking a rival, there can be little doubt that the person(s) responsible are sad, sorry excuses for humanity.
UA is appalled that anyone would display a banner with such an inappropriate and offensive statement. (1 of 2)
— The Univ. of Alabama (@UofAlabama) November 7, 2015It’s our understanding that the banner was hung at an off-campus apartment complex and it has been removed. (2 of 2)
— The Univ. of Alabama (@UofAlabama) November 7, 2015Football is not life. Football is a game. Days, weeks, and/or months from now, few will remember and even fewer will care about the Alabama-LSU game. Being an insensitive, immature asshole? That’s a stain that’s going to take much longer to be rid of.
There’s no doubt but that college football in the south is a thing- BIG thing. People take their football seriously, and Alabama-LSU is annually one of the biggest games on the calendar. One or both teams are usually contending for SEC and/or national championships, so there’s usually far more at stake than bragging rights. At the end of the day, though, the game is over, and everyone returns to the business of life. Most humanoids understand and respect that basic concept. Then there are the trolls responsible for this travesty, which steps so far over the line that describing it as merely indecent and inappropriate seems horribly inadequate to the task.
Unfortunately for humanity, being insensitive, stupid, and willing to broadcast it aren’t crimes…otherwise the responsible parties would tied to a pole, fitted with a blindfold, and given a cigarette. And they’d deserve it. For now, we’ll have to settle with consoling ourselves that the idjits responsible for this will be- if they haven’t already- be roasted on Twitter.
