Sticks and Stones
Mike Hasson
Issue date: 2/14/07 Section: Commentary
"Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me."
I grew up hearing this refrain from my parents. Indeed, since my time at UD, I have lived this sentence as best I could. As the goalkeeper of the men's soccer team, I've gotten the stuffing kicked out of me on more than one occasion: dislocated shoulders, torn muscles, concussions and several broken noses and fingers. Those times hurt.
There were countless other times, however, that I've been insulted from the sidelines by rival fans. I've been called names that I could not understand and many more that I could. However, this is normal, stupid behavior and no matter how much the host universities attempt to limit it, there will always be drunk, stupid people saying things that they might (or might not) have been ashamed to say if they were sober. Shake it off and keep playing. There is nothing else to do.
Shawn Waugh, an alumnus of two years, wrote back to his alma mater last week with a complaint about the recent Groundhog behavior of some undergraduates. It seems that Shawn was called "queer" and "gay" (at least this is the implication since Waugh himself admits "coincidental" timing and nothing more direct) and he is enraged at the painful, inaccurate, words.
Now, let me start by saying that I condemn these hurtful words in just the same way that I would condemn any insult about my mother or family. I condemn those words regardless of whether the person is gay or straight (as Waugh is).
There are insults, and there are bad insults, but at the end of the day, insults are just words. In this case, they were likely drunken words, spoken at the biggest party that the University throws. At past Groundhog Days, there have been instances of stage diving, beer riots, games involving fire, and streaking, and Shawn wants a cop to handle a case of name-calling? He must be kind of a big deal. As for his assertion that the University condones such behavior, Shawn answers his own question when he quotes the University website that makes it abundantly clear that UD does not condone immature behavior: neither name-calling nor whining.
I am beginning to wonder what happened to the notion of thick skin. Were my parents wrong to teach me the proverb with which I began this article?
I grew up hearing this refrain from my parents. Indeed, since my time at UD, I have lived this sentence as best I could. As the goalkeeper of the men's soccer team, I've gotten the stuffing kicked out of me on more than one occasion: dislocated shoulders, torn muscles, concussions and several broken noses and fingers. Those times hurt.
There were countless other times, however, that I've been insulted from the sidelines by rival fans. I've been called names that I could not understand and many more that I could. However, this is normal, stupid behavior and no matter how much the host universities attempt to limit it, there will always be drunk, stupid people saying things that they might (or might not) have been ashamed to say if they were sober. Shake it off and keep playing. There is nothing else to do.
Shawn Waugh, an alumnus of two years, wrote back to his alma mater last week with a complaint about the recent Groundhog behavior of some undergraduates. It seems that Shawn was called "queer" and "gay" (at least this is the implication since Waugh himself admits "coincidental" timing and nothing more direct) and he is enraged at the painful, inaccurate, words.
Now, let me start by saying that I condemn these hurtful words in just the same way that I would condemn any insult about my mother or family. I condemn those words regardless of whether the person is gay or straight (as Waugh is).
There are insults, and there are bad insults, but at the end of the day, insults are just words. In this case, they were likely drunken words, spoken at the biggest party that the University throws. At past Groundhog Days, there have been instances of stage diving, beer riots, games involving fire, and streaking, and Shawn wants a cop to handle a case of name-calling? He must be kind of a big deal. As for his assertion that the University condones such behavior, Shawn answers his own question when he quotes the University website that makes it abundantly clear that UD does not condone immature behavior: neither name-calling nor whining.
I am beginning to wonder what happened to the notion of thick skin. Were my parents wrong to teach me the proverb with which I began this article?
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