Editorial

Old times there forgotten

Southside Tigers? Southside Virgil Caines?

If heaven ain't a lot like Dixie, we don't wanna go. (Gosh, there's got to be a country song in there somewhere.) But, as recent stories in the newspaper suggest, Dixie hasn't always been all mint juleps and Aunt Bea's cornbread muffins. Like the history of any place, history here is mixed.

This week Fort Smith's school board erased a 52-year-old tradition by voting to do away with the Southside High School mascot, the old Rebel gentleman with the Colonel Sanders beard and the walking stick. The vote was unanimous. A standing-room-only crowd of about 200 people broke out in applause as the board voted.

What a country. What a democracy. What a local control. (Note to the Arkansas legislature: Don't try to overrule the locals--again.)

If Ole Miss--Ole Miss!--can scrap the old Rebel, then any school can scrap any mascot. It's a sign of the times, and shouldn't cause anybody much grief. Emphasis on shouldn't. Because apparently it does. Last week some graduates of Southside held a rally in Fort Smith to save the mascot and the school's fight song, "Dixie." You would have thought the school board was thinking about bulldozing the school and sowing salt on the football field.

One protester said her memories of school would be tarnished by such a change. How, she didn't say. We didn't notice any suggestion that old yearbooks would be confiscated and offending clip art removed. Another lady said the mascot had something to do with "community" and "strength" and "excellence." We don't know how a mascot adds to the strength or excellence of a school, but the Fort Smith community has a lot of folks in it, and not all were pleased with seeing old man Rebel at Friday night football games. The proof? That unanimous vote by the school board. That doesn't usually happen with controversial topics such as this one. It's a safe bet a lot of people were calling their rep on the school board before the vote, and the board got the message.

So what will be the new mascot? Look for another vote of the school board soon enough. Although the Southside Tigers has a nice ring.

As far as getting rid of "Dixie" . . . . that's a mite harder to understand. What has that pleasant little tune ever done to anybody? Unlike the old Confederate battle flag, it hasn't been kidnapped by the kluxers and skinheads and used for their low purposes. Counted among the song's admirers was a president named Lincoln, who, at a celebration after Appomattox, told a happy gathering of revelers, "I propose closing up this interview by the band performing a particular tune which I will name. Before this is done, however, I wish to mention one or two little circumstances connected with it. I have always thought 'Dixie' one of the best tunes I have ever heard. Our adversaries over the way attempted to appropriate it, but I insisted yesterday that we fairly captured it. I presented the question to the attorney general, and he gave it as his legal opinion that it is our lawful prize. I now request the band to favor me with its performance.'"

And the people cheered.

Ah, well. The people cheered at Monday night's school board meeting, too. It appears "Dixie" will pay for the sins of others. Though many of us may still hum it now and then, especially when driving through the Arkansas Delta in August, when the cotton is opening up, and before the combines have torn the fields to shreds.

So what about a new fight song for Southside High? Our suggestion: "Southern Nights" by Arkansas' own Glen Campbell, which is just about the perfect country/pop song, ever in the history of ever. With a piano that sounds as if it spent last night in the local saloon, complete with the banjo accompaniment and a spot where the crowd can yell, "Joy!"

Or, better yet, "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," by The Band, sung by another Arkansas native, Levon Helm. And this song even has parts for brass for the high school band. Imagine the crowd at football games when the Na-Nas start in. With everybody in the stands singing together. As one community. As it should be.

Editorial on 07/30/2015

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