I am writing in response to Professor Michael Munger's Feb. 4 letter to the editor because I believe it misses the important issues in some students'reactions to the Bush/Cheney advocacy at the Florida State game.
The complaint is not that sports and politics must always be separate. This is a more local issue. The complaint is that the pro-Bush shirts/signs/whatever injected controversy into a situation that is about unity. The fun of the Cameron Crazies is that everybody is together and pulling for Duke. The Duke identity is supreme and people temporarily suppress other disputes. George W. Bush is one of those disputes that people have voluntarily deemphasized in the past. To the people cheering, the partisan signs changed the meaning of their actions. They suddenly had to think about whether their enthusiasm would be perceived by the national audience as support for Duke, as it always has in the past, or support for Bush.
Their emotions were hijacked. The Bush/Cheney people defected from a tacit agreement that games at Cameron are about Duke.
My argument hinges on whether this has been done before. Since I don't believe it has, the Bush advertisers defected from a community norm. If somebody had held up "Go Duke: Pro-Choice" or "Go Duke: Independents are Cooler than Greeks," or any other divisive issue, the principle would be the same. I believe that Professor Munger's comparison to Kerry at a Bruins game is irrelevant and a deflection. Kerry's actions at a Bruins game do not create any hypocrisy in Duke students' reaction to other Duke students at a Duke student activity.
One could argue that this letter is political correctness in action or a First Amendment problem. It's not at all. There was a tacit agreement to emphasize unity and deemphasize controversy. Some Dukies defected from this norm. Of course they have the right to do so, but they did violate a norm. Other Dukies are completely within their rights to use scorn and social pressureto try to maintain and repair the norm.
If the administration did something to control signs and shirts at Cameron, that would be different, and would raise freedom of speech issues. As it stands, some students decided that a campaign stunt is more important than the unity of the Cameron Crazies. They were dividers, not uniters.
John Transue
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
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