First the story......then my comments.


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Ole Miss tweaks fight song

JACKSON, Miss. -- The University of Mississippi has shortened one of its fight songs to discourage football fans from chanting "the South will rise again" during part of the tune, which critics say is an offensive reminder of the region's intolerant past.

However, some fans have continued to recite the chant at the end of the song, "From Dixie With Love," despite the change made last week at the chancellor's request. The Ole Miss band performs the medley before and after games.

Earlier this month, the Ole Miss student government passed a resolution suggesting the chant be replaced by the phrase, "To hell with LSU."

Dan Jones, who became Ole Miss chancellor in July, said he asked the school's band director, David Wilson, to modify the song to support the efforts of the Associated Student Body. He said he has received complaints from alumni that the slogan is offensive.

"The fact is, the phrase 'The South Will Rise Again' is not part of our tradition or spirit, and it is inconsistent with the university's values and what Ole Miss stands for -- a great public university with a focus on the future," Jones said in a phone interview Thursday from the campus in Oxford.

The modified version of the song ends abruptly before the chanting phase starts. It was first played Saturday at Ole Miss's homecoming game against the University of Alabama at Birmingham, but that didn't stop some fans from chanting.

Brian Ferguson, 26, head of the Colonel Reb Foundation, said he views the university actions as an attempt to silence students.

"I think it's a big to-do about nothing. There were very few people other than the students who knew to say it," said Ferguson, whose organization works to preserve traditions at Ole Miss. But Ferguson agreed that the chant really isn't a tradition.

"If the students get fired up and upset enough about it, they're going to continue to say it. Our biggest fear is that that's going to lead them to eliminate 'From Dixie With Love,' altogether."

The song blends the Confederate Army's fight song, "Dixie," with the Union Army's "Battle Hymn of the Republic," according to Peter K. Frost, a visiting professor of history and international studies at Ole Miss.

The school has worked to erase its image as a bastion of the Old South, which was solidified in 1962 when James Meredith's admission as the first black student led to a bloody standoff.

The university six years ago decided not to have an on-field mascot during sporting events, getting rid of the long-standing Colonel Rebel, a white-haired old man who carries a cane and resembles a plantation owner. At the time, school officials had said they needed a more athletic-looking mascot. The teams are still called the Rebels.

Sophomore Cortez Moss, director of communications for the ASB, said the organization is trying to explain to students why the phrase is offensive.

"You take back on that slave mentality," said Moss, who is black. "I know the South won't rise again and the South can't rise again."

Former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, who donated $100 million to the university in 2000, said the chant should be abandoned.

"I hope it will pass on quietly and the students will refrain from the chant, but I found out a long time ago it's hard to tell students what to say and what not to say," Barksdale said Thursday.

Roun McNeill, a former ASB president who is now in law school at Ole Miss, said his own decision to refrain from the chant was easily made.

"I said the chant one day and there was a black family sitting in front of me and they turned around and gave me this look like I hurt them," McNeill said.

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Get ready... here's where sports and history intertwine..... its all Eli Whitney's fault!

Ok. Their mascot is an old Confederate general..... their nickname is the Rebels. The state flag has a confederate flag on it. They want to take out something that says, "the south shall rise again" in their school song?? Oh.. and by the way.... the south has already rose again......its called the SEC!!

People always want to focus on what was bad about the South (yes,... slavery was a great evil but that is over now). To me.. the south rose because it did something that not a lot of people do today....and that is stand up for what they believe in.....even if it means going to war over it. The south was about preserving their way of life, their southern heritage, their traditions. They weren't as much afraid of slavery being taken away as they were their entire Southern history and their rights to live life the way they want to live it and not have the Federal Government tell them what to do all the time.....hmmmmmm.... sounds very faintly familiar.

Slavery wasn't something they lived and breathed... it was just a part of their everyday life to help run their farms... something that the north with all their industrial corporations and large towns didnt know anything about. I'm not supporting the south and their past use of slavery because it was abused in some plantations... but I do support a southern region that stands on what it believes in and is proud of its history and its heritage. The confederate flag doesnt represent slavery... that confederate flag represents a bunch of southern states that came together and said we love our life and our southern history and our quiet and simple ways and a life that doesnt involve a Federal Government that tells us what we can and cannot do...... and if it is together we stand and divided we fall.....then so be it. We're forming our own nation.

Did this attitude rise from the issue of slavery? Possible........but slavery was something that had been around since colonial times.... and it wasnt as much over slavery as it was states rights... and the issues of nullification of rights by the Federal Government. Our very first presidents, especially Washington and Jefferson had slaves. Washington tried to prevent one of his from running away and being a "free" person just because of how important she was to the running of his household....but she didnt want to "belong" to anyone nor her kids to do the same and she was given her freedom. and Jefferson supposedly had intimate relations with his.

To make a long story short...if not for Eli Whitney inventing his cotton gin... which helped the South focus on its one major cash crop... which was cotton... which was being bought by the huge industries in the North.....which spurred the growth of more and more and more plantations in the south.....which meant the North had bustling cities and the on the go society and a totally different culture than the ......... south whose culture was still rural hard working country people....... but also laid back and with the fried chicken and the willow trees and the soft running rivers......of which this led to two distinct societies being built......which led to the discussion of when America expanded further west......would states that are added to the country..... would they be considered free states (states focused on becoming more like the union... bustling city life...industry...etc.) or would they become slave states (part of the laid back, plantation life, cotton growing southern heritage). Then.. with the addition of a balance of free and slave states... slaves started gaining ideas of leaving through these border states to go north where the bustling city life would welcome them with open arms and a life of farming for the rest of your life would be behind... especially when you didnt make any money off it at all... and you are working for someone else. Which led to people polarizing slavery and focusing solely on it and the people who were radicals for its existence. Issues in Congress concerning free and slave states polarized the two regions which led to bad blood between peoples and families and thus the battle of the North and South was begun at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Not over slavery... but just over a way of life. Simply over a way of life. Was it a great way of life.... not for the slaves no. But not all slave owners were the harsh slave drivers that some make them out to be. Many slave owners treated their slaves as well as members of their own family. Is slavery wrong? Yes it is. But for some... slavery or servitude was important because the plantation family was able to provide a life for their workers that they would not be able to find anywhere else... and when they were treated as well as they were... some did not want to leave. It was the ones who were mistreated and tried to escape to the North that polarized the entrie situation.

So.. do I have issues with this?? You are dang southern country straight I do! We want to take out One Nation Under God in our pledge.....we want to take In God We Trust off our money.... we want to take "the south will rise again" out of songs.

Oh... and if the south had not rose again? You wouldnt have the icons of Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, the 1966 Texas Western NCAA basketball championship team, and oh yes... most importantly...... the SEC. The south has risen again....the only difference is... it just doesnt need cotton and people in slavery to help it to rise to prominence. So do I think the words, "the south will rise again" should stay in the song? Yes I do. Because after all the destruction, death and families that were ripped apart by that horrendous war..... I would hope that the south would rise once more....in a positive way.... because this south..... it is my history, it is my land......and mr. ole miss chancellor.... this south is my home!


Mississippi State Flag