Texas A&M University Bonfire Memorial

[MidtownCoog]

They simply understand that they are part of something bigger than their selves.

ROTFLMAO

[GovernorAggie]

I am in fact amazed at the feelings of ill-will towards A&M.

In reference to Bonfire, i am a grad student and was not here when the Bonfire collapsed. In fact, I forgot about it until I came here last year. I strongly disagree with these people poking fun at this tradition that A&M had for almost a century. It is a shame that people died in the incident.

And by the way, will the Black A&M students in the forum please stand up? Anyone? Hello?

Oh yeah, that would be me. Listen, A&M's racist reputation is overblown in my opinion. I have never had any sort of racist attack directed at me. I have never witnessed a racist attack on anyone else. i have never heard of a racist attack on anyone. When I've been around places here with my half-white, half-hispanic wife (who looks totally white), I don't get evil looks. I've never been excluded from anything due to my skin color. The irony is that what people make fun of about the most--the "Aggie first" mentality--is a big reason why I feel that I haven't had any racist problems here. I've had people shout racist things at me in bigger places like Charlotte and Virginia Beach. I was even shoved at mall in Charlotte when I walked in the door with a white female co-worker.

I do not feel that same sentiment in A&M or College Station in general. My reactions have been that I am Aggie first, American second, and Black third. Call it brainwashing or manipulation or whatever you want to, but that's the way I see it and feel it.

That doesn't mean I haven't had opportunities. I am in the College of Architecture, the largest college of architecture in America, with over 1,000 students. There MIGHT be 5 or 10 black people in the College. I am one of 2 blacks in my department. Did I mention that I am the president of my student organization? Did I mention that my Department Head is Black? I am also the only black person working on my floor. Like I said, plenty of opportunity to be offended, but it just hasn't happened, not directly or indirectly. I know condescending white people when I hear them talk and watch their mannerisms. They think they "understand" me. Sometimes they're more blatant than rednecks (At least the rednecks will be real with me and tell me he or she hates me). It just hasn't happened here.

A&M has a great presence of the Alphas, the Kappas, even the Q-Dogs (who were banned from my last school). It also has the Deltas and the AKAs.

Lastly, I was in the MSC recently when I group of minority high school students were touring the place. One of the black guys asked me how I liked it here. I responded that it was a good school blah blah blah. But what he REALLY wanted to know was how I liked it as a black person. He liked A&M but had heard people say things about it being hostile to blacks. I told him what I'm saying now--it is a bunch of crap. When I was coming to A&M, people's first words were "why there? there's no black people." My response was that someone has to go sometime. Like H-Town Man said, accepting blacks is not a problem at A&M--it's actually getting them to show up. When you don't have that many people apply and then have at best only half of those who are accepted actually matriculate, of course you will have problems with numbers.

And don't give me this "I know b/c one of my best friends was black" or "I dated a black girl once" or "Black people live next door to me" or "I attend a black church" or "I am a (fill in the blank) minority" so I understand what black folks really deal with" nonsense. I'm telling you like it is an A&M is just as welcoming to blacks as it is to whites.

[MidtownCoog]

I'm telling you like it is an A&M is just as welcoming to blacks as it is to whites.

With that, I agree.

But the overall "you have to be an Aggie to understand, you just can't explain how mystical we are to be part of something larger" is pathetic.

Now THAT is the brainwash part.

[Scotch]

This topic has drifted from a discussion about the memorial to an uninformed discussion of the 1999 collapse to an all out attack on the unwashed of Texas A&M. Lets put the focus back on the real issues.

Simply put, those of us who love Texas A&M and Bonfire never realized that it could fall and hurt people. When Bonfire fell, though I had attended at least 12 of them in my 23 years, it was a complete shock. I assumed it to be unshakeable. Even in 1994, when the stack shifted, it took hours and hours to dismantle it with cranes and equipment so that it could be rebuilt properly. No one dreamed it could fall like a house of cards. Those who knew little about Bonfire or only heard about it after the 1999 collapse can feel smug in "knowing" that it was destined to fall, and can feel high and mighty Monday-morning quarterbacking, but the fact is no one who knew anything about Bonfire ever thought of that possibility. There were many who were against the building of Bonfire, but those concerns were (1)Environmental(trees were cut and burned), (2) Academic, (the Bonfire took time away from studies), and indeed (3) Saftey, but not in terms of the stack falling but of concerns at the cut site where axes are used and logs are often hand loaded onto trucks. In reality, the latter two reasons were usually used by those who were against the Bonfire for environmental reasons but did not want the tree-hugger label.

In terms of the unthinkable happening, I will speak of something all of us on the board basically know equally about, the much larger national tragedy of 9/11. When I saw the World Trade Center fall to the ground after seeing it said in countless movies and television episodes it was yet another shock. Now many building engineers say that the construction techniques used to make it so tall were also what doomed it to collapse entirely, but before they actually fell, did anyone ever even dream that could happen?

The fact that the design was seriously flawed and led to a total structural failure should not mean that something could not be built that would be safer and not prone to collapse.

Back to 1999; 12 who were building something they loved, died. The fact that the design was seriously flawed and led to a total structural failure should not mean that something could not be built that would be safer and not prone to collapse. The off-campus Bonfire outside of Bryan has firm rules that make it far safer and the responsible contruction techniques will surely be the basis for a safe future on-campus Bonfire. When Bonfire does return to campus it will be the safest construction project in the land.

from the Student Bonfire website:

"Similar in appearance to recent Bonfires, Student Bonfire stands 30' tall and mimics the tier design. However, all logs in Student Bonfire are touching the ground, adding stability and safety. Furthermore, centerpole is attached to 4 support poles, known as Windle Sticks. All 4 are in the ground at 7'. Centerpole is buried 9'. There is an engineer advising stack construction."

The results speak for themselves, Gig'em:

[MidtownCoog]

The simple fact that there is an offsite Student Bonfire proves that Aggies just don't get it.

[H-Town Man]

Thanks for your reply, GovernorAggie. You were a brave, mature person to ignore stereotypes and decide to experience A&M for yourself. So many people want nothing but an excuse to hate, and when they see that A&M has low figures for minorities, they say, "Ah! Racism! A chance for me to hate!" The sad thing is, white male Aggies like myself can be the friendliest most welcoming people in the world to other races, but our word means nothing. Noone on the outside believes us. It's always the same reply: "Of course you don't think A&M's racist... you don't know what it's like... (etc.)."

So I'm glad that people like yourself are having a good experience, and I hope that you continue to speak out. When the news stories broke a year ago that A&M wasn't going to use race in the admissions process, the Houston Chronicle ran a cartoon personifying A&M as an antebellum plantation owner. That hurts. The person who drew that cartoon (C.P. Houston) knew nothing about the place he was attacking - he was a liberal journalist who knew that A&M was a conservative school, and he saw a chance to attack it. I'm a grad student in the English Dept., and many of my fellow students were convinced on day one that the A&M culture is unfriendly to blacks. They'll mention places like the Dixie Chicken, and say "Oh you don't want to go there - it's all a bunch of racist rednecks!" Whereas I see black people in the Dixie Chicken, and they appear to be having a good time.

The bottom line is, people will hate what they don't understand, they will hate what they're not a part of, they will hate it when a group of people are having a good time, and they will hate people who have different beliefs. They will hate for all these reasons, and they will demonize what they hate, so they can appear justified in their hatred. Right now, accusations of racism are a huge, wonderful tool for anybody attacking conservative and rural attitudes. It makes it easy to dismiss people who might be harder to dismiss on questions like small govt. or religion. All you have to do is say, "Don't listen to all those people - they're racist," and if your listener hasn't been around these people himself, there's a chance he'll believe you. I don't mean to offend you if you're liberal - not all liberals are doing this - but it is very widespread, very hurtful, and very dirty.

[H-Town Man]

The simple fact that there is an offsite Student Bonfire proves that Aggies just don't get it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Written on the back of the t-shirts from offsite Bonfire:

"If it was easy, everyone would do it."

Exactly.