Political Correctness Run Amuck!?!

1) Clearly one has to conclude its nutty political correctness gone batty when you read about what the University of North Dakota did visa vie its mascot/name of its teams. The soon to be former "Fighting Sioux" name is going to be expunged from the university all together. Now, its NOT the University that is at fault here, but the NCAA. For those who aren't up on this issue. UND is the only school deemed by the NCAA to have a “hostile or abusive” logo or nickname not to have changed the name or been granted a waiver to keep it. Unless the school got the permission of the state’s two Sioux tribes to keep the nickname, (One said yes, the other no.- more on that shortly) , it must change the name or its teams wouldn’t be allowed to compete in postseason tournaments starting next year.

2) In reality we're told one man Clyde Bellecourt is the one who is pushing the issue. He is an American Indian Movement activist who says “They think they honor our people by turning us into nothing but mascots for their fun and games,”. Oddly however Clyde refuses to allow the Standing Rock Sioux tribe members to vote on the issue, like the other tribe, Spirit Lake Sioux did when they OK'd the continuation of the use of the name. Could a pay off from the school (or lack there of) have been the reason for the lack of permission? One insider tells us that members of the Tribal council quietly asked for the school to fund several projects in their reservation and the school turned them down fearing an avalanche of such requests thus cementing their refusal to allow a vote and to nix the schools long standing logo.

3) The NCAA, ever trying to please everyone and thus displeasing everyone has been on the war path-sort of speak- to try to eliminate all school nick names that even one person might find offensive and replace them with Lilly-white, fluffy, happy, usually inane nick names that have zero connection to the institution. The kicker to this story is that ND does NOT have a replacement name yet approved and thus their teams going into the 12-13 college season will be nameless. How sad as well as dumb will it be for one of the premier hockey programs in the US to be stripped of their iconic name? A school that has churned out the likes of Doug Smail, Jason Blake, Troy Murray, Zac Parise, Dennis Hextall, Drew Stafford, Craig Ludwig, Jonathan Towes, James Patrick, Dave Tippett, Travis Zajac, Dave Christian, and Ed Belfour. Its too bad the school and the hold out tribe couldn't bury the hatchet, smoke a peace pipe and continue to keep things as they are. For if we can live in a country where there is no real out cry over a team called "The Red Skins" (an actual racist-inflammatory name) there shouldn't be one over a team that gives respect, and praise to the older North Dakota Immigrants,(they are no more native than any of us!) the Sioux.