Schoolyard Bullies
By Trent Loos

Many life lessons are being learned in our nation’s schools these days and some of the best don’t actually come from textbooks. Last week I received a phone call from an FFA advisor at a high school near Green Bay, WI. She said their chapter and alumni organization were planning a Donkey Basketball game. A student at the school e-mailed PETA and they sent three form letters in protest to the Superintendent. The superintendent told the advisor to cancel the event because he does not want the school or the FFA to get a black eye.

I assured her that under no circumstances should they cancel this fundraiser. Furthermore, what kind of a message are we sending to the students if we are ready to abandon a good activity and cave in to activists because of three letters? The vocal minority cannot continue to throw their weight around in this country. Students in this and every other school must see that.

For the life of me, I don’t understand why we have such a fear free publicity. The local television station called administrators after they were notified by PETA about the “cruel and unusual sport” that was about to take place at the school. The TV station wanted to do a story on the game but the administration was afraid of bad publicity. The toughest thing to do is get free publicity about events like this and they should run to the TV crew not away from them.

The message is very simple in this case. This is a fundraising event for the FFA program. Everyone knows it is increasingly more difficult to find funding to support extracurricular programs and donkey basketball seems to me to be a perfect way to generate funds for a program that helps build future leaders. Why donkey basketball? We have a huge sports craze sweeping the nation. Someone once told me that if we would call agriculture “farmball,” people might more excited about what we do. So donkey basketball may the closest thing to farmball we can get.

However, this isn’t about the donkeys, it is about doing what is right for the kids. By standing up for what we believe in, rural Americas are seeing our task to completion. With only 1.5% of nation’s population, we are definitely a minority, so how do we make sure that our voices are heard? Here is a perfect example. When the spotlight is on us, we must step up to the microphone and proudly state our purpose. We must keep in mind that most Americans consider farming to be a respected profession and they are fed up with the terrorist tactics and radical unlawfulness of groups like PETA.

I assured everyone involved in the donkey basketball discussion that they should welcome the publicity and if they explain the purpose of the benefit, the public would come out in full force to support the event. I predict that not only will the local community rise to the occasion, but the entire region will be supportive of the youth program.

It turns out that the TV reporter did come out to the school. The FFA advisor, the athletic director and members of the FFA did a tremendous job of staying on message. The focus of the “news” report, however, was not on the benefits of the fundraiser but on the three objectors and their concern for how the people might be too heavy for the donkeys. Haven’t humans been riding donkeys since biblical times and before? Yet it is now something that the donkeys can’t handle. It seems to me that they are really stretching to come up with a “reason” to cancel the event.

Any news viewer with a lick of common sense is going to see through this charade and recognize the benefits of the fundraiser while dismissing the radical extremist view of a few squeaky wheels, despite the media’s attempt to influence opinions rather than just present the facts. It is important not only to support our future leaders but to show them we are willing to take a stand against the vocal minority to defend what we are doing right. That is the most important lesson that anyone can take home from this school controversy.

 

top