Hor, Hor, Hor!

Spotty missed International Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arggh! And he had a pist in mind, so he did! So heers a beelated pist fer ya.

English is hard enough for a Dalmatian, much less pirate dialect, so Spot will continue in his version of standard English.

Andrew Bourne, a former marine officer and a candidate for Geoff Michel’s senate seat, wrote an op-ed piece for the Minnesota Daily entitled Stadium should honor service. The Daily is, of course, the daily student newspaper at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus. Andrew says:

State leaders from both sides of the aisle should call for a naming amendment to any public funding bill for the stadium, so that when the Gophers rally on the gridiron, they do so under a name recognizing the important civic duty of military service. “Soldier’s Field,” “War Memorial Stadium,” or “Veteran’s Field” would be an apt addition to TCF Bank’s moniker. To do so would be a fitting reminder to Minnesotans of the ongoing cost of war in Iraq and elsewhere. It could also be supported by those who have been critical of U.S. handling of the war thus far.

Spotty will go further. The stadium should be named Memorial Stadium. Period. That’s the name of the old and venerable on-campus stadium that was torn down at the behest of downtown business interests to help justify the building of the Metrodome.

It is a shameful piracy of a piece of the University’s soul to name the stadium after a Minneapolis Savings and Loan. This is what a bill championed by Senator Michel proposes to do. Never mind that the S & L is owned by the biggest sugar daddy that the Republican party in Minnesota has ever seen: William Cooper.

Spot says that the University’s stadium comes first, and that the state should provide the money for it. If William Cooper is so hepped up on supporting stadiums, let him finance a new lane on 35W to the proposed Vikings stadium in Blaine. Call is Cooper’s Way, if he wants.

But the University is not for sale.

Tags: Geoff Michel Andrew Borene University of Minnesota