Crossing the Red Sea

Moses did it with the help of God and one bad-ass rod...methinks these are the tools necessary for the job, because I sure tried it yesterday and it did not work. That's right, I foolishly tried to make my way about downtown Lincoln yesterday when I didn't realize that the inauguration of Husker football season meant the complete shutdown of everything. But it did. Flags everywhere. Not one person who didn't have some kind of red, black or white in their clothing, on their warpainted faces, or on their big foamy hands. At 10 in the morning I was surprised to find tailgate parties going strong a few blocks from my house (mind you I live about 15 blocks from the stadium), complete with beer gardens that had their own TVs and somehow access to cable. People coming in and out of bars at 12. Everyone making some sort of pilgramage to Vine Street, and culminating the day with the reason on the insanity: Nebraska vs. Western Michigan.



I ask myself why I went out. Having parents who are both Nebraskans, I am not unaccustomed to this sort of Huskers fever. I actually knew that it would be bad. But, also being someone who doesnt really care for sports at all, I guess I was still surprised at how intense it actually was. To what degree the city (read: state, as I beleive the entire state converged on the stadium as if it were the gates to some epherial world) was devoured by red clothed addicts. Its not just a game, its "our tradition" as signs throughout the city claimed. And an inevitable part of life in Nebraska, becuase even the cash register looked at you and instead of saying having a nice day, said, "Have a good time at the game" like it was some presumption that everyone she talked to was going to the game. And while I was questioning who Bo Pelini is, heaven-sent brochures were passed around claiming "the start of a new era" under the new coach, Tom Osborne's heir and savior to the Husker Nation. I am not surprised if at the game the spectators actually got down on their knees, facing the direction of their Mecca, Tom Osborne's office, and observed a moment of silence in commeration of the football god manifested on earth.

And I would bring up the seeming contradiction that it is the football team that is most recognized at our university, which to me is the embodiment of contradiction since the general idea of football (brutes attacking each other) goes against the very idea of a liberal education, but that would be moot. The whole football academic debtate will continue to be a contradiction and me raging about it will never change anything: the university needs it money, the NFL new recruits, and the American public their entertainment manifested in the form of violence. It will always be a contradiction that football players will get their books for free under their scholarships, although it is unlikely that they will read those books, and those who have comitted their lives to the study of said books and along with it have taken upon themselves the shackles of voluntary poverty (aka grad students) are expected to buy the books themselves with the little money with which they are compensated, so why rage about it here? Like I said, moot.

I dont even know who won the game, but will hear echoing in my head forever, "Go Big Red!"