On the warpath about Wildcats

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

— “Romeo and Juliet,”
Act 2, Scene 2

Impassioned soliloquies on social media and in coffee klatches suggest Shakespeare got it wrong. When it comes to picking nicknames for middle school sports teams, passions among community members, parents, students, and school employees appear to run high.

But does our community actually merit nicknames those soliloquies extol: Wildcats, Warriors, or something equally fearsome? From our behavior — sniping from the shadows but for the most part refusing to share concerns in public — perhaps the nicknames we deserve might be less fearsome: the Mice, the Sheep, the Scaredy Cats, even the Yellow Bellies.

School nicknames set an example for young people. If, when the going gets tough, most people get going in the opposite direction, what example are we setting?

Some say the issue of what to call middle school teams is trivial. One of the first lessons journalists learn is there’s no such thing as an insignificant story. To someone, every story is the most important thing ever reported. To many on both sides of the Warriors vs. Wildcats debate, the issue is anything but trivial.

But that begs the question why so few people have managed to avail themselves of one of the most cherished rights in our democracy — the right to speak out and, in particular, to speak truth as they see it to power.

More than a right, it’s a responsibility. If citizens don’t engage with elected and appointed officials, democracy withers and is replaced by bureaucratic or autocratic rule.

Twice so far, school officials have conducted sparsely attended public meetings on the mascot question. Monday night, the school board itself invited public comment. Yet despite screen after screen of comments on social media and hour after hour of discussion in workplaces and coffee shops, only one citizen proved worthy of the Wildcat or Warrior name by actually speaking up during the board’s public comment segment Monday night.

A couple of others made comments later in the meeting, but for a topic about which passion appears to run high, most concerned citizens seemed to run in the opposite direction in what definitely was a low point for democracy.

Such behavior unfortunately isn’t limited to mascot debates. On any number of issues, far too many members of the public appear to believe that spitting in the wind of social media is all they need to do to fulfill their responsibilities as citizens in a democracy.

Journalists long have accepted that one of their key roles is to give voice to the voiceless. As a group, we’re often willing to have targets painted on our backs by raising issues that others for some reason are unable or unwilling to raise on their own. But we honestly tire paying the price for making ourselves targets when the public is too lazy or too fearful to step out of the shadows and engage in democratic debate.

It’s easy to adopt a mindset of worrying only about transgender abortion doctors streaming across borders to stuff ballot boxes. What suffers when such things are the only topics people will speak out about is our local communities and the real issues they face.

Cribbing ideas from various slogans of the past, middle school sports teams here could be the Lakers, the Legends, the Settlers, or the Rhinos. Taking a page from more recent history, they could be the Raiders. Historically, they could revert to being the Terrible Tribe. But lack of public engagement and willingness to hide behind anti-social media might make Terrified Tribe more appropriate.

In coming weeks, yet another attempt will be made to invite comment on the mascot issue. All sides of that debate should be heard — those who favor Warriors, those who favor Wildcats, those who favor something else, and those who think the issue is just another distraction from more pressing issues about education.

They need to be heard not in some survey or flyer or rant-and-rave anti-social media site. They need to be heard in person, with people willing to speak up and then listen openly to what others say.

We’ve fought wars to instill both the right and the responsibility to do no less. Let’s not surrender these because we’re afraid of being belittled or are too busy watching whatever new show dropped on Netflix. Let’s show our young Warriors, Wildcats, or whatever we want to call them it means to be citizens in our democracy. Otherwise, let’s revel in Vladimir Putin’s smile as we sit back and order T-shirts honoring the Marion– Florence Mice.

— ERIC MEYER