I’ll be at the parade for the National Champion Gamecocks on Friday, and I’m sure it will be great, but… we had a parade last year. And we flew a flag from the State House, etc.
All of that was very fine. But it seems like when they win the championship two years in a row, we ought to do something exponentially bigger. Something that really shows some lasting, monumental pride in the new Gamecock dynasty.
Yesterday, I was exchanging Tweets with Aaron Sheinin about the big win (he called it a “Great win for the common man”), when it hit me, and I responded:
If we don’t build a triumphal arch in front of the State House, we’ll never have a better chance. (Hey, I think I’ll blog that.)
Why not? Just move the Confederate soldier monument, and its flag, back to Elmwood Cemetery where it used to be (bet you didn’t know that), and replace it with something on the order of the monument they have in Paris, or Washington Square, or the Marble Arch in London?
This afternoon I heard SC Commerce Sec. Bobby Hitt touting the Gamecocks achievement as a sign to the world (and really, to ourselves) of what we can do in South Carolina if we work as a team. Instead of, I would add, fighting with each other all the time.
Wouldn’t that be awesome? Isn’t it high time that we start defining ourselves in terms of a famous victory, instead of our historic defeat? Isn’t it time to stop wallowing in the biggest mistake our (or any other) state ever made, and proclaim to the world just how great we can be?
I think so.
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If we could figure out a way to make the Clemson fans pay for it that would be even better.
By the way — the idea was mine, but Brian Murrell at ADCO, who bills himself as the “World’s biggest gamecocks fan,” helped me show you what it would look like.
If the state was run like a baseball team, 1/3 of the players wouldn’t show up, and 1/3 would sit on the bench waiting for the other 1/3 to do the work.
We’ll need some changes in the emblems on the arch. I’d like to see rampant kudzu in the background, columns capped in the style of palmetto trees rather than acanthus, and a few palmetto beetles tastefully depicted near the base.
Doug, so the state IS run like a baseball team.
How about a parade with the SC National Guard troops that are returning from Afgan marching in the front. It would be great for everyone and it is two groups that SC can be proud of.
The “Ray Tanner Victory Arch?” And I like the kudzu and Palmetto bugs idea.
By the way, in case you haven’t heard, the parade is at noon, on Main Street, on Friday.
Also, this is sort of cool… these banners will go up on light poles starting next week, courtesy of the City Center Partnership.
That’s right, Steven. And the third who are sitting on the bench are complaining about having to be there.