Doug Loudenback
11-08-2005, 08:54 PM
If any of you have ventured into HornetsReportDotCom, perhaps the largest Hornets websites that exists, you already know that you are not welcome there if you are from OKC unless you tow the party line there. I'm close to the breaking point, if I've not crossed it already, about being tolerant and gratious, at least as to the topic of the Hornets.
I've just posted the following diatribe at http://www.okchornetsbuzz.com/ and I'll repeat it here, just because it feels good to do so.
* * *The main thing (and there are several) that irk me about several, perhaps an understatement, HornetsReport website people is that they seem to have the notion that severe adversity gives them license to abandon common courtesy, freedom of speech (unless you agree with the website's perspective), and, perhaps most narrow, that N.O. is the only place on the planet, or even this country, that has experienced horrific adversity. It makes them special and they have license to act, speak, whatever, anyway they want.
1st, truth is, under the 1st amendment, we all have the privilege to speak freely .. except that a little unknown footnote to the 1st Amendment carves out a special place for HornetsReport that gives it a "special place", a bubble, around which the 1st Amendment does not apply ... unless it suits the N.O. fan base, in which case you can, without challenge, say just about anything the most vulgar and base person would be inclined to spew out of his unflushed-toilet mouth ... a trait which apparently translates seamlessly to one's hands on the keyboard.
As some of you know who have posted at OkcTalk, I've been cautious about jumping to conclusions about HornetsReport anti-Okc people ... not knowing if such venomous people were truly representative of thier community (and, still, I doubt, at least hope, that they are are not). Many, if not most (and I know there are others here and in this community who think differently) don't want to "take" the Hornets ... we are happy to be their temporary hosts, and will enjoy them for as long as it lasts. If it ends, we are and will be glad to have had the Hornets in OKC, and, most likely, we will have demonstrated that an NBA team, even if not the Hornets, will be successful here ... more than might be able to be truthfully said about how the City of New Orleans cared for its baby child after the team moved there from Charlotte what ... 3-4 years ago, before the 2005 hurricanes? The Hornets can scarcely be said to be a N.O. institution, unlike Bourboun Street. They are not even close to being the same as being a part of the New Orleans identification and mistique.
I won't get into how well N.O. cared for it's 3-4 year old baby that many of the the HornetsReport people espouse their undying affection for (and discounting the ignoramuses who would prefer for the Hornets to be woefully unsuccessful during their stay in OKC ... hmmm ... a good Brothers Grimm story in the making, don't you think? ...
But, the more I read at HornetsReport (I've never registered there ... just lurk now and then), the less I am inclined to be tempered in my thoughts and feelings.
Why?
Many HornetsReport people grant themselves licence to be disrespectul of Okc people or any other people who disagree with their perspective that they "own" the Hornets. It's their property. Of course, that's totally ignorant since George Shinn owns the Hornets.
More, HornetsReport people grant themselves licence to throw tantrums and spew out their outrageous speech toward this northern end of the Louisiana Purchase since they have undergone such incredible disaster, which they doubtless have. They have a wall switch ... it's the "Be polite" switch. They can turn that switch "on" for us (else get banned), but for them it is permanently turned "off", whatever N.O. free-speakers care to say is OK by HornetsReport. If there have been messages by moderators there saying, "Hey, guys/gals ... where are your fine N.O. manners ... after all, WE are better than them Okies ... WE are the gentile South" ... I've never seen such a Mrs. Manners type of comment by any of the moderators there, but maybe i missed such a reproach, but there should have been scores of them by now, and so that's not likely that I missed such an obscure rebuke.
What a crock of ****. New Orleans is not the only place to have suffered extreme natural and/or unnatural disaster. Forget about the Murrah Bombing. Forget about tornadoes. We experienced the horror of the Murrah experience, and experience the horrors of tornadoes on a regular basis, so much so that we get numb to them. But, addtionally, Oklahoma has experienced a natural disater, though it wasn't as immediate, but which was every bit as much as devasting as the New Orleans 2005 experience.
It was called the Dust Bowl.
An earlier poster mentioned how much Oklahoma and Oklahomans suffered in the days of the Dust Bowl ... ala Woodie Guthrie and the Grapes of Wrath days. Thousands and thousands of Oklahomans lost their property, their farms, everything they owned they could not fit onto thier crappy vintage pickup truck, if they had one, and ventured outside the state to places they might find more hospitable since nothing was left for them here but mortgage foreclosures and memories of family and friends. Nothing was left for them here. Nothing. Nothing but waste and an absence of hope.
The "event" was not as immediate as a hurricane, but over the years of the drought of the Dust Bowl period, it may well have been more proufound to the 1920s - early 1940s in its impact that the hurricanes which, in a single season, have devasated much of the central Gulf Coast. My ancestors stuck it out ... and I'm still here. But, if anyone wants to see those dark days when nothing could be seen but the horrific dark dust storms in which you could see, at noontime, barely past the point of your nose, they are available to be seen on the internet. As late as 1943, when I was born, and even at the end of that period which came a few years later, I can recall as a small child in the late 1940's being able to barely see across the street in Clinton, Oklahoma, in western Oklahoma, where I lived with my grandmother at the time.
Oklahoma's Dust Bowl natural disaster, though not having a single moment to focus upon, may well have been worse in its impact that the 2005 N.O. hurricanes ... and for which citizens all around the country are paying, either in taxes, or in voluntary gifts. I wasn't around in the 1930's, but I'm pretty sure that we Okies had to go it pretty much on our own. We still bear the stain of that era, but we are still here. You jerks down in N.O. seem to think that the USA, the world, wherever, "owes" you something. If you think that, well, I disagree.
And, now, we are proud to have survived ... actually, more accurately, that our grandmothers and grandfathers, and their children, did. I, among many, am a benificiary of their tenacity and "I ain't gonna give up" attitude. Not only those who hopelessly left Oklahoma, but those who remained, were dubbed, "OKIES", a term of disrespect and condescension. I even think that I've heard that term used on HornetsReport, but I'm not sure.
The time that such a thing mattered is in the past. We, in Oklahoma, aren't sensitive about it anymore. Instead, we wear the badge "OKIE" with pride ... remembering our grandparents and parents who struggled through that period without billions of aid coming from ... anywhere ... the federal government ... anywhere. We (they) were on our (their) own.
There was a time that we didn't like the term, "OKIE". But, today, we are (and least I am) proud to say, when anyone asks, "Hey, what are you, an OKIE?" that we give the response (knowing they intend disrespect), "Damn straight, you stupid-ass son-of-a-bitch, and damned proud of it. Anything else you want to know?"
Of course, in the Dust Bowl era, professiononal sports were a nothing. Survival was the thing. I'm a descendant of those who survived and stayed ... my grandprents, and my parents, and I'm not about to take all that crap you throw at my ancestors. I'm here, though my grandparents and parents are dead, because they stayed. And I'm one who is proud to say, "You're doing fine, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, OK!"
Oh ... I'm getting carried away ... and, for a moment, I forgot about those at HornetsReport who don't seem to give a damn about anything other than the Hornets which they apparently presume and claim to own. As if that's more important than the human misery which surely is on-going as we speak ... can you imagine the California bound OKIE-farmers in the Dust Bowl era thinking about a professional sports team? They were merely hoping to get a meal, or a job, and not have to panhandle, one day to the next. So, that's part of why I am so disgusted with some the posts at HornetsReport. That, and you're general inclination to be rude, crude, and socially unacceptable.
Well ... what can I say, given what I've already said above. I'm pained about the New Orleans tragedy. I wish it hadn't happened. I couldn't stop it from happening. I'm sorry that you no longer, at least for now, can support any professional sport team, Hornets, Saints, whatever. But your tragedy does not give you license to say and be incredibly rude to anyone. No one. Whether they agree with you, or not. I assume that the hurricanes did not strip you of your manners, if they were there to begin with.
But ... a confession ... I'm getting very close to thinking along the lines of that great line in Al Pachino's Scent of a Woman when he delivered his climactic speech on the stage at the end of the movie. He looked into the audience, blind though he was, and spoke to the real culprits (whetever their names were), and said, "John and Robert ... well, F... You Too!"
I'd rather it didn't come down to that sort of thing, but after mountains of trash are eagerly thown our way from the unbridled trash-talkers at HornetsReport, it becomes much easier to be less magnanamous and friendly, particuarly when the spit in your face comes so frequently and at just about at every opporutunity that comes along.
I'm guessing that the opportunities will become more, not less, for them to do that, as time passes by.
Long speech. Could it be more suscinctly stated? Sure ...
I'm getting tired of putting upon with you *******s at HornetsReport, and all that think the same way that you do, described above. Natural disasters do not give license for you to be bleeping creeps. Keep it up and my sympathy tolerance which is almost at zero will be there. Actually, the tolerance meter presently reads 0.000000001.
Sorry for the rant. I'd not be able to do the same thing at HornetsReportDotCom.
I've just posted the following diatribe at http://www.okchornetsbuzz.com/ and I'll repeat it here, just because it feels good to do so.
* * *The main thing (and there are several) that irk me about several, perhaps an understatement, HornetsReport website people is that they seem to have the notion that severe adversity gives them license to abandon common courtesy, freedom of speech (unless you agree with the website's perspective), and, perhaps most narrow, that N.O. is the only place on the planet, or even this country, that has experienced horrific adversity. It makes them special and they have license to act, speak, whatever, anyway they want.
1st, truth is, under the 1st amendment, we all have the privilege to speak freely .. except that a little unknown footnote to the 1st Amendment carves out a special place for HornetsReport that gives it a "special place", a bubble, around which the 1st Amendment does not apply ... unless it suits the N.O. fan base, in which case you can, without challenge, say just about anything the most vulgar and base person would be inclined to spew out of his unflushed-toilet mouth ... a trait which apparently translates seamlessly to one's hands on the keyboard.
As some of you know who have posted at OkcTalk, I've been cautious about jumping to conclusions about HornetsReport anti-Okc people ... not knowing if such venomous people were truly representative of thier community (and, still, I doubt, at least hope, that they are are not). Many, if not most (and I know there are others here and in this community who think differently) don't want to "take" the Hornets ... we are happy to be their temporary hosts, and will enjoy them for as long as it lasts. If it ends, we are and will be glad to have had the Hornets in OKC, and, most likely, we will have demonstrated that an NBA team, even if not the Hornets, will be successful here ... more than might be able to be truthfully said about how the City of New Orleans cared for its baby child after the team moved there from Charlotte what ... 3-4 years ago, before the 2005 hurricanes? The Hornets can scarcely be said to be a N.O. institution, unlike Bourboun Street. They are not even close to being the same as being a part of the New Orleans identification and mistique.
I won't get into how well N.O. cared for it's 3-4 year old baby that many of the the HornetsReport people espouse their undying affection for (and discounting the ignoramuses who would prefer for the Hornets to be woefully unsuccessful during their stay in OKC ... hmmm ... a good Brothers Grimm story in the making, don't you think? ...
But, the more I read at HornetsReport (I've never registered there ... just lurk now and then), the less I am inclined to be tempered in my thoughts and feelings.
Why?
Many HornetsReport people grant themselves licence to be disrespectul of Okc people or any other people who disagree with their perspective that they "own" the Hornets. It's their property. Of course, that's totally ignorant since George Shinn owns the Hornets.
More, HornetsReport people grant themselves licence to throw tantrums and spew out their outrageous speech toward this northern end of the Louisiana Purchase since they have undergone such incredible disaster, which they doubtless have. They have a wall switch ... it's the "Be polite" switch. They can turn that switch "on" for us (else get banned), but for them it is permanently turned "off", whatever N.O. free-speakers care to say is OK by HornetsReport. If there have been messages by moderators there saying, "Hey, guys/gals ... where are your fine N.O. manners ... after all, WE are better than them Okies ... WE are the gentile South" ... I've never seen such a Mrs. Manners type of comment by any of the moderators there, but maybe i missed such a reproach, but there should have been scores of them by now, and so that's not likely that I missed such an obscure rebuke.
What a crock of ****. New Orleans is not the only place to have suffered extreme natural and/or unnatural disaster. Forget about the Murrah Bombing. Forget about tornadoes. We experienced the horror of the Murrah experience, and experience the horrors of tornadoes on a regular basis, so much so that we get numb to them. But, addtionally, Oklahoma has experienced a natural disater, though it wasn't as immediate, but which was every bit as much as devasting as the New Orleans 2005 experience.
It was called the Dust Bowl.
An earlier poster mentioned how much Oklahoma and Oklahomans suffered in the days of the Dust Bowl ... ala Woodie Guthrie and the Grapes of Wrath days. Thousands and thousands of Oklahomans lost their property, their farms, everything they owned they could not fit onto thier crappy vintage pickup truck, if they had one, and ventured outside the state to places they might find more hospitable since nothing was left for them here but mortgage foreclosures and memories of family and friends. Nothing was left for them here. Nothing. Nothing but waste and an absence of hope.
The "event" was not as immediate as a hurricane, but over the years of the drought of the Dust Bowl period, it may well have been more proufound to the 1920s - early 1940s in its impact that the hurricanes which, in a single season, have devasated much of the central Gulf Coast. My ancestors stuck it out ... and I'm still here. But, if anyone wants to see those dark days when nothing could be seen but the horrific dark dust storms in which you could see, at noontime, barely past the point of your nose, they are available to be seen on the internet. As late as 1943, when I was born, and even at the end of that period which came a few years later, I can recall as a small child in the late 1940's being able to barely see across the street in Clinton, Oklahoma, in western Oklahoma, where I lived with my grandmother at the time.
Oklahoma's Dust Bowl natural disaster, though not having a single moment to focus upon, may well have been worse in its impact that the 2005 N.O. hurricanes ... and for which citizens all around the country are paying, either in taxes, or in voluntary gifts. I wasn't around in the 1930's, but I'm pretty sure that we Okies had to go it pretty much on our own. We still bear the stain of that era, but we are still here. You jerks down in N.O. seem to think that the USA, the world, wherever, "owes" you something. If you think that, well, I disagree.
And, now, we are proud to have survived ... actually, more accurately, that our grandmothers and grandfathers, and their children, did. I, among many, am a benificiary of their tenacity and "I ain't gonna give up" attitude. Not only those who hopelessly left Oklahoma, but those who remained, were dubbed, "OKIES", a term of disrespect and condescension. I even think that I've heard that term used on HornetsReport, but I'm not sure.
The time that such a thing mattered is in the past. We, in Oklahoma, aren't sensitive about it anymore. Instead, we wear the badge "OKIE" with pride ... remembering our grandparents and parents who struggled through that period without billions of aid coming from ... anywhere ... the federal government ... anywhere. We (they) were on our (their) own.
There was a time that we didn't like the term, "OKIE". But, today, we are (and least I am) proud to say, when anyone asks, "Hey, what are you, an OKIE?" that we give the response (knowing they intend disrespect), "Damn straight, you stupid-ass son-of-a-bitch, and damned proud of it. Anything else you want to know?"
Of course, in the Dust Bowl era, professiononal sports were a nothing. Survival was the thing. I'm a descendant of those who survived and stayed ... my grandprents, and my parents, and I'm not about to take all that crap you throw at my ancestors. I'm here, though my grandparents and parents are dead, because they stayed. And I'm one who is proud to say, "You're doing fine, Oklahoma, Oklahoma, OK!"
Oh ... I'm getting carried away ... and, for a moment, I forgot about those at HornetsReport who don't seem to give a damn about anything other than the Hornets which they apparently presume and claim to own. As if that's more important than the human misery which surely is on-going as we speak ... can you imagine the California bound OKIE-farmers in the Dust Bowl era thinking about a professional sports team? They were merely hoping to get a meal, or a job, and not have to panhandle, one day to the next. So, that's part of why I am so disgusted with some the posts at HornetsReport. That, and you're general inclination to be rude, crude, and socially unacceptable.
Well ... what can I say, given what I've already said above. I'm pained about the New Orleans tragedy. I wish it hadn't happened. I couldn't stop it from happening. I'm sorry that you no longer, at least for now, can support any professional sport team, Hornets, Saints, whatever. But your tragedy does not give you license to say and be incredibly rude to anyone. No one. Whether they agree with you, or not. I assume that the hurricanes did not strip you of your manners, if they were there to begin with.
But ... a confession ... I'm getting very close to thinking along the lines of that great line in Al Pachino's Scent of a Woman when he delivered his climactic speech on the stage at the end of the movie. He looked into the audience, blind though he was, and spoke to the real culprits (whetever their names were), and said, "John and Robert ... well, F... You Too!"
I'd rather it didn't come down to that sort of thing, but after mountains of trash are eagerly thown our way from the unbridled trash-talkers at HornetsReport, it becomes much easier to be less magnanamous and friendly, particuarly when the spit in your face comes so frequently and at just about at every opporutunity that comes along.
I'm guessing that the opportunities will become more, not less, for them to do that, as time passes by.
Long speech. Could it be more suscinctly stated? Sure ...
I'm getting tired of putting upon with you *******s at HornetsReport, and all that think the same way that you do, described above. Natural disasters do not give license for you to be bleeping creeps. Keep it up and my sympathy tolerance which is almost at zero will be there. Actually, the tolerance meter presently reads 0.000000001.
Sorry for the rant. I'd not be able to do the same thing at HornetsReportDotCom.