Sep 24, 2012
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A Pennsylvania high school marching band is raising eyebrows with a halftime performance that commemorates the Russian revolution, complete with red flags, olive military-style uniforms, and giant hammers and sickles.
“St. Petersburg: 1917” is the theme for the New Oxford High School Marching Band. Ironically, the school’s athletic teams are called the Colonials and their colors are red, white and blue. The band’s website features a picture of the group with students holding a hammer and sickle.
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“There is no reason for Americans to celebrate the Russian revolution,” said one irate parent who alerted Fox News. “I am sure the millions who died under Communism would not see the joy of celebrating the Russian revolution by a school 10 miles from Gettysburg.”
The parent, who asked not to be identified, attended a football last Friday night with his children. He said he was shocked by what he saw.
“It was Glee meets the Russian Revolution,” he told Fox News. “I’m not kidding you. They had giant hammers and sickles and they were waving them around.”
“Who thought this was a good idea?”
Rebecca Harbaugh, the superintendent for the Conewago Valley School District, told Fox News that the band’s performance was “not an endorsement of communism at all.”
“It’s a representation of the time period in history called St. Petersburg 1917,” she said. “I am truly sorry that somebody took the performance in that manner. I am.”
“If anything is being celebrated it’s the music,” she said. “It is what it is. I understand people look at something and choose how to interpret that and I’m just very sorry that it wasn’t looked at as just a history lesson.”
Besides, she explained, “in 2008 we did an entire show on freedom.”
But some critics said it’s outrageous for any American school to be celebrating such a violent era.
“It would be tantamount to celebrating the music of 1935 Berlin,” the parent said. “If I was Lithuanian, Estonian, or Ukrainian, I’d be a little hot. I’d be really hot. It’s insulting to glorify something that doesn’t need to be glorified in America.”
Paul Kengor is the executive director for the Center for Vision & Values at Pennsylvania’s Grove City College.
He initially thought the halftime performance was a joke.
“This is surreal,” he told Fox News. “This is like something out of the Twilight Zone – but it’s even stranger than that.”
Kengor said even if the school was not celebrating the revolution “they seem to be commemorating this to some degree.”
“The Bolshevik Revolution launched a global Communist revolution that from 1917 through the 1990s was responsible for the deaths of over a hundred million people,” he said. “What the Russian revolution unleashed was a nightmare – a historical human catastrophe. This is something that should be condemned and not in any way commemorated or laughed at.”
Gerson Moreno-Riano, dean of Regent University’s College of Arts & Sciences, told Fox News the performance is shocking.
“The Russian revolution was one of the most violent episodes of the 20th Century,” he said. “Lenin put into place a doctrine of mass terror to crush the opposition and thousands and thousands of people were murdered.
The history professor said there’s very little to celebrate in that movement.
“It’s full of violence, terror, destruction and in some weeks thousands of people were executed – some thrown with rocks around their necks into the river to drown,” he said.
“It’s quite frankly horrific that a high school would be celebrating that at a football game,” he said.
He was even more disturbed by the group photograph of the band in front of the hammer and sickle.
“To raise the emblems of the hammer and sickle – the emblems of so much violence, destruction and terror – is a lack of knowledge of history,” he said.
In the best case scenario, he said the editors were simply ignorant of the era.
“The worst case scenario is someone who is trying to celebrate something they know about – and they’re trying to insert this into their educational agenda,” he said.
FOX News Talk
Maybe the "anonymous concerned" parent should act like an adult and talk to the band staff about their concerns with the show design, instead of running down a marching band that kids and staff alike put thousands of hours into, comfortably, and anonymously, from their bleecher seats.
Maybe you should consider the possibility that you didn't understand the show, or the designers intentions, because YOU are too uneducated and stupid to get it. People don't want to admit that to themselves, or take responsibility for their comments and opinions, so they sit back and write anonymous letters to the media and slam a program. Where the staff are doing great things for their students, teaching life skills to students that some, if not most, of them will probably never get at home.
Nice job Fox News, for empowering ignorance and attacking people trying to do great things for their communities. Keep up the good work, maybe everyone will stop trying to provide kids with great educational experiences someday soon!
Maybe the "anonymous concerned" parent should act like an adult and talk to the band staff about their concerns with the show design, instead of running down a marching band that kids and staff alike put thousands of hours into, comfortably, and anonymously, from their bleecher seats.
Maybe you should consider the possibility that you didn't understand the show, or the designers intentions, because YOU are too uneducated and stupid to get it. People don't want to admit that to themselves, or take responsibility for their comments and opinions, so they sit back and write anonymous letters to the media and slam a program. Where the staff are doing great things for their students, teaching life skills to students that some, if not most, of them will probably never get at home.
Nice job Fox News, for empowering ignorance and attacking people trying to do great things for their communities. Keep up the good work, maybe everyone will stop trying to provide kids with great educational experiences someday soon!
yeah, what Marc said but BALDER…We MUST have more important things to do than ridicule marching bands for doing RUSSIAN MUSIC…There isnt ANYTHING more important going on in the WORLD?
From the arguments supplied in the article, the stance is suggesting that most plays and musicals, commonly performed in high schools, should not be done either.
Well said Mr. Garside!
The type of people that are OUTRAGED by this show are the same people that say marching bands kill fields.
I guess they should do a show about the French Revolution. You know, because THAT was all sunshine and daisies too.
Great job Marc! I agree with you! I'm sure NOBODY WAS COMPLAINING about the GODFATHER mob murders, SPARTACUS killings, and other show themes that were used over the years! IT'S A FREEEEKIN THEME FOR A SHOW THAT DEPICTS A PERIOD IN HISTORY!! GET REAL MORONS!!! REALLY!?!?! …oh my bad…..you would probably rather have the ridiculous things like JERSEY SHORE continue for 6 MORE SEASONS than to see a performance by kids that they put a lot of hard work and energy into, just to try and teach you something. NICE!
To Marc Garside – The band director could have chosen a different way to display this artistic event. Maybe a symbol other than the hammer and sickle would have been less inflammatory. A lot of people seem to be upset about this – not just a few based on these posts. Considering the amount of people who died during this time period, the band director could have used better judgment in how he displayed his "props." What exactly did the band learn from this show about the period of history that they were musically depicting. Do you all know the true history behind this event or was this just a show and you had no knowledge of the history and millions of brutal deaths during this revolution?
Were they celebrating the hammer and sickle? Were they soluting it? What were they doing that was so offensive? It's a well known, and seen in many other places, symbol. Guess we should not let our kids watch any James Bond movies….. and people comparing it to Nazi symbols, it's not exactly the same thing. There wasn't one population targeted for extermination. I guess we should not acknowledge anything in history that was bloody……so, a show about any revelotion would be too "offensive."
Let's get real, our own American history is not all roses and butterflies either. Should we ignore all of that? I think the real disconnect here is the perception that this band was "celebrating" communism, or the soviet union, or mass murder……….and that wasn't the case. The competitive marching band activity has progressed as an art form beyond the common perception that marching bands play John Phillip Sousa songa and have to be patriotic and happy. That society and time period was an important time for music history. Shostakovich is one of the most famous composers of all time. Should we erase that history because it might not all be pleasant? Should we erase all the bad parts of it? Don't you see what's wrong with that??? You want censorship!?!? Is that was the USA is about now? No where, do I see any evidence, that this band was CELEBRATING communism. It was simply portraying communism in a form of art.
Do people out there really think this band director sat and tried to figure out a way to push his communist agenda via his high school's marching band show? Gimme a break. Stop looking for stuff that's not there you paranoid freaks.
The real crime here is that this isolated incident gets all of this negative attention, while at the same time, there are thousands of competitive bands and drum corps around the country doing amazing things, pushing the envelope of human artistic and athletic boundaries, and where is Fox News then? No where. Good news doesn't sell I guess, so create a scandal.
Marching band is an art. Every show has a story. I don't understand why so many are offended by this.
Maybe next year the band will do music stylings from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or would that be celebrating American obesity?
For all those people getting so worked up about this because of reading one biased article from a "news" company known for making things up and for being more than extremely biased, here's a little something from the other side. Anyone who knows anything knows that before you can make a good, educated, and coherent decision, you need to have both sides. So here you go:
http://thepoliticalzealot.com/2012/09/25/american-marching-band-marches-to-honor-shostakovich-not-russian-revolution/
All the Adults that posted comments about how the kids are stupid need to shut up. Marching band is an art, an art that kids work their butt off for. How ignorant can you be to call the kids stupid? Take it from a "stupid" marching band kid, they spent at least over 40 hours practicing this show. Besides, they have to do what the band director tells them to. This marching band is celebrating culture, diversity, and history. I am ashamed at what adults are saying. Adults are supposed to be the most mature, but most of you sound like 2nd graders. It is a sad day when adults are the least mature.
A "Stupid" marching band kid and Pit section leader,
Alison.
Just shows how Fox makes anyone look like a complete and total moron.
It was on MSN too.
How about this Laura…freedom of speech for our country, not to celebrate or acknowledge country's that have certainly not been good friends through killing our people…and yes may God help us..but as a Marine…I will sort out those that do not align themselves with our original values and beliefs…many as they are now…they stick out badly…just another target of aquisition…I feel no guilt in killing the enemy..and good lord…one can stay busy 24-7 just here in the United States…and it doesn't bother me one bit anymore…time to clean the house…all of us..but please, each in your own way…I have given up on words..thier meaningless to those whom have never known freedom, but hate those whom believe in such..that would be me…and my few hundred thousand brothers and sisters…Semper Fi…
Things like this make me sick. In my former home town of Toronto, the city school board is seriously giving thought to a "gay only" school. On their website are suggestions for how kids can pleasure themselves and others with veggies and bottles. Seriously. It,s gone too far and I for one think that if a revolution of common sense does not occur soon, …
My heart hurts for our country.Sad that people believe in anything a polititian has to say. i am numb to all of them anymore….They will and can do ..nothing.it is too late.
I wonder what tune would be played by the band when the Russian royalty are all murdered including their children? Another one bites the dust?
The educational system in America from grade school through college is filled with a vast majority of bubble headed left-wingers who stay in thier liberal slanted views of a cartoon world land that is very unfortunate!–Because they pass this garbage on to our children!–I hate communist and all they stand for!
The argument of, "a lot of innocent people died." falls much flatter than one might think. Alot of innocent people are dying in the Middle-East at the moment, thanks to our two wars there. Do you feel the same outrage for them? Maybe it's only because this show is about COMMUNISM? Hmm. I don't think people understand why the Russian Revolution actually started to begin with. It came about because of a beyond negligent ruling class that was more than happy to sit by as its subjects starved to death. True, the system that came after wasn't an improvement, but, try to actually understand why revolutions happen. Innocent people were brutally killed publicly throughout the course of the French Revolution and after. We tend to celebrate that part of history quite a lot, though. Besides, just because someone makes a show, or a movie about something, doesn't mean they're celebrating it. About ten years back, a miniseries was made about Hitler's rise to power. It wasn't just a documentary either. And, it was aired on NATIONAL television. Do you really think it was made to celebrate Hitler? Or was it made to EDUCATE people?
Some people don't really understand what the whole idea of entertainment is. It's not to just make you smile, laugh, clap and feel good, or simply show you all things that are familiar to you. GOOD entertainment puts forth things that are largely considered to be taboo and questionable. GOOD entertainment might actually make you feel uncomfortable. Marching band shows are not an exception.
Let's not give the artsy kids more credit than they deserve. I suspect that they only reason that they picked the Russian Revolution was because it gave them an excuse to wear trenchcoats in High School. Let's face it, the Blues Brothers has been done to death. The bandies did this for the appearance of it, and if any of them stick with communism after this it will probably be because we've made such a big deal about it that it now looks as cool as smoking, nose studs, and voting for Obama.
If this story doesn’t varify who is in charge of American and our school system and why the American idiots except the Soviet Police State and a Communist for their President, well this story is a perfect example why, a blatant glorification of the murder of over Sixty-six Million people in Russia, half the population and the majority being Christians. What occured in Russia and what is being glorified at this Pennsylvania “public school”, will be done to Americans ten fold, so be on guard and buy a rifle. “The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world”, and the Trotskyite Soviet murderers are indoctrinating and brainwashing the youth of America. WAKE UP!
CORRECTION: verify
We should celebrate the Marxist revolution in this country every year! Oh, wait, we already do that with MLK day. Anyway, on with the celebration! Death to the West and to all Westerners (white people)! Ho, ho, Western Civ has got to go! Hippies rule!
Wow! What the heck is that principal thinking? That certainly isn't something to be celebrated. Parents need to be outraged and start making phone calls!
McCarthy was right about communists in our schools, government, and corporations. And he was destroyed for it. (Edward R. Murrow, was no neutral observer. He helped bring the Frankfurt School communists to America and gave them jobs at Columbia.)
The communists killed millions of people. Why not have Brownshirts and a swastika while they are at it? They would just be showing the 1930s?
Absolutely horrible that they would celebrate commie violence at an American school. They could have chose so many great events in American history to commemorate: the genocide of the indigenous population and the enslavement of Africans come to mind.
I bet that a freedom of Information request on that schools system's lesson plans related to the Russian Revolution, the USSR, and Cold War, as well as E-mails and documents related to this "band project" would probably reveal political correctness gone beserk. Sadly, I wonder if any of them got the point after this story broke?
Jim, remember it is by definition that 50% of the population has an IQ of 100 or less.
Maybe they were just celebrating the beauty of some of the Russian pieces?
""It’s a representation of the time period in history called St. Petersburg 1917,' [Superintendent Rebecca Harbaugh] said."
There is no "period in history called St. Petersburg 1917," unless you're talking about something that happened in the city in Florida. In 1917, the city in Russia was called Petrograd (having been renamed at the beginning of World War I).
Great. Can they celebrate the South of the US from 1880-1930: Wear KKK attire. How about German Culture from 1936 – 1945 Nazi Uniforms, how about Japananese Culture and Exploration from 1935 – 1945 using the Traditional Japanese Soldier Uniform, or the Music and Industry of South Africa from 1962 to 1998 by locking up all Africans. Don't forget Che Guevera… you could lock everyone in jail and torture and kill them. The Teacher or Band Director for this should be fired. PERIOD! The 1917 Russian Revolution saw more than 100 MILLION (Twice the number of WW1 and WW2 Combined) killed by their own government. And to the students that thought this was acceptable? You are absolutely a f&^%$ing IDIOT!
I love how most of these comments have devolved into a huge 'MURIKAAAH! wanking session.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think this halftime show was the most tactful show put out there, but still…some of these comments are awful.
I love how most of these comments have devolved into a huge 'MURIKAAAH! wanking session.
Now, don't get me wrong, I don't think this halftime show was the most tactful show put out there, but still…some of these comments are awful.
Sure there's a reason! Their commrad is President.
Band director needs to be shot for such a stupid and un patriotic move. Lord help us…
If you want to know what the public school system is teaching our children, read "The Dumbing Down of America". It's scary because this has been going on for 40 – 50 years while we all slept.
If you want to know what the public school system is teaching our children, read "The Dumbing Down of America". It's scary because this has been going on for 40 – 50 years while we all slept.
TR