Sep 25, 2012
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A Pennsylvania school district has apologized and made significant changes to a high school marching band’s halftime show that commemorated the Russian Revolution with red flags, military-style outfits and giant hammers and sickles.
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The New Oxford High School Marching band’s show will no longer be called “St. Petersburg: 1917″ and the performance will no longer include the hammers and sickles, according to a statement from Rebecca Harbaugh, the superintendent for the Conewago Valley School District.
Harbaugh acknowledged that “many people have expressed concerns about the show.”
“We are taking steps to address many of the concerns expressed to us,” she said. “This is a learning opportunity for not only our students who have learned about the Revolution and its tragic consequences but it also a learnign opportunity for us as teachers and administrators.”
The performance will now be called, “The Music of Shostakovich” and the hammer and sickle have been replaced with traditional Color Guard band equipment.
The controversy started when an unidentified parent became upset after watching the performance.
“There is no reason for Americans to celebrate the Russian revolution,” the parents said. “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.”
“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?”
Paul Kengor, the executive director for the Center for Vision & Values at Pennsylvania’s Grove City College, thought the performance was initially 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.”
FOX News Talk
Music, Marching & bands are used for celebrations and parades. You folks in PA are celebrating communism out of ignorance. But you folks voted for Obama & look to do so again. How stupid can you folks be?
I love it! Been to Russia twice and they are the nicest people…Screw Socialism and glorify the wonderful average Russian!
One word: Indoctrination.
The dictators party and live high on the hog on the poor peoples efforts. While the poor people starve and die of broken dreams and hearts. Wise up kids. NO COMPUTER, IPADS, SMART PHONES, ROCK CONCERTS, PARTIES,,, ON AND ON AND ON…No makeup girls, no new clothes…you think you want Communism? Better read up on it. Stop being stuck on stupid.
More political correctness.
Some parent was offended, so they had to get rid of anything offensive.
boo-hoo.
What a disgrace, what is this superintendent thinking? I hope she gets demoted to cleaning bathrooms!
Wow! Our idiot run liberal indoctrination centers are now trotting this stuff right out in front of us and not even trying to be clever about it anymore. Comrade Barak Hussein Sergyevich (peace be upon him) has Amerika right where he want's it! Keep drinking the coolaid sheeple! The dumbing down of the masses is proceeding on schedule comrades!
I would ask the idiots who decided to put this on a simple questions — Govoryuu po-Russkii? — and if they answer it in a like manner (at all) there are several more questions I'd ask them about the failure of the Rodina…
I am more concerned about the Communist this country elected as president.
I don't see any difference between this and if they would have dressed as SS officers and did music from the 1930's because the Fuhrer was huge into promoting the arts and used them efficiently sway the youth and the masses, if this school would have done that all hell would have broken loose. People losing their lives under any government philosophy shouldn't be tolerated. They should have chosen Russian composers through the ages and lightly depicted the times of that era and the devastation of the loss of lives during the Revolution in a tasteful way.
Have you seen the program at all? The hammers and sickles were used only in the ballad portion which was meant to display the hardships faced during the revolution and the fact that so many were weary of communism from the start. I saw the show a few weeks back at their host event. See, I actually saw the show in question. It wasn't really a celebration. Shostakovich isn't exactly known for celebratory music. For his time he was actually quite dark and gritty. Look up anytime Phantom Regiment from Rockford Illinois has played the "Firebird Suite" and tell me if it is celebratory to not…Pro Tip: It's not….
Have you seen the program at all? The hammers and sickles were used only in the ballad portion which was meant to display the hardships faced during the revolution and the fact that so many were weary of communism from the start. I saw the show a few weeks back at their host event. See, I actually saw the show in question. It wasn't really a celebration. Shostakovich isn't exactly known for celebratory music. For his time he was actually quite dark and gritty. Look up anytime Phantom Regiment from Rockford Illinois has played the "Firebird Suite" and tell me if it is celebratory to not…Pro Tip: It's not….
"“We are taking steps to address many of the concerns expressed to us,” she said. “This is a learning opportunity for not only our students who have learned about the Revolution and its tragic consequences but it also a learnign opportunity for us as teachers and administrators.”.
-learnign… yay for spell check.
There is the problem with public education all wrapped up with a neat little bow on top. They don't even try to hide what there pouring into the minds of children today. I have to spend hours deprogramming my kids every weekend. This week it was Thomas Jefferson plagiarized the Declaration of Independence. What BS will it be next week.
"but it also a learnign opportunity for us as teachers and administrators."
Please tell me that wasn't a direct copy of a statement from the teachers. It would be a good 'learnign' opportunity? Really!
So, now that these administrators were challenged on this debacle, they characterize it as a.
"learning opportunity for teachers and students"? Didn't these idiots at least have a clue that maybe this theme dreamed up by this band director (who remains nameless) might be a bad idea? Having had a kid in band, I know there were many, many practices prior to that first public performance. Wasn't the principle smart enough to intercede before it got to far? Whoever organized this theme (band director?) and whoever OK'ed it should be released to go and be successful someplace else in another career field!
Perhaps the students AND teachers could do with a graphic history lesson, the band director especially. I don't think teachers now days even know the history of the world, let alone teach it!
Remember the "Springtime for Hitler" part of the movie, "The Producers," and the looks on the audience's faces? I am guessing those witnessing this performance had similar expressions. it's pretty nuts to think that someone thought this was OK. Might be time for some folks to get new jobs and not in educating kids.
Remember the "Springtime for Hitler" part of the movie, "The Producers," and the looks on the audience's faces? I am guessing those witnessing this performance had similar expressions. it's pretty nuts to think that someone thought this was OK. Might be time for some folks to get new jobs and not in educating kids.
Question: Who needs fired or punished over this despicable display? Was this the students idea? Or the (i'm going to guess) the 60's hippie music teacher who is teaching this as a good thing?
When you watch the early newsreels about Hitler they centered around the youth with marching and music. When you learn to call evil, good then you automatically move toward evil. I can see why homeschooling has become so popular.
yeah, well spoken Sista!!!!!
Maybe next year they can celebrate the music of Wagner while waving Swastikas and marching goose step.
did anyone ever stop to think that maybe it's not the kids fault but their idiot band teacher?
did anyone ever stop to think that maybe it's not the kids fault but their idiot band teacher?
We have a Marxist in the White House and our schools have been taken over by Communist/Marxist and no one seems to care! This did not happen overnight. It has taken years and because of being PC the media will not address the matter. America is in REAL trouble. If Obama is re-elected America will likely fall from it position of being the one great superpower to the status of a third world country. WAKE UP AMERICA!
Coming in 2020: Commemoration of the centennary of the founding of the Nazi Party, with American high schoolers goose-stepping around the football field, waving giant swastikas.
Fire the History teacher; if they have one…
We celebrate the American Revolution which directly led to the genocidal wars against the Native Americans and Slavery for over a hundred years. What is the difference?
Parents are so fucking dumb
Parents are so fucking dumb
No direct offense, but you are an indoctrinated Idiot.
No offense, but you don't have a history education, I do.
That's the problem. American "Education-" It's Indoctrination. But I will Yield. What sort of Inferior Eduation do you believe I am missing? Honestly, I don't claim to know. But I don't believe our History as a Nation is without it's own Horror Story; and your mention of that happened to the Indians and the African Slave labor in America is deplorable. But that gives rise to the comparison that you and I can agree upon. America constantly seeks to Modify and change it's attitude, with a strong level of Morality driven by it's very Constitution. The likes of Lenin and Hitler and Stalin, their level of blanket brutality, mass murder and institutionalized suffering should be taught, then; don't you agree, History Education? And that would then give rise to why it is so devastating to see young people Praising that same level of Brutality that you alluded to in your comparison, "What's the Difference"? as though USA is/wwas somehow in the same category as the former USSR? And if so, then why don't you find it outrageous>? Certainly to take your own argument, you wouldn't condone then that same celebration commemorating the Trail of Tears of the Underground Railroad, or the Rise of the South or the KKK movement; would you? No. We're not and never were the brutal, institutionalized barbarian states that visited upon such horror as the Nazis of the Soviet Union. Both were Cancer. Both were mass murderers. And I don't have to have attained a History Education to know what I am saying is factual history. My Wife Lived it. I visited it. And guess what? It still exists.
Actually, my education spans 3 continents, 2 branches of the service, 2 universities and about 20+ years of individual research….but go ahead and keep trying. I believe that you are a very intelligent and eloquent man, and I applaud you for your ability to write cohesive thoughts (a true rarity on this site). My retort to all of this is "do we condemn a whole civilization for only part of who they were?" The Soviets had their issues under Stalin, yes, and Lenin wasn't as great as many historians past and present have shown, but there were positives. I am not a fan of Hitler or the Nazi regime, but there were parts that deserve attention and note. I, personally, have always wondered why we don't have a Fredrick Douglas Day, yet we celebrate lesser men.
What I am saying is that it was just a band attempting to express an idea artistically. So it failed to convey whatever meaning they were attempting, but it was just a failed attempt, not an abomination (or maybe it was, haven't seen any video). Artists and comedians succeed and fail all the time, but we should not condemn them for a failure. I was part of the Cold War, and I remember meeting my first Soviet soldier, remember seeing a Soviet Navy ship dock in San Diego. I also then remember partying with them and learning who they were. Most were just like me, or you. Just people. I saw no Ivan Drago, and I was certainly no Rocky Balboa. That time should not be forgotten.
To say that the revolution "led to" slavery is mistaken, I would say. Slavery didn't follow from that generation. The revolutionaries struggled with it, but slavery wasn't a consequence of their actions. They knew that slavery was a divide they couldn't get past and keep the fledgling country together. They kicked that can ahead, not to be too glib about it, because they couldn't deal with it then. Still, Ben Franklin's last political act before he died was to throw in with Quaker abolitionists who'd forced the issue again.
"Manifest destiny" and all that it meant for native Americans has a closer relationship to the Declaration and the revolution itself. The Declaration addresses it, making its claim about the king having "endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions." The colonies were expanding aggressively past their borders, and British attempts to keep that in line really did play a direct role, there.
Even there, though…. I don't think you can see genocidal warfare against native americans outside of the larger history that starts with disease agents after Columbus. The pilgrims settled on what they knew was an empty village, where the natives had all died of illness. (They robbed graves there, in a way that's utterly callous to read in their first-person accounts.) Bigger picture.
FInally, I would be ardently in favor of forgetting all Rocky movies past the third one, which is decent pop culture fun with Mr. T and all. Ivan Drago was a dumb and uninspired villain, and having him kill off Apollo Creed was idiotic. Expunge them from the record after III. Making Rocky a cold warrior was dumb and exploitive.
I live 15 min. from New Oxford. The idea that Educators would not comprehend the HORROR of Communism astounds me. 6 Million Jews were killed in wwII by the Nazis and we forbid our kids from wearing swastikas. 100 million people were killed under Soviet communism and we celebrate it in music? He who forgets the past is condemned to repeat it.
Why not break out jack boots and swastikas and sing "Heil Hitler" or white sheets and burning crosses and have the grandwizard give a rousing speech?
Everyone call for the names of the people in charge of this to be released. If this roles were reversed and let's say they wanted the kids to celebrate something libertarian I'm sure CNN would be calling for their jobs.
LETS SEE THE NAMES.
Learn to google…
This is bullshit, they should NOT have to change their show to cater to close minded fools.
Why are so many clueless American right-wingers today so terrified of the non-existent threat of communism to America? Communism is dead and uried. Dead as a fish on the beach.
But the REAL threat to America is the very real threat of a right-wing extremist, theocratic, fascistic.
totalitarian police state which would be no better than a communist government, just tyranny of a different kind.