Wednesday, November 14, 2007

How Low Will They Go?

One would think that after 144 years people would have moved on, but old wounds never heal when it comes to Kansas and Missouri

Quantrill's Raid was one of the bloodiest events in the history of Kansas. William Clark Quantrill, using Missouri as his base, carried out the attack on the pro-union town of Lawrence in 1863. Today, the city seal of Lawrence commemorates Quantrill's attack with its depiction of a Phoenix rising from the ashes of the burnt city.

Now some Missouri fans are trying to cash in before the Tigers and Jayhawks square off on Nov. 24 in Kansas City.

T-shirts depicting the attack are being sold on the Internet, and as you can imagine, this is not going over well in Lawrence.

1 comment:

TB said...

Cry me a river, Jayhawk fans. John Brown's Raid couldn't match the Sack of Lawrence for sheer numbers and overall destruction, but it was pretty damn heinous itself.

Anybody from KU who is getting self-righteous over these shirts needs to get over themselves. First of all, a Jayhawk was not a "cute" little bird until well after the Civil War. During the Civil War, a Jayhawk was, well, a terrorist. A terrorist fighting against slavery, but a terrorist nonetheless. By all rights, KU's logo should be a man astride a horse with a rifle, machete, three-day beard, and whiskey on his breath.

Second, anybody who is getting worked up over these shirts has obviously never heard of an "analogy." Mizzou fans are not promoting slavery with these shirts, they are recognizing a historic event (the Sack of Lawrence), and hoping to repeat that historic event in a (mostly) non-violent way. We all know they're not really going to ride into Arrowhead Stadium on a horse, with a black flag, torches and rifles. Well, all of us except some self-righteous KU fans. Sheesh.

By the way, where's the mock-up of the KU shirt that has John Brown and says "Kansas: Keeping the world safe from Missouri since 1854"? Aren't they depicting a murderous thug themselves?