What's up with all the militaristic stuff at games?

[khaake]

So other than extra tributes everywhere yesterday on Veterans Day weekend of all things, what "rituals" that normally occur on Saturdays at Memorial Stadium are "overkill" in your opinion??? The color guard and National Anthem? The flyover??? The recognition of the servicemen that executed said flyover???

Not calling unamerican or anything like that, just curious what is being overly "shoved down fans throats" in regards to military platforms. These are the normal three things that I see every Saturday that would even fall into your category.

Really confused here

Sure, there's your list. Mentions of Sept 11. There are others. It adds up. BTN has regular (and many) recruitment ads, the per-game Marines "Leader of the Week" for outstanding play, etc. After awhile it borders on being one long commercial.

Exactly. With out a draft you have to recruit people to join the military. Many people who watch football are in the demographic that the military is trying to reach. Not so much with "Dancing with the Stars" or "Golden Girls" reruns.

Same with beer commercials

True, without a draft you do need to recruit. Some might question how healthy it is for a society to foster and uphold a "warrior class" (for lack of a better name), but that's a whole other can of worms.

 

[khaake]

Sleep well tonight, as there are warriors protecting you. Giving years of their lives, and their families lives so you can be safe, and it seems unappreciative.

Also on the financial side, it is a prime recruiting approach. Young men in the age group of service to the country watch these programs. Those adds are paying some of the money that Nebraska takes in from the conference.

Is your position, then, that the University should do what it can to promote militarism because it brings in more money for the university?

 

[khaake]

So other than extra tributes everywhere yesterday on Veterans Day weekend of all things, what "rituals" that normally occur on Saturdays at Memorial Stadium are "overkill" in your opinion??? The color guard and National Anthem? The flyover??? The recognition of the servicemen that executed said flyover???

Not calling unamerican or anything like that, just curious what is being overly "shoved down fans throats" in regards to military platforms. These are the normal three things that I see every Saturday that would even fall into your category.

Really confused here

Sure, there's your list. Mentions of Sept 11. There are others. It adds up. BTN has regular (and many) recruitment ads, the per-game Marines "Leader of the Week" for outstanding play, etc. After awhile it borders on being one long commercial.

Ah sir, I have a very simple solution for you. If you don't like it, don't watch the games. If it makes your groin area exceptionally chafed to see a public institution honor the men and women of our nation's military, you can choose to not participate. Don't donate to the University, don't watch the games, don't cheer for the team and don't visit the fan based online forums for said University. I'm fairly certain the vast majority won't be sad to see you go. Dry your eyes, my delicate butterfly. All is not lost. You, your dollar and your opinion have options. I'm hoping you take all three elsewhere.

Yes, I could chose choose to either love it or leave it. Or I could instead simply question whether or not it is a good idea for the University to be actively involved in military recruitment. I choose the latter.

And for the record, I am not the 'delicate butterfly' trying to insult somebody via a message board because they said something I didn't like.

 

[dubsker]

We still have men and women fighting in Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Nigeria and Libya, so I guess the OP must have asked the question out of an enviable sense of ignorance. Hey bud, maybe we should bring back compulsory military service so you can get it.

 

[dubsker]

I'm just going to rephrase this "guys why do we honor our all volunteer military when we are and have been At war for 15 years?! ?? I don't get it????"

 

[dubsker]

Do people not know we are still at war or what? Does the reminder of this offend you?

 

[khaake]

I'm just going to rephrase this "guys why do we honor our all volunteer military when we are and have been At war for 15 years?! ?? I don't get it????"

Dub, with all due respect we *do* honor our military. A lot. I just don't see the need for it to seep into more areas, such as college football games.

 

[HuskerzFanatik]

So other than extra tributes everywhere yesterday on Veterans Day weekend of all things, what "rituals" that normally occur on Saturdays at Memorial Stadium are "overkill" in your opinion??? The color guard and National Anthem? The flyover??? The recognition of the servicemen that executed said flyover???

Not calling unamerican or anything like that, just curious what is being overly "shoved down fans throats" in regards to military platforms. These are the normal three things that I see every Saturday that would even fall into your category.

Really confused here

Sure, there's your list. Mentions of Sept 11. There are others. It adds up. BTN has regular (and many) recruitment ads, the per-game Marines "Leader of the Week" for outstanding play, etc. After awhile it borders on being one long commercial.

Ah sir, I have a very simple solution for you. If you don't like it, don't watch the games. If it makes your groin area exceptionally chafed to see a public institution honor the men and women of our nation's military, you can choose to not participate. Don't donate to the University, don't watch the games, don't cheer for the team and don't visit the fan based online forums for said University. I'm fairly certain the vast majority won't be sad to see you go. Dry your eyes, my delicate butterfly. All is not lost. You, your dollar and your opinion have options. I'm hoping you take all three elsewhere.

Yes, I could chose choose to either love it or leave it. Or I could instead simply question whether or not it is a good idea for the University to be actively involved in military recruitment. I choose the latter.

And for the record, I am not the 'delicate butterfly' trying to insult somebody via a message board because they said something I didn't like.

So your argument is that the University of Nebraska should not be actively involved in recruiting military due to them honoring service members during games or leader of the week? The military like other entities will try and use media any way they can to get there name out there not a surprise move at all. I mean the All state scholarship donation for extra points is a blatant example of brand name recognition at football games. I agree if it offends you feel free to stop watching games. That being said I don't think that the ceremony had anything to do with military agenda at all and more to do with taking the time to honor veterans for their service.

I am a veteran myself so unfortunately I can't see the point of your argument, but even if I had never enlisted I believe I would still feel that the premise of this thread is silly.

 

[dubsker]

I'm just going to rephrase this "guys why do we honor our all volunteer military when we are and have been At war for 15 years?! ?? I don't get it????"

Dub, with all due respect we *do* honor our military. A lot. I just don't see the need for it to seep into more areas, such as college football games.

1) If it's DoD funded, I don't like it either.

2) If it's not, as with anything in life, if it's not speaking to you then maybe it wasn't meant *for* you. It might be meant for the gold star family sitting in the stands. As I said, because you find the spartan culture off-putting, do not lose sight of the fact that we are, and have been at war for 15 years.

Anyway, props for having some backbone in this discussion.

 

[Count 'Bility]

Quit beating around the bush. Call it like it is. It's part of the anti-Americana disease that is sweeping our country. any sort of "America first" mindset, because of Trump, is quickly perceived by many as racist or whatever the hell it is. Kneeling for the anthem instead of being able to be discussed with any sort of two-way intelligence, quickly transpires into discussions as to why we do the anthem to begin with. it's absolutely ridiculous. This is the road we're heading down. Now we got ppl actually questioning the honoring of people who's kind are the reason we have the freedom to do what we're doing to begin with. it's bullsh#t.

I went to the game saturday night. I voted for Trump. I am not happy by the unreasonable and straight up stupid responses, violent and not, by both sides, going on across our country. I was concerned Saturday. I was taking my young kids. I was nervous about what we might come across. Would there be a group of a couple hundred around doing some stupid little protest of the election? Would there be some trouble makers heckling folks about trump? Well, shame on me for doubting the good people of this state. I walked around for about 3 hours before kickoff with my kids. making the rounds. Doin the fun PG family stuff. I never saw a thing. I guess the only thing i saw were the abundance of Jesus signs at Stadium and T.

Im a very prideful American. I have friends and relatives that have served. My high school mascot was Patriots. I have a sh#t ton of faith in this nation that regardless what we encounter in the near future and far, we will prevail. Regardless what you are politically or morally, the American spirit will fight on.

khaake. i pity you. I really do. Full blown condolences. Your lack of education or lack of understanding of these concepts is really sad. You would do yourself a favor to get it right.

 

[dubsker]

Quit beating around the bush. Call it like it is. It's part of the anti-Americana disease that is sweeping our country. any sort of "America first" mindset, because of Trump, is quickly perceived by many as racist or whatever the hell it is. Kneeling for the anthem instead of being able to be discussed with any sort of two-way intelligence, quickly transpires into discussions as to why we do the anthem to begin with. it's absolutely ridiculous. This is the road we're heading down. Now we got ppl actually questioning the honoring of people who's kind are the reason we have the freedom to do what we're doing to begin with. it's bullsh#t.

I went to the game saturday night. I voted for Trump. I am not happy by the unreasonable and straight up stupid responses, violent and not, by both sides, going on across our country. I was concerned Saturday. I was taking my young kids. I was nervous about what we might come across. Would there be a group of a couple hundred around doing some stupid little protest of the election? Would there be some trouble makers heckling folks about trump? Well, shame on me for doubting the good people of this state. I walked around for about 3 hours before kickoff with my kids. making the rounds. Doin the fun PG family stuff. I never saw a thing. I guess the only thing i saw were the abundance of Jesus signs at Stadium and T.

Im a very prideful American. I have friends and relatives that have served. My high school mascot was Patriots. I have a sh#t ton of faith in this nation that regardless what we encounter in the near future and far, we will prevail. Regardless what you are politically or morally, the American spirit will fight on.

khaake. i pity you. I really do. Full blown condolences. Your lack of education or lack of understanding of these concepts is really sad. You would do yourself a favor to get it right.

 

[BigRedBuster]

Hmmmm.....BTN sells advertising. That advertising happens to come from groups promoting military recruitment.

And BTN is the bad guy? There even is a bad guy????

 

[I AM FOOT FOOT]

Quit beating around the bush. Call it like it is. It's part of the anti-Americana disease that is sweeping our country. any sort of "America first" mindset, because of Trump, is quickly perceived by many as racist or whatever the hell it is. Kneeling for the anthem instead of being able to be discussed with any sort of two-way intelligence, quickly transpires into discussions as to why we do the anthem to begin with. it's absolutely ridiculous. This is the road we're heading down. Now we got ppl actually questioning the honoring of people who's kind are the reason we have the freedom to do what we're doing to begin with. it's bullsh#t.

I went to the game saturday night. I voted for Trump. I am not happy by the unreasonable and straight up stupid responses, violent and not, by both sides, going on across our country. I was concerned Saturday. I was taking my young kids. I was nervous about what we might come across. Would there be a group of a couple hundred around doing some stupid little protest of the election? Would there be some trouble makers heckling folks about trump? Well, shame on me for doubting the good people of this state. I walked around for about 3 hours before kickoff with my kids. making the rounds. Doin the fun PG family stuff. I never saw a thing. I guess the only thing i saw were the abundance of Jesus signs at Stadium and T.

Im a very prideful American. I have friends and relatives that have served. My high school mascot was Patriots. I have a sh#t ton of faith in this nation that regardless what we encounter in the near future and far, we will prevail. Regardless what you are politically or morally, the American spirit will fight on.

khaake. i pity you. I really do. Full blown condolences. Your lack of education or lack of understanding of these concepts is really sad. You would do yourself a favor to get it right.

well said.

 

[khaake]

Quit beating around the bush. Call it like it is. It's part of the anti-Americana disease that is sweeping our country. any sort of "America first" mindset, because of Trump, is quickly perceived by many as racist or whatever the hell it is. Kneeling for the anthem instead of being able to be discussed with any sort of two-way intelligence, quickly transpires into discussions as to why we do the anthem to begin with. it's absolutely ridiculous. This is the road we're heading down. Now we got ppl actually questioning the honoring of people who's kind are the reason we have the freedom to do what we're doing to begin with. it's bullsh#t.

I went to the game saturday night. I voted for Trump. I am not happy by the unreasonable and straight up stupid responses, violent and not, by both sides, going on across our country. I was concerned Saturday. I was taking my young kids. I was nervous about what we might come across. Would there be a group of a couple hundred around doing some stupid little protest of the election? Would there be some trouble makers heckling folks about trump? Well, shame on me for doubting the good people of this state. I walked around for about 3 hours before kickoff with my kids. making the rounds. Doin the fun PG family stuff. I never saw a thing. I guess the only thing i saw were the abundance of Jesus signs at Stadium and T.

Im a very prideful American. I have friends and relatives that have served. My high school mascot was Patriots. I have a sh#t ton of faith in this nation that regardless what we encounter in the near future and far, we will prevail. Regardless what you are politically or morally, the American spirit will fight on.

khaake. i pity you. I really do. Full blown condolences. Your lack of education or lack of understanding of these concepts is really sad. You would do yourself a favor to get it right.

Count, it is quite a leap to go from somebody questioning why militarism is a sizable part of a college football stadium experience (or BTN presentation), to claiming that such a question is part of an anti-american disease that is sweeping the country.

The reason I brought up the question to begin with does not stem from who won the presidential election or who you may have supported or who I may have supported. The reason instead is that I question whether it is in the best interest of the nation, long-term, to continue to stir up emotions which have led us down a path to fifteen years of war (and counting). I am not saying that veterans should not be honored, but we seem to be caught in a loop to outdo each other in acts and shows of so-called patriotism, and historically speaking that has not always ended well. For the university to voluntarily insert itself into this loop seems largely unnecessary and unwise.

I, too, have friends, neighbors, and family members who have served and are serving in the armed forced. I, too, went to a school whose mascot was the Patriots. I, too, have tremendous faith in our nation's ability to meet the challenges before us. But it does not follow that it is the place of the university to be an active participant in militarism. It simply isn't.

 

[GBRHouston]

It was a military appreciation game. Thus why the band did their special pregame show, and the men and women of Nebraska who have fallen were honored for the national anthem. I don't get what is so bad about honoring veterans and fallen servicemen/women at all.