| These are pictures of the aftermath of the Ohio State - Michigan football game of November, 2007. If you’re not a resident of the Great Lakes, you may be unfamiliar with the rivalry, but if you live here it’s inescapable. While I was moving into my duplex in Columbus, neighbors stopped by, made a few minutes of chit-chat, and then asked me in that not-at-all-a-question sort of way, “you will be supporting the Buckeyes, won’t you?” Their eyes focused on mine and their smiles disappeared as they posed the challenge. Since then, I’ve learned that if I wear something other than red or gray on the day of the game, teenagers will swear at me on the street. It’s kind of eerie, but I’ve gotten used to it. The students at Ohio State University are known for raucously partying before, during and after the Ohio State - Michigan game, and for more than occasionally rioting afterwards. “No Parking” hoods are placed over parking meters in the blocks surrounding the university, and any lingering cars are actually towed away before the game to protect them from being trashed by roving hordes of revelers. This year on campus, they put duct tape over all the Ms on the building signs. Toilet paper flew freely from the trees. It took a few days for the mess to be picked up.
Don’t just think it’s a student thing, either. My in-laws live an hour and a half south of the university, and until recently nobody in the family had attended Ohio State as a student, but that didn’t stop the Buckeye Fever. Parents, alumni and other fans flood the area, turning the neighborhood into a big shuffling mass of scarlet and gray. It’s a regional event involving hundreds of thousands of people physically in and around the stadium itself, and perhaps millions of people more tuning in over the television. The collective energy surrounding a football game in which all these fans don’t actually play puzzles me a bit, but there it is. The people of Ohio have chosen their totem, the Ohio State Buckeyes. They utter the phrase “Go Bucks!” on the street enough that my three-year-old daughter already knows the phrase and shouts it with enthusiasm. The symbol at the center of this tradition is something real. The Buckeye tree is part of the horsechestnut family, grows up to sixty feet tall and thirty feet wide, and drops an brown nut with a light spot that makes it look like a buck’s eye. I’ve casually picked up these nuts on hikes through the Ohio woods, and they’re supposed to be good luck to have in your pocket. There’s a cottage industry of people who string the buckeyes together into bracelets and necklaces. I see these on the street all the time; you can watch for them on the fans in the stands the next time there’s an Ohio State game on TV. There are straightforward, rational reasons to support progressive candidates for public office in 2008. But then there are more emotional reasons. If it takes an occasional emotional tug at our tribal allegiances for us to pay attention to more rational reasons, so be it. This reason goes out to the people of Ohio who have a special place in their hearts for the beloved Buckeye. It turns out that thanks to global warming the habitat of the Buckeye Tree is due to shift northward, from Ohio to the state of the dire rival Michigan. Ohioans, you’ve shown that you love your Buckeyes enough to watch TV, to drink a lot of beer, to buy the right shirts, to put toilet paper in trees and to wear funny necklaces with nuts on them. But if you really love your Buckeyes, Ohio, will you support the leaders who promise to do something to keep the Buckeye tree from leaving your state forever? (Source: Letter from the National Environmental Trust to the Columbus Dispatch, November 24 2007) |
   |
Will Ohio Rally Round the Buckeye Tree?
November 24th, 2007 · No Comments
Tags: environment
0 responses so far ↓
There are no comments yet...Kick things off by filling out the form below.
Leave a Comment