First, I want to say that this isn't a troll. I really love you guys; I appreciate how you've accepted me into your circle, shown a lot of affection for me in your own way or an ironic way, regardless of my curmudgeonly anti-BYU posts, critiques of Mormonism, etc. I'm still touched how MikeWaters, Lebowski, etc. came to me when CG was nascent, and invited me in at the ground floor. I still remember Lebowski reaching out to me when I was giving Cougarboard a hard time one day and telling me to come and post at CG more often. I've told people close to me, my brothers, etc., that I am a lot more like most of you than unlike you. You guys are my connection to my roots, a past I still have a lot of affection for.
I know you're suffering now, and I don't want to make it worse. I'm really being sincere. I even love cougjunkie a lot.
Now, for the tough love. I'm talking to you guys, but I wish I could also say this to Brandon Davies, who I feel is likely a terrific young man. He has sweat blood, worked harder than probably anyone judging him now can fathom, to arrive at the special place in his life that was taken from him today.
What united us here? We share an outlook vis-a-vis what happened today. You guys tease me about perceived sports ignorance, but really, I've always considered Utah vs. BYU like the Shire (Utah) vs. Mordor (BYU). I consider BYU despicable, at a deep moral level, and this is a prime reason why. It isn't about did Joseph Smith really get the Book of Mormon the way he said he did, etc. Not at all. It's about morality, right and wrong.
I'll readily retract what I just said if Davies has committed a crime or hurt somebody. I didn't hear the kind of things I'm reading here from Oregon fans when Jeremiah Masoli was kicked out of school. Rational and moral Oregon fans can all agree that Oregon should be intolerant of burglary. I would feel the same way if this happened to a Ute. I am ashamed of rumors about Utah's recent academic problems in basketball, as most Utes seem to be.
On the other hand, a nineteen year old kid has sex with his girlfriend; okay, that may be stupid for reasons such that he's not ready to have kids. So, BYU says, let's really ruin him. Let's expel him from school, give him that badge of shame; we'll carve into his pro basketball prospects and make it tough for him to go to medical school or whatever. We'll show him. Why? I don't know why people think this is right. Truly, I don't get it.
I think most of us here can agree that if this is the sort of thing that got Michael Loyd or Unga kicked off the team, it's just wrong. BYU is wrong, it's immoral, it's shameful. You all are ashamed of BYU now, aren't you.
What is perhaps most chilling to me is being reminded that the HC office relies on BYU students to inform on one another, and the accused does not get to face his accuser. For the accused, it's lie or else, but the problem with lying is you don't know what they've been told. This is like the stuff of 1984 or Darkness at Noon. Peole weren't tortured in the Soviet Union most of the time either; it was all psycholgical pressure. No, people who confess aren't getting shot at BYU, but they are suffering terrible shame and humiliation, and their lives are being irrevocably altered nonetheless.
Now the really tough love: JUST LIKE BRANDON DAVIES, YOU ALL SIGNED UP FOR THIS. SO DON'T COMPLAIN, WHEN YOU'VE BEEN ON NOTICE. DAVIES SIGNED THE HONOR CODE, SO DID YOU. YOU ALL BOUGHT INTO BYU'S INJURIOUS NONSENSE. SO ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR VOLITIONAL ACTS AND DON'T COMPLAIN.
Woot, you once said Utah has done a lot more for humanty than BYU. So why do you love BYU and hate Utah? I don't get it.
Here's the terrible irony: BYU has had sports teams in order to project BYU's ethos and culture. But this basketball team has been crippled by that very ethos and culture. Brandon Davies is weeping right now because what he has worked so hard for has been ripped from him by the very value system that his self-made achievement ought to be celebrating.
BUT going forward, I think you all need to reconsider your affiliation with BYU, even the mother church. Because guess what, if you really believed it was what it claims to be, you wouldn't be so pissed off today. Give yourseves some relief. Say sayonara to your BYU support. It's the natural and right thing to do. BYU is a wrong.
I hope this helps.
I know you're suffering now, and I don't want to make it worse. I'm really being sincere. I even love cougjunkie a lot.
Now, for the tough love. I'm talking to you guys, but I wish I could also say this to Brandon Davies, who I feel is likely a terrific young man. He has sweat blood, worked harder than probably anyone judging him now can fathom, to arrive at the special place in his life that was taken from him today.
What united us here? We share an outlook vis-a-vis what happened today. You guys tease me about perceived sports ignorance, but really, I've always considered Utah vs. BYU like the Shire (Utah) vs. Mordor (BYU). I consider BYU despicable, at a deep moral level, and this is a prime reason why. It isn't about did Joseph Smith really get the Book of Mormon the way he said he did, etc. Not at all. It's about morality, right and wrong.
I'll readily retract what I just said if Davies has committed a crime or hurt somebody. I didn't hear the kind of things I'm reading here from Oregon fans when Jeremiah Masoli was kicked out of school. Rational and moral Oregon fans can all agree that Oregon should be intolerant of burglary. I would feel the same way if this happened to a Ute. I am ashamed of rumors about Utah's recent academic problems in basketball, as most Utes seem to be.
On the other hand, a nineteen year old kid has sex with his girlfriend; okay, that may be stupid for reasons such that he's not ready to have kids. So, BYU says, let's really ruin him. Let's expel him from school, give him that badge of shame; we'll carve into his pro basketball prospects and make it tough for him to go to medical school or whatever. We'll show him. Why? I don't know why people think this is right. Truly, I don't get it.
I think most of us here can agree that if this is the sort of thing that got Michael Loyd or Unga kicked off the team, it's just wrong. BYU is wrong, it's immoral, it's shameful. You all are ashamed of BYU now, aren't you.
What is perhaps most chilling to me is being reminded that the HC office relies on BYU students to inform on one another, and the accused does not get to face his accuser. For the accused, it's lie or else, but the problem with lying is you don't know what they've been told. This is like the stuff of 1984 or Darkness at Noon. Peole weren't tortured in the Soviet Union most of the time either; it was all psycholgical pressure. No, people who confess aren't getting shot at BYU, but they are suffering terrible shame and humiliation, and their lives are being irrevocably altered nonetheless.
Now the really tough love: JUST LIKE BRANDON DAVIES, YOU ALL SIGNED UP FOR THIS. SO DON'T COMPLAIN, WHEN YOU'VE BEEN ON NOTICE. DAVIES SIGNED THE HONOR CODE, SO DID YOU. YOU ALL BOUGHT INTO BYU'S INJURIOUS NONSENSE. SO ACCEPT THE CONSEQUENCES OF YOUR VOLITIONAL ACTS AND DON'T COMPLAIN.
Woot, you once said Utah has done a lot more for humanty than BYU. So why do you love BYU and hate Utah? I don't get it.
Here's the terrible irony: BYU has had sports teams in order to project BYU's ethos and culture. But this basketball team has been crippled by that very ethos and culture. Brandon Davies is weeping right now because what he has worked so hard for has been ripped from him by the very value system that his self-made achievement ought to be celebrating.
BUT going forward, I think you all need to reconsider your affiliation with BYU, even the mother church. Because guess what, if you really believed it was what it claims to be, you wouldn't be so pissed off today. Give yourseves some relief. Say sayonara to your BYU support. It's the natural and right thing to do. BYU is a wrong.
I hope this helps.
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