Aggy debating bonfire 10 years later after tragedy

The Link

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The preceding commentary before tht quote makes it ever so damning:

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ATM has always been so desperate for attention that they will do anything, regardless of how stupid, so they can say they have "this tradition" or "that tradition".

They have never historically been successful at any real sports, they have always been behind academically to UT, and they beat their chests at stupid **** like nut squeezing corps and dying elephant walks. I mean seriously WTF????

They honestly sat around years ago and came up with this stupid ****. A tradition is not something that you start JUST so you can call it one. Squeezing nuts, having yell practice at away stadiums after losses because you were a bad fan, dead dog burials in view of scoreboards, milkmen, sit down bus driver.....

Bonfire KILLED 12 STUDENTS. It has historically injured a bunch of others!!!! It has proven time and again to be improperly supervised and a danger to those around it.

But, let's do it for the "tradition" and let's get our jackass Governor behind it.

 

I don't remember if they did but I sure as hell remember the Alamo incident in Lubbock.

 

You should all read the Texas Monthly cover story about the bonfire. It is well written and researched, with quotes from many of those involved and close to the tragedy. It is very moving in parts, but the article is yet another eye-opener about how myopic the school and students were, and many still are, about this topic.
As for restarting the event, I think a lot more people would respect them if they did something positive, like going out and planting 5,000 trees instead of bragging about killing 5,000 trees and burning them all-or they could build 50 Habitat for Humanity houses, or any number of other acts beneficial to society.

 

Aggie blinders are unreal. 12 people died uncessarily. and yet they want to bring back the event as some kind of tribute. No human life is worth a bonfire. Let it die with the fallen.

 

I was talking to an older aggy (mid 40s) at a pub a few months back & the subject of the bonfire came up. He was claiming it was almost criminal that they were no longer allowed to have a fully sanctioned bonfire on campus & the justification he gave was the fact that twelve people dying proved that it was an integral part of aggy's makeup. So I asked him if he thought twelve people dying was some type of divine sign & he replied with a straightface "those that died knew that they were part of something bigger than themselves."

I walked away, finished my pint, & shook my head in amazement.

 

i think what many of the hard core pro-bonfireites dont think about, is that people died as a result of bonfire, not for bonfire. two key differences that create a significant difference in what the proverbial "next step" should be.

if you had told any one of the 12 killed or 27 injured that they would not be coming back in the morning of Nov. 18, or they would come back with a pronounced limp, or broken leg...they would likely have stayed away.

talking about bonfire is emotional. it's emotional for me, and i like to think of myself as a pragmatist. people let their emotions get in the way of basic common sense, and often say things that they shouldn't.

 

Someone should have told the UCF football team that the death of one of their players meant they shouldn't have fielded a football team again.

 

The Link
... And the campaign begins. This is being posted all over the internet boards. Just saw it in Yahoo.

 

how is that a campaign? i didnt see anything in that video calling for bonfire to come back...

 

Posting everywhere and asking how it makes you feel. Did you bother to see by whom its being posted? Funny in the 10 years after, you feel it is worthy of a 9/11 type tribute when in reality it was an awful accident caused by gross oversight and mismanagement.

You know just as well as I that there is a campaign going on trying to bring public light to the 10 year tragedy with intentions of garnering public sympathy. To say otherwise is plain ignorance or denial. We all have Aggie friends, family & co-workers. It doesn't take very long for truths to become known.

As much as we enjoy berating our Aggie bretheren, this tragedy and how it is being portrayed is a crying shame on the Lone Star State. Can we finally put this blemish of history behind us?

 

I think for Longhorns to sit here and say it "should never be done again" is pretty naive. Our Tower is the sight of one of the biggest campus shootings ever and also was a place where people went to jump off when life wasn't going their way. It was closed for a time to prevent this and to remember those that lost their life in a tragedy. Today it has reopened under a tour only policy and you can again go to the top. With the right supervision and a plan in place it was again opened for all to enjoy.

I think when more time has passed if they right plan is put in place it could come back. The problem is that plan will most likely be expensive as people will have to be hired to oversee, and the students might have to take a backseat on some of the activity. I think it could come back just not in the same way that it was before just like the Tower. You can go up on tours now but you can't go up on your own whenever you want like in the past.

I think most Aggies will not like that change and so it might be better just to let it go, but to cast it off as a dumb tradition is just not smart. It is an event that means something to them and if it can be done safely then maybe after enough time it can be brought back.

I think the families of those who died need to be a part of the process and that is where the time factor is huge. The families should have a say in whether or not it should and when.

I'm not saying that it should or will be brought back but I also think it is dumb to just sit here and discount the tragedy of the loss of life as a "blemish on our great state"

I say all this having grown up with the brother of one of the Aggies that died that day and living down the street from one that was hurt.

 

The problem wasn't a bonfire. The problem was the idiotic desire to build bonfire a hundred feet tall with no engineering supervision and after an on-campus engineer had warned of the danger.

Maybe build a bonfire that has 12 big logs in honor of the victims and fill in the rest with a couple of cords of wood. You get your bonfire without the danger.

If you want to recreate the team-building experience do some of the charitable acts listed above.

 

Aside from the tragedy, mismanagement, and tradition of the bonfire, the whole practice strikes me as extremely wasteful. It certainly doesn't help aggy's carbon footprint.

 

Don't do this. Please.

 

Damn thing weighed almost as much as two 747's and was built by "word of mouth".....

GROSS NEGLIGENCE.....

words to remember.

 

I think the aggies are missing the point...have a BONFIRE!!! ...just don't make it something that has to be BIGGER than last year's and have it where students help gather the wood, but have professionals with equipment actually do the building....a pile of wood doesn't have to be stacked to the sky to rally a fan base...
Just plan something SAFE that can be supervised by professionals and duplicated yearly...

...still remember the day on the computer ten years ago with tears in my eyes talking to all the aggies about how sorry I was about the tragedy...