A Great Thing Happening on the Mountain
Recently, an enigmatic and mysterious organization on campus, calling itself “SGA,” sent out a call to arms concerning our bell tower over Facebook.
The group they started, entitled “Take back our BELL TOWER!” is interested in expelling large amounts of pent-up school spirit through the use of millions of golden lights.
I won’t put words in their mouths: “Other schools light landmarks on campus after athletic victories or other special events as determined by the administration. Why not us? Let’s LIGHT THE BELL TOWER IN GOLD periodically to show all of North Carolina that something great has happened on the mountain!”
While sending an underpaid man or woman climbing up and down our bell tower emblazoning it with Christmas lights and risking his or her life in the process is totally sensible, I feel there are other things we can do using the bell tower to show that we like our school.
A fact about our bell tower that we could possibly exploit is that there are no bells present within the system. At first I thought this was cheating, but now I realize that this is economical and hilarious, as well as totally sensible given the fact that crappy recordings are much cooler than actual swinging bells. Bells seem to be very egotistical in their majesty.
SGA has decided that the best use of this is to have it play our fight song, “Hi Hi Yikas!’
Personally, I believe that this is the best-named piece of music ever and would love to meet a Yika at some point in my life. As SGA puts it, “Both ‘Simple Gifts’ and ‘Cherished Vision of the Southland’ are awesome school songs currently played by the bell tower, but where is the greatest of them all?”
This is a good point. We are in dire need of a new school song on that bell tower, given the fact that it knows the words to the Alma Mater better than we do.
However, for all of the ALL CAPS that SGA likes to use, they seem to have lowercase aspirations.
I believe that a better way to exploit our bell tower to improve student morale is to simply change it from being a designated bell tower – a one-trick pony if I’ve ever seen one – to a giant-set-of-speakers tower.
What better way to herald the coming of noon than with the frenzied break-beat of the Michael Jackson hit “Thriller?” I believe you see my point.
“Simple Gifts” and “Cherished Vision of the Southland” are both timeless pieces, but I believe that there are many other songs that fall under that category, including “Bird Walk” by Soulja Boy Tell ’em and the compelling power ballad masterpiece “Every Rose Has its Thorn” by Poison.
So while SGA, even with their shady agenda, has the right idea, I believe that they are guilty of not taking this obviously important calling far enough.
Appalachian State University administration: I’m counting on you to do the right thing.
-Patrick Babcock
