Boycott Dennis Dodd and the tyranny of free speech. Plus an uplifting story.

In the last few days some of my younger son’s friends have sent messages to my Facebook account asking me to join in a boycott of sportswriter Dennis Dodd and CBSSports.com because Dodd made some insensitive remarks about marching bands, specifically using the term “band geek” and basically being dismissive of musicians who choose to be in marching bands and drum corps.

Dodd was writing about an injury to Houston Wide Receiver Patrick Edwards who suffered a horrifying break to his leg during a Houston-Marshall game when he ran into an instrument rack left at the back of the end zone by the Marshall band. The first part of the article chronicles Edwards’ struggle to overcome the injury and play football again. Dodd also tells of how Edward’s is looking for someone to blame in the incident for the purpose of suing for damages, quoting the young receiver promising legal action as soon as he can figure out who to blame.

It is here that Dodd takes a left turn when he decided to blame the band. Dodd goes beyond simply putting them at fault because, as Edwards pointed out,”It was a band cart” that he crashed into, Dodd goes on to say that the band should be blamed because, well, they’re the band. The facts that he offers as proof?

“In general, band geeks are self-important and frequently out of tune. It's obvious to the rest of us, why not them? Led Zeppelin does not translate well to the trombone.”

Dodd recounts a tale of a reporter at the Rose Bowl who is running across the field to get to the press box and decides that the best route is right through the middle of the band. Shock of shocks the band, whom he describes as “Tuba Goons,” decide that one reporter with a notebook is easier to move than a group of people carrying instruments, which might weigh as much as fifty pounds. Only when a director comes to his rescue does the reporter escape the menacing clutches of the band. My bet is that Dodd was the reporter in the story and that he has been waiting a long time to get even. Other gems from Dodd’s story include;

"Remember when being in the band merely meant you couldn't get a date?"

"For the most part, bandies are neither funny nor, unfortunately, dieting."

 He goes on to suggest that the band director’s head on a platter might be an appropriate bit of vindication for Edwards. You can read the entire article here.

The thing that makes Dodd’s article so infuriating is that he takes the attitude that only social misfits and geeks would be in a band or other marching ensembles. Corey Moore would be someone Dodd would consider a geek. Who is that you ask?

Corey Moore is the Drum Major for the Troopers Drum & Bugle Corps out of Casper Wyoming (and yes, before you mention it I do know the difference between a marching band and a drum corps, but stay with me here). Moore, 20, stepped up from the horn line to the drum major post this year and in seizing that responsibility has dedicated himself to making that corps."I'm expecting us to make the finals. That's our goal. That's 12. It's been since 1986," said Moore talking about the Drum Corps International Finals which to held in Indiana this summer which the Troopers have failed to qualify for in th epast twelve years. They did not even march in one of those years and even their own director refers to the current incarnation of the corps as a “comeback”.

What makes Moore special and worth talking about are the things he chooses not to make a big deal out of, the fact that he has been in and out of hospital emergency rooms since the start of rehearsals in May. The fact that he suffers not only from Chron’s Disease, but Primary Schlerosing Cholangitis (PSC) as well. PSC is a chronic progressive disease of bile ducts that route bile from the liver to the intestine and it is the same liver disease that killed Walter Payton. Eventually Moore will need a liver transplant.

These diseases slow Moore down not one iota. He participates in 14-hour per day rehearsals, travels across the country on busses getting very little sleep, performing at high schools and college stadiums in sometimes oppressive heats while wearing replica US Army Cavalry blues complete with sword and sidearm.

I had the pleasure of seeing The Troopers perform at a recent DCI event at Stanford Stadium and I have to admit that Moore stood out as he lead his corps out onto the field. His step is razor sharp, his gate is slow and assured, his posture is perfect. When the announcer calls out “Drum Major Corey Moore, is your corps ready?" Moore pivots on the ball of his foot like an army officer and, leaving out the flourishes of most drum majors, tosses off a sharp salute that would make any military man proud all while standing on a platform that isn’t much more than a scaffolding with some wooden planks some 12 feet off the ground.

Wearing a replica of a military uniform and in ultimate commitment to that role, Moore does not remove his hat, as drum corps tradition would dictate, when he turns back to his band to conduct because he IS at this moment an officer and he IS under arms (carrying a sword) and as any military man will tell you, one does not remove one’s cover when under arms (for the civilians reading this, that means if you’re holding a weapon, you keep your hat on). Even while standing awaiting award announcements Moore is a study in rigid determination, arms crossed across his chest, feet apart slightly, chest out, ready for anything, almost defying the judges to award his corps something other than first place. Unlike the other corps, he stands alone representing the entire unit (musicians and color guard).

The Troopers were not the best group I saw that night, but Moore stood out and it was only after I decided to find out more about him and the Troopers that I discovered this article about him in a Wyoming Newspaper (which I think you should all go read) about his ailments and his struggle to overcome them.

Is Moore a geek? Not in the way that Dodd thinks. I think if you substituted baseball or football or bocce for Drum Corps, Moore’s story would be played up more in the media of the towns he visits. In some ways Corey Moore is a lot like Patrick Edwards, both have a lot to overcome to do something they love.

While this young man’s story may be unique it is by far not the only story of commitment to craft and to corps that I have seen since my own son became involved in his school’s music program. As a former member of the jockocracy myself I can attest to having looked down at people in the band as annoying dorks. Then I watched my son and his fellow musicians practice and drill and practice and work harder than I ever did in any sport I played. I see the qualities that it takes to not only excel at your own instrument, but to try and lift the performances of those next to you to a higher level. I witnessed the camaraderie and the esprit de corps these kids had and, to be honest, I was a little jealous. Nothing brought that point home more when at the DCI show at Stanford the Blue Devils (a drum corps out of Concord CA) played the theme from A Band of Brothers (an HBO mini-series based on the book of the same name). The performance was short but moving and it made you realize that there was indeed a brotherhood out there on that field, a strong one built on commitment, loyalty and passion. The fact that men and women from myriad backgrounds stood shoulder-to-shoulder playing their instruments as individuals and as a band made you understand the ideas of team and commitment in some ways better than watching a football or baseball game.

After all that, you would think I would have jumped on that Dodd boycott bandwagon feet first. I can’t and the reason is simple; Corey Moore. As I write this, we are coming up on the Fourth of July, a celebration of our declaration of independence and of our becoming the country we are. In that declaration our founders wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"

I think along with those things one of our inherent rights is to be able to be a moron and Dodd in his column (not just this latest one, but in most of the ones I have read) uses that right frequently. People fought and died for the idea that you and I have a right to say what we think and feel and that the press should be free of intimidation from anyone. As insulting as it might seem having someone like Dodd call a particular kind of musician geeks is not in the category of speech that should demand a boycott. I have been referred to as a geek reasonably frequently given my chosen profession (publishing comic books and graphic novels) and that is never going to stop. Trying to silence someone like Dodd does not make the misperceptions that people have about marching bands or comic books or anything else go away, if anything it tends to strengthen them. Living well, as the saying goes, is the best revenge and that’s how I have managed to silence my critics over the years.

I would think that Corey Moore (although I do not know him and cannot speak for him) would probably just stare a guy like Dodd down and then go about his business, and I think that everyone who feels strongly about what Dodd wrote should use the bully pulpit provided to us by the internet and modern society to ask for an apology. You won’t get one because Dodd seems committed to exercising his right to be a moron since his only response to people asking for an apology was “Brass blows”. So barring getting an apology perhaps a good alternative might be finding a way to evangelize your interests in a way that gets people interested. Find someone like Corey Moore and talk about them, every marching band or drum corps or other music ensembles must have similar, compelling stories to tell. Tell them. Continue to voice your displeasure about people like Dodd, use his name as often as possible when making your point on the internet and eventually the entire Google searching world will associate Dennis Dodd with being a moron (it seems like most people already do anyway, so it shouldn’t be too hard).

That’s my plan anyway.

My apologies for the lengthy post, I will now return you to your regular nonsense.

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