You’re reading a story from Sidelines 100, a project showcasing a century of student storytelling at Middle Tennessee State University. Sidelines 100 plans to highlight 100 stories from the newspaper archives this fall and spring.
This story originally ran in the June 27, 2007, edition of Sidelines. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay on top of all things Sidelines 100.
There is an extremely thin, crumbling line between being progressive in a culture and breaking the foundations of that culture. Where is the line drawn between renovating a house that predates the Civil War and the risk of compromising the historical value of that estate?
Where is the line drawn between allowing mass, drug-infested chaos at Bonnaroo to generate extra cash for Tennessee and some- one dying because of the bending of the rules?
The trouble of preserving tradition and proceeding as a society is that they rarely go hand-in-hand, seeing that the very word progression is the antithesis of the word history.
The connection between the renovated ruins of our past and the tempestuous, musical frenzy of Bonnaroo is that people get con- fused about the rules, the morals, the ethics and more importantly, the economics of each situation.
The problem with painting over wallpaper that was around during the Civil War is not that wallpaper is terribly important and in turn, smoking a little pot at a confined music festival is not the end of the world, but it signifies something even more important; we are rapidly selling our history and the integrity of our laws for expedient cash.
A culture should always try to develop and still maintain its foundations, any person off the street would testify to this. However, if you then offer up one hundred dollars to this street person to change their opinion, sure enough, history and integrity would be a thing of the past.
The currency of men has changed over the years. It is no longer upholding justice or protecting honor; the currency of men is currency.
Money has always been fantastic, but allowing every person in Bonnaroo to get away with doing massive amounts of recreational drugs and not giving them five to 10 in a state pen so that we can preserve our income is not only ethically controversial, it is illegal. Butchering a historical monument, no matter how ugly the window treatments are, for more profit is disgusting, yet it is the sound move to make, economically speaking.
When does our progression give way to our destruction? When does selling the soul of the legal system and the value of our history become less important than a rainy day fund?
Apparently, when the money stops.
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