Let's Keep Building Ole Miss Up Rather Than Tearing Her Down By Taking Away Her Traditions And Heritage

The Lyceum

   I knew Willie Morris, Barry Hannah, Dr. Porter Fortune, Ron Shapiro and The Hoka. I knew the Rebel flag, the Rebels, Frat Row, the Dixie Song and Kentucky bourbon in my Coke on a Saturday football fall afternoon. I knew the Spirit of Ole Miss as I graced her hallways in The Lyceum on an early Spring morning or as I sat in a classroom at Bondurant Hall on a long, hot summer day. I knew the beat of her heart when I walked the Grove on a beautiful fall afternoon.

    And I can still hear her calling my name as I am one of thousands of students who knew and loved her as she was. Thirty three years later, it’s not a matter of how much money I have given her through the years. But it’s a matter of how much she has given me. She prepared me for the world, my career and how to be a family man. She made me into a productive and responsible citizen in my community.

My late mother and I in 1986 at Ole Miss

   
She has given me so much more than I could have ever given her. So the question is, “Would we recognize her today? No, I don’t think so. Has her spirit, heart and soul been destroyed? Yes, I think so. The liberals and socialists have crawled all over her like poisonous and diseased insects. So let’s keep building her up rather than tearing her down. Let’s keep her traditions and heritage alive so she will continue to have a positive impact on all of her student’s lives for future generations as she done for mine today. May God Bless Ole Miss and Hotty Toddy! (Pic below: My late mother and I in 1986).

Ole Miss Lives On Forever

Ole Miss is a place. It’s a place that lives on in our hearts and minds whether we are 18 years-old or 94 years-old. It does not matter if you live in Nantucket, Mass., or Bowling Green, Ky., some of us attended school there and some of us did not. Nevertheless, Ole Miss is the place that you see in your mind when you close your eyes and meditate upon her. When I shut my eyes, I can see myself standing in The Grove or The Circle looking at the front of The Lyceum at a moment’s notice. I can still hear the Ole Miss choir standing on the staircase of The Lyceum during my freshman year back in December of 1982 singing Christmas carols to the administration and staff on the last day of school before the holiday break or in Fulton Chapel singing the Ole Miss Mater Song during an Award ceremony in the early Spring. No, we could never be mad at Ole Miss for what she stands for and what she means to us. She lives on forever and our love for will never end.  No one can ever kill our love for her or take away our memories. We will all die one day but she will live on forever creating new memories in the hearts and minds of new students and people from other places from far away and in-between. Hotty Toddy!