Acclaiming Gipp
OK, I don't know anything about The Flaming Lips. I had never heard of them until a couple of years ago when they made headlines for using an obscenity while getting a street in Bricktown named after them. And I missed the recent dust-up that occurred at the state capitol when a band member named Michael Ivins decided to wear a shirt with the hammer and sickle emblazoned on it. I was out of town at the time, visiting (ironically enough) the Ronald Reagan Library.
Now, I know nothing about Mr. Ivins. It appears that at the very least he needs some education on the matter, and indeed I suspect it goes deeper than that. My guess is that (to borrow from another band) he still hasn't found what he's looking for. In any case, for now I think it would be useful simply to juxtapose Mr. Ivins' silliness with the seriousness of the great man himself:
Certainly it's a weighty and eternally significant honor to have Oklahoma's "official rock song" or to have an alley named for you in Bricktown. But something tells me the Gipper is smiling -- as are millions of former victims of the hammer and sickle -- knowing that, for example, a traffic circle in (formerly Communist) Poland now bears Ronald Reagan's name.
Now, I know nothing about Mr. Ivins. It appears that at the very least he needs some education on the matter, and indeed I suspect it goes deeper than that. My guess is that (to borrow from another band) he still hasn't found what he's looking for. In any case, for now I think it would be useful simply to juxtapose Mr. Ivins' silliness with the seriousness of the great man himself:
Certainly it's a weighty and eternally significant honor to have Oklahoma's "official rock song" or to have an alley named for you in Bricktown. But something tells me the Gipper is smiling -- as are millions of former victims of the hammer and sickle -- knowing that, for example, a traffic circle in (formerly Communist) Poland now bears Ronald Reagan's name.
