To further amplify the common bitterness of Cal High students trying to have fun on campus, administrators have decided to take their “talents” to basketball games and crack down on our infamous 6th Man.

I would like to take a moment to pause and clarify something. The argument of this article does not apply to Tim and his fellow campus supervisors.

But school administrators have employed their usual tactics of increasing a presence, creating arbitrary guidelines based on illogical justifications, and singling out any student that doesn’t follow their mold. 

As personally explained by an administrator at a basketball game, it is clear they are trying to put an end to our 6th Man singling out any individual players on the other team. (They have also been known to confiscate any item that makes noises above a certain tolerable level, which I think is above the threshold of a golf clap.) 

About half the reason students come to basketball games is to go crazy for their team and to heckle the other team.

Heckling is and always will be a huge part of sporting events. Players have had to put up with it since the dawn of competition, which is usually not too hard considering they’re focused so much on their game, they don’t notice the hecklers.

Most of us grew up coming to Cal basketball games and watching the student section go crazy. They were constantly loud and obnoxious, but it was beautiful in a way. It created another level of intensity to each game and resulted in some extraordinary competition and legendary games. 

The student section we saw as kids led to a home court advantage, which is very important, especially in basketball. The 6th Man created another opponent for the other team and made Cal a special place to play and watch games. 

But now, by restricting the 6th Man, we are holding back our basketball team.

For sake of argument, let’s say heckling is mean and opposing players notice any offensive words screamed at them. So what? 

What’s wrong with being offended? What ever happened to “sticks and stones”? 

What ever happened to sports teaching character and how to stand up to adversity? 

At varsity basketball games, we are dealing with mostly 17 and 18-year-old boys. These boys aren’t boys at all, but men. They should be able to handle a few crude comments thrown their way. 

But if we shield them from all harsh words, what kind of message is that teaching them? When they go to college, get a job, or just walk around town, there isn’t going to be an administrator to protect them. They won’t have the Word Police coming to their rescue to protect their oh-so-precious feelings. 

They’ll have to deal with it. They’ll have to face that some people are mean and you can either sulk about it and let others affect you, or grit your teeth and continue with your life, knowing their words have no effect on you. 

If you would like to debate the effect words can or cannot have on people, I will kindly point you to a dictionary first and recommend the word existentialism, but that is a topic for another time.

What is more pertinent is that administrators are trying to once again limit what students can do by standing on claims so facile and “nice sounding” that no one does anything but comply because that is the easier option. 

It is hard to argue against the person that says we should all be nice because that sounds so ideal. 

But if we were to think deeper, students would soon realize this easier path leads to people having their thoughts and words restricted because they differ from the common opinion. The restriction of others based on your own moral narcissism is ethically wrong in itself.

But we now live in a society where hurting feelings are illegal and words are often mistaken for a swing of the fist. So how do people live in such a society without going mad?

I recommend we avoid all disruption of the will of administration and follow in the footsteps of yours truly. 

Next time you go to a basketball game, do not cheer for the players but cheer for the fact that there is a sporting event going on. Yell such things as “Basketball!” or “Go Team!” 

I understand that these terms may be too confrontational, as some people could find a way to get offended, and you will then be forced to resort to “kinder” words. 

Some of my favorites are “Sports!” or “Athleticism!” These are so generic the likeliness of them offending someone is so minimal that even the most hardcore liberals might actually like them. 

But if nothing else works, you may have to resort to yelling out slogans, catch phrases and even  infomercial lines. 

So if you just follow this advice we can all become mindless, passionless, cookie cutter students that this school has always wanted us to be. 

Administrators, thanks for making one of the best spectator sports now one of the most frustrating. But shoot, this article, like most of mine, was probably written in vain considering the real puppet masters work behind the scenes and are protected by a blanket of disconnect.

Maybe we’ll find some freedom at hockey games.