My Friend's Angry Rant.

Point one: My assumptions.At the start of this rant, I am going to make a couple of assumptions that are carried through the rest of it. First, I am going to assume that the yearbook committee did everything in the book with very little input from Mr. Rork. Secondly, I am going to assume that if any facts need correcting that Magnus will care enough to read this and correct them on behalf of the committee, as I believe that adding people as friends just to critique their work would be rather unfriendly on my part.

Point two: the business perspectiveFrom a business standpoint, there was a major flaw in the conception of the theme of this year’s yearbook. The target audience for this dark, yet refreshingly original, piece of work probably makes up less than ten percent of the grade twelve class. Producing a product is all about giving the people what they want, but most people wanted candy and were given some sort of tofu bar. From this point of view, the recall makes sense. Coca-Cola had to recall their ‘revolutionary’ new flavour of coke back in the day because people simply didn’t like it. Instead, they re-released their old recipe as Coca-Cola Classic. I think that there were a good number of people in the school who found some of the content of the yearbook ‘distasteful’, so giving them the option of a ‘classic’ version only makes sense.

Point three: the choice perspectiveI believe that making the recall of the yearbook mandatory was a terrible decision. We high school students are supposed to be young adults, so why are we being forced to change our yearbooks. Some people may be perfectly happy with flaming heads being metaphors for their brains hurting during exams. There is no need for them to get a new yearbook. If the petition does not work out I will be sorely disappointed in the staff at BRHS for replacing an interesting, original, controversial yearbook with the regular cookie cutter variety we all know already. Can’t we just have both?

Point four: Subject materialI do not have that much to say concerning the subject material in this book. Although some people found a lot of the images to be disturbing, I recognize the fact that art is subjective and not everyone will ‘get it’. What annoys me are the political overtones. If certain people want to make political statements, they should speak up in social class instead of making people pay thirty five dollars for their radical, but totally unwanted, ideas. The yearbook is supposed to be about the students in our school, not the state of our ‘EVIL’ capitalist economy. Also, I was put of by one piece of artwork. I am referring to the two men with their snake-tongues entwined with a heart above their heads. Homosexuality is wrong. Period. In my mind this is not even open to debate and should not be put in the yearbook. If I get the black market copy of this version that I want, that picture will be coloured over or ripped out.

Point five: who takes the fall?I am somewhat worried for the creators of the yearbook. Having worked so hard for so long on it, the recall must be like a slap in the face. You guys truly have my deepest sympathy. My first thought is, couldn’t this all have been prevented? The yearbook could have been seen by a certain teacher at the start and been pointed in a more positive direction. This is where I fear Mr. Rork will be in trouble. I believe that he will ultimately be the one to take the fall, if one is to be taken here. He seemed like a rather soft person to me, so I doubt that he would have wanted to tell the yearbook committee that their ‘art direction’ was in the wrong direction. The school paid good money to get those yearbooks published based on his assurance that everything was alright. I can only hope that the yearbook committee will be able to shield him from the general public’s wrath.

Point six: In closingIn closing, I would like to say that there will definitely be changes in next year’s yearbook creation. I’m sure the committee will kept be on a tight leash by some of the more traditional-minded teachers. Perhaps some happy-go-lucky students will rush to be the ones to be in charge to avoid ‘The Great Tragedy of 2008” I would also like to say that my rant has probably been quite biased and I certainly do not know all the facts behind the story. I don’t even own a copy of the yearbook, although I would buy one if it became available again. I would like to thank the yearbook team for their hard work in organizing a whole year into one tiny book. I apologize for any and all inconsistencies in my logic, ethics, or viewpoints. A sincere thank you goes to anyone who actually took the time to read all of this.

Point seven: PS I’ve had a day to think about this now, and I just want to say that I hope nobody is overly offended by any of this. Also, I want to say that the petition paper people are doing a great job and I hope that works out.

High school what would we do with out it.

Governator