Relationships are supposed to be mutual commitments, symbols of a shared appreciation and understanding. So when one person in a relationship gives endlessly to an ungrateful recipient the relationship is doomed. The person giving begins to feel trapped, undervalued and insignificant.
These are the sentiments that are brewing in the music department. The band is present at every football game. Yet not only does our presence go vastly unacknowledged, never, in my three years in the Liberty Marching Band, I have felt a shred of gratitude from football team.
The presence of the band at the games has become an expectation and norm. Perhaps it is because the sports department sees it as the band responsibility to show up at these games. But regardless of whether it is a responsibility or not, music students sacrifice their time and energy to attend every home game. Is it not at least reasonable to ask that when the football players thank the audience at the end of the game, they give the band a simple thanks as well?
There is something in American society that tells us that sports takes precedence over music and art. That’s why when the sports teams make it to state, the rest of us are made to attend an assembly celebrating an achievement that the school tells us we should see as our own pride and glory.
Yet what society and the school do not seem to realize is that every time they glorify the achievements of sports, they undermine the accomplishments of music. They are indirectly telling students that their artistic accomplishments are not as important or as relevant as sports.
This is a serious mistake that isolates and makes students feel as if they are not as important as those who do well in athletics.
But of course this is a bigger societal issue that is not at all isolated to Liberty alone. But I hope that in the future Liberty can be a leader in bringing more attention to music and art. It’s not that we need to have an assembly every time the music department accomplishes something. I just simply want to feel like the school and athletic department support and appreciate us in the way we do them.