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“People Are Paramount”: SDSU Cancels Hobo Day Parade

A Twitter friend notes that South Dakota figured it was safe to have 460-some-thousand people crowd into Sturgis for a week or so in the midst of increasing cases of coronavirus. But South Dakota State University (where our reckless Governor “studied“) is looking more than two months ahead and saying it’s too risky to assemble several thousand hoboes on the streets of Brookings for homecoming:

South Dakota State University is canceling one of its oldest homecoming traditions. The university will not hold the annual Hobo Day parade this fall, citing logistical concerns due to COVID-19.

A statement on the university’s website says campus officials and the 2020 Hobo Day Committee met over the summer to explore options for the homecoming festivities. The statement says the parade would create significant health and safety concerns in the midst of the ongoing pandemic [Jackie Hendry, “SDSU Cancels 2020 Hobo Day Parade,” SDPB, 2020.08.19].

Hoboes always were good at social distancing.

SDSU enunciates a principle we need to hear more of from its prominent graduates in government:

As people are paramount to the celebration of Hobo Day, the decision was made not to hold the annual Hobo Day parade this fall [SDSU, press release, 2020.08.19].

People are paramount. Not sales tax revenues. Not political profile. People are paramount. Hobo Day is big fun, but SDSU is right: for now, we need to skip the parades, stay home, and stay healthy.

7 Comments

  1. Buckobear 2020-08-20 13:46

    “Humans are not for money, money is for humans.” ——
    the Dalai Lama

  2. jerry 2020-08-20 15:44

    “People are Paramount”, damn, that is about as poetic as anything I’ve seen since this trump virus has been using the US as a killing field. “People are Paramount” meaning people are “more important than anything else; supreme.”

    SDSU shows that it’s not only up to the task of educating, it’s also up to the task of showing true character. More of this please.

  3. Debbo 2020-08-20 18:09

    ❤ ❤ ❤ to SDSU.

  4. grudznick 2020-08-21 19:16

    student newspapers? Wow, there’s a “journalistic resource” right up there with a blog. My friend Mr. Sibby used to run a blog. He wasn’t a “journalist” even of the Argus Leader level. Student newspapers. Phhhhhhhhhhhht. (I you could see grudznick right now, and if I still had the long bangs many like I sported in the ’60s, they would be blown asunder in a really neato way by my Phhhhhhhht.) I am sorry for the spittle flying about by my Phhhhhhhht, but golly that’s why I am wearing a really neato mask. To save you, from me. grudznick is about love and caring, not hateful name-calling by out-of-staters and chastising people’s children.

  5. John 2020-08-21 23:05

    Student newspapers — are the training ground for the nation’s future media and journalists. Virtually all the present and past ones cut their teeth on ‘student newspapers’. Mock them at ones peril.

    The higher ed ‘bums’ at SDSU and similar places are about to get a Google lesson on their uneconomic, oft nonsense academic traditions. Google plans disrupting the over-priced, oft fluffy college degree with a less expensive, less time wasteful certificate program. The ‘judge’ will be the employers in the economy — not a stuffy academic bureaucrat.
    https://www.inc.com/justin-bariso/google-plan-disrupt-college-degree-university-higher-education-certificate-project-management-data-analyst.html
    It’s long been open knowledge the US needs more and better trade and apprenticeship schools and programs – and less shoving folks into catch-as-catch-can college. We’ve long known that the ridiculous cost (out-stripping that of even healthcare) and inability to perform basic management for generations — had colleges eventually heading for a reckoning. Someone if belatedly going to provide it. Bring. It. On.

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