Eagle Editorial Board
Jamie Lynn Hand would have turned 29 this weekend. She remains, however, frozen in memory at the age of 19, her age when she died in the collapse of Bonfire at Texas A&M University.
We remember her and we remember those who died with her on that terrible morning almost a decade ago: Miranda Adams, Christopher Breen, Michael Ebanks, Jeremy Frampton, Christopher Herd, Tim Kerlee Jr., Lucas John Kimmel, Brian A. McClain, Chad A. Powell, Jerry Don Self and Nathan Scott West.
Now, Gov. Rick Perry says Texas A&M's beloved Bonfire will return, possibly as early as next year. A&M's interim president, R. Bowen Loftin, indicates it will not.
Good for Loftin. Of course Bonfire cannot return. The risk of losing even one more precious life is simply too great. No matter how much professional supervision could be in imposed, no matter how many changes made, it would still be too dangerous. Students are not engineers, they are not construction experts.
For Perry to predict Bonfire will return is an affront to the Aggies who died and the 27 who were injured and Perry should be ashamed of himself for suggesting it.
A&M's immediate past president, Elsa Murano, summed it up well when she said, "When one sees a comment like that in print, one can only wonder whether it was made with full consideration of the people who suffered the most, that is the families of the Bonfire victims. No matter how much we mourn the tradition of Bonfire, that loss does not begin to compare to what the families lost on that tragic day."
Bonfire's return is a lingering dream for many Old Ags who fondly remember their student days on campus when the annual blaze was a sacred tradition. And some students continue to put on a rump bonfire each year, off campus and not sanctioned by anyone at A&M.
But Perry's prediction of Bonfire's return to a writer for Texas Monthly is irresponsible and cynical. One can't help but think he made the statement in an effort to remind Aggies throughout the state that he is one of them at a time he is fighting for his political life against Kay Bailey Hutchison for the 2010 Republican gubernatorial nomination.
Loftin said it would take an overwhelming demand for students to even consider bringing Bonfire back -- a demand everyone says simply doesn't exist from a student body not yet in its teens when Bonfire collapsed.
There are many legal reasons not to bring Bonfire back to campus, and there are great moral issues. Loftin told The Eagle, "To have it happen to you one time is something that you can get past. If you did it again, and it happened again, you have no way to excuse yourself."
Perry just can't seem to keep his hands off A&M. His meddling has cost the school greatly and it needs to stop. It is one of the great universities in the country, not his personal play toy.
Let's remember the students who died and those who were injured. Let's not sully their memory with talk of reinstituting what ultimately was and always would be a dangerous tradition.
We honor their memory by finding other, safer ways to support the burning desire to beat Texas.
RSS
Mobile
Daily Emails
We Twitter
