Do to the recent Seattle SuperSonics situation, animosity has developed between citizens of Seattle and Oklahoma City. The past year or so alot of derogatory terms have been thrown at each other. Which both sides have childishly pointed fingers each others way saying, "You started it!". Well I thought I'd go ahead and define some of these terms and clear the air in some other areas while I'm here.
First, let's look at the definition of a "Red*neck".
RED*NECK: This was the name used by a gang of coal miners. The West Virginia Coal Miners March or the Battle of Blair Mountain when coal miners wore red bandanas around their necks to identify themselves as seeking the opportunity to unionize. (Nothing Oklahoman there.)
Second, we'll take a look at what a "Hillbilly" is.
HILLBILLY: The term hillbilly in the United States was conferred during the early 18th century by the occupying British soldiers as a carry over from the Irish term, in referring to Scots-Irish immigrants of mainly Presbyterian origin, dwelling in the frontier areas of the Appalachian Mountains. (Nothing Oklahoman there either, but I'm a Scottish-American that lives the shadows of the Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges here in Seattle. Does that make me a hillbilly?)
Third, we'll look at the term, "Treehugger".
TREEHUGGER: An environmentalist, especially one who supports the preservation of forested land and the restriction of logging. (Hold your breath fellow Pacific Northwest Treehuggers. Located in Federal Way, Washington, Weyerhaeuser is one of the largest pulp and paper companies in the world; the world's largest private owner of softwoodtimberland; and the second largest owner in the United States, behind International Paper. Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst have identified Weyerhaeuser as the 42nd-largest corporate producer of air pollution in the United States, with roughly 17 million pounds of toxic chemicals released annually into the air. Major pollutants indicated by the study include formaldehyde, sulfuric acid, acetaldehyde, manganese compounds, and chlorine dioxide. The Environmental Protection Agency has named it a potentially responsible party for at least 18 Superfund toxic waste sites. So much for being a treehugger!)
So with all that aside, let's talk about this current situation. I see many folks from Oklahoma like "ThePurplePrincess4u" and "OKCGirl" acting as if they are victims of some kind of identity theft because of some outraged Seattle fans. I currently tried to post facts on "ThePurplePrinces4u's" blog post's, but she has screened the comments and denied my comments. I understand some people from Seattle have said some disrespectful things, but my comments on her blog was nothing more than facts.
Many people seem to think that the folks in Seattle don't support our teams. Seattle taxpayers are currently paying for:
Kingdome: Does not even exist anymore
Coliseum: 1995 renovation, now Key Arena
Safeco Field: I still believe this is the most exspensive ball park in baseball.
Qwest Field: Quite possibly the loudest football stadium in the NFL.
Now, things Seattle taxpayers have avoided paying for.
Highway 99 Viaduct: This thing is routinely shut down for earthquake inspections, as it is sinking an inch almost yearly. This highway supports at least 100,000 automobiles daily.
Highway 520 Floating Bridge: Now the funding is finally coming for this bridge, but it has been too long for this funding to take place. But roughly 115,000 people use this bridge daily.
Monorail: Though this is now terminated, the Seattle taxpayers were being charged for this mess while Howard Schultz was demanding funding.
Seattle Public Schools: No matter where you're from, public schools are always an issue. So spare us your jokes.
University Of Washington: 300 million dollars in renovations to Husky Stadium.
These are just a few issues Seattle taxpayers were facing while Clay Bennett was asking us for the 500 million dollar "Taj Mahal" of NBA arenas. We in Seattle learned that our State Legislators were not going to have last minute arena proposals rammed down their throats by Clay Bennett because he couldn't come up with anything in a reasonable amount of time for Legislation to review. And Seattle elected officials lied to the fans in the end and did nothing to guarantee any kind of future.
A couple other facts people seem to forget.
-The City of Seattle proposed a 230 million dollar renovation plan for Key Arena to Howard Schultz, but he wanted 300 million.
-Muckleshoot Indian Reservation offered Clay Bennett 23 acres of free land for an arena, but Bennett quickly dismissed this plan and never had his lobbyists look into it.
-Howard Schultz sold to the HIGHEST bidder, not the lowest. The 350 million dollar price tag on the Sonics was inflated and deferred many buyers. Clay Bennett bit though and the Seattle fans suffered. Howard Schultz made a 69 million dollar profit from the sale of the Sonics.
In the end, Seattle SuperSonic fan's could do nothing to prevent this from happening, thus making us the victims. If you're to naive to see this, just wait when your team needs a new facility and you have other pressing issues to contend with.
My list of who is at fault in my opinion, from greatest to blame, to least.
1. Money-The root of all evil.
2. Howard Schultz-Horrible coffee and for making a profit off the fans loss.
3. The NBA-Allowing such ransoms to accure. "We'll move, if you don't build it!"
4. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels-Giving me false hope that he actually cared about the fans.
5. Clay Bennett-Hard for me to blame him totally, but he did lie and he made it virtually impossible for any kind of deals to be struck with his GINORMOUS demands.
I'm done for now...........let the Seattle bashing begin again.
More likely definitions of hillbilly and #### are:
hilbilly - "The term Hill-Billies is first encountered in documents from 17th century Ireland. Roman Catholic King James II landed at Kinsale in Ireland in 1689 and began to raise a Catholic army in an attempt to regain the British throne. Protestant King William III, Prince of Orange, led an English counterforce into Ireland and defeated James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. A significant portion of William III's army was composed of Protestants of Scottish descent (Planters) who had settled in Ulster in northern Ireland. The southern Irish Catholic supporters of James II referred to these northern Protestant supporters of King William as Billy Boys — Billy being an abbreviation of William."
#### - "The National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant (a.k.a. Covenanters) signed documents stating that Scotland desired a Presbyterian Church government, and rejected the Church of England as their official church (no Anglican congregation was ever accepted as the official church in Scotland). What the Covenanters rejected was episcopacy — rule by bishops — the preferred form of church government in England. Many of the Covenanters signed these documents using their own blood, and many in the movement began wearing red pieces of cloth around their neck to signify their position to the public. They were referred to as ####.[1] Large numbers of these Scottish Presbyterians migrated from their lowland Scottish home to Ulster (the northern province of Ireland) and soon settled in considerable numbers in North America throughout the 18th century. Some emigrated directly from Scotland to the American colonies in the late 18th and early 19th-centuries as a result of the Lowland Clearances. This etymological theory holds that since many Scots-Irish Americans and Scottish Americans who settled in Appalachia and the South were Presbyterian, the term was bestowed upon them and their descendants."
As you can see, hillbillys and #### are the same people. I am proud to be both.
I have nothing against the people in OKC. This whole dispute never really was about the fans. Clay Bennett wanted a team. He had dreams of moving the Spurs to places like Las Vegas, KC and OKC. OKC saw an opportunity with the Hornets and ran with it. Howard Schultz sold at the right time for Clay. This was all fortunate and unfortanate opportunity depending where you are geographically from. It's hard, but I'll move on.
I have a piece of the Kingdome ceiling tile from when they had to replace them, do to them falling down. My buddies uncle was won of the Contractors working that job.
Farewell Sonics. Enjoy your new home in OKC. In their city, you'll have to compete with the tracktor pull contests and the rodeo at the county fair. Now, instead of shooting rats at the dump on Saturday night, the Okies can plop down $125 per person to watch a second rate NBA team. They can spend their money on Sonic tickets, or buy that desperatly needed plow horse to till the field. Howard Schultz sold out the Sonics for a mere $69M profit. The biggest shame is we can't pack his #### up with the Sonics and ship him to OKC too.
I don't think the terms mean as much unless you go that far back. The terms were always somewhat derogatory to me. Now I am proud to know I have the heritage in me. I have my mom's maternal lineage on record as such and know there is probably more of that in me.
WestSeattle,
One of the best blogs i have read. It was interesting to see what the words that have been thrown back and forth actually mean. I had no idea where these terms had originated or what they were originally used for. Hopefully this can help put aan end to all the pointless bickering between fans of the same (in the literal sense of the word)team.
Wow. Haven't been a fan of the NBA since the strike. But will sorely miss the Super Sonics. Good luck.
Nice rundown WS. As an Irish/Swede living in the shadow of the Olympics, in a town known more for the Bars that are no longer here. You can put me in the HillBilly group also.
Well said!!! and I feel for the fans up there, you have a beautiful city..and fine traditions...... but when some of the dregs from up there start bashing not just the city.... but the entire state....... People (including me) will react.......Oklahoma has had a bad rap in the rest of the countries eye..... but, that being said, it is also a wonderful place to live, parts of it are very beautiful, and the people in general are friendly and educated........ Seattle will get another NBA team...... let Oklahoma enjoy its ONLY professional franchise....... we have waited a very long time for this!
Heya, I was a loyal Sonics fan from the McMillan, Perkins, Payton, Kemp days until the team sold, and Clay sent all the players away. Without Ray and Rishard, I lost interest real fast, and felt like Mr. Bennett basically stripped the team so it would be doomed to losing seasons which would make the fans care less. I'm Of Scottish descent also, and don't know if my heritage has anything to do with it, but I totally agree with all of your comments. I was happy that Seattle gets to keep the Sonics name in hopes of building another team. The team that Clay built was disappionting at best. Shultz wants to get that team back, and I think we'd be better off if he focused on getting the arena and building a new team. Let the OKiee Dokiees go. Lake Stevens, WA
WS and Falcon, thank you. I often wondered where those terms originated. I feel better now because I've been called so many things, at least those aren't all that bad.LOL
Great scribble and being raised in Oklahoma I have heard it all and it doesn't matter to me what people say I just consider the source and move on lifes to short to listen to stupid people.
The thing thats interesting about the Schultz case is, no matter what he does, he's going to look like a bad guy. Schultz's case will be next spring and many legal analyts that have reviewed Yarmouth's(Schultz attorney) filing say it's rock solid and Schultz has a better than 60% chance of winning the case. So if Schultz win's, Oklahoma will be left with nothing but the Ford Center bill. ESPN has some good articles on Schultz'z case from their lawyers and all the documents. Next spring will be interesting.
WestSeattle: Great post, I like the use of well organized, concise facts. How is Shultz going to have a case since he has sold the team? He no longer has legal right to it, so how can his case be considered a 60% lock? I have not heard very much about his case.
Y-Oh-Y: I lived in Oklahoma for 5 years while I was in school, and would like to say that Oklahoma is not near as backwards as you so eloquently portraying it. I do not think I have ever seen any advertisements for Tractor pulls, and I have never heard of anyone shooting rats in a dump. Every Southern City has Rodeo's and EVERY major city will have a State fair. OKC never has county fairs due to the fact they have the State Fair Grounds. Just because you are upset about the Sonics leaving, that does not mean that you need to bash the state of Oklahoma or its citizens. Your diatribe only makes you look ignorant and ill-educated.
Actually the term r.edneck came from cowboys on the the Chisolm trail that would wear red bandannas around their necks on the cattle drive to help with persperation
Last edited by SteelDeathBed on August 9th at 12:55 PM.
Igrew up in Seattle and remember going to the very first Starbucks at Pike Place when I was a kid (mom got the beans there) and I have loved their stuff ever since- but after this I will never give that Scrooge another penny. As if he needed more. Thanks local boy who did good- screw your city over and get rid of the Sonics for a buck. Well, I say boycott Starbucks forever!
Last edited by cfb_purist on September 2nd at 12:09 AM.
