#gary sousa

I am neither a UTK student nor wish to become one, but I am nonetheless very disappointed in the lack of respect the school and athletic department has shown the Pride of the Southland Marching Band.  I would just like the world to know that I support Gary Sousa 100%.  I think that a successful, talented director of 16 years should not have been fired, regardless of whether the administrative office had thought him in the right or in the wrong for his protests.  He's a talented individual and he's loved by all the students!  Come on, UT!  The students are the ones paying you for their eductation and they are paying for the instruction of Gary Sousa.

Most teachers do not fervently advocate the rights and traditions of their students.  Though the plight of the arts in education has been devastating to many music educators, minimal activism has ever been taken.  The University of Tennessee has deemed Sousa to be unfit for his position of leadership, but isn't he more of a leader than the rest of us?

Although many people agree with Sousa's anger towards the band's treatment, many others feel that he had the right mission but went about it the wrong way.  Placing myself in his shoes, I think I would have been too scared to do anything at all.  He did something.  As Albert Einstein said, "Great spirits have always encoutered violent opposition from mediocre minds."