Frat Fireworks Nearly Cause International Incident

[Yellowhammer]

"Frat Fireworks Nearly Cause International Incident



A trio of Missouri frat brothers loaded fireworks into a Civil-War era cannon Thursday — and nearly killed a group of visiting Chinese communists as a result.

The president and vice president of the Kappa Alpha (search) house at the University of Missouri-Columbia (search) were arrested the same night, while a third house member was picked up the next morning, reports the Columbia Daily Tribune.

The three apparently wanted to shoot the fireworks out of the cannon, but the resulting explosion simply tore the antique artillery piece apart.

An 8-inch chunk of metal soared across the street, where it crashed through the roof and upper floor of an apartment building before coming to rest on a ping-pong table being used by several visiting Chinese students belonging to a Communist Party leadership association.

"It came down into the net like it would've sliced the table in two, though it didn't break the table," Elaine Pohl, a Missouri faculty member who'd been playing a game of ping-pong with one of the Chinese students, told The Associated Press.

The three fraternity members were released after posting bail of $11,000 each.

The fraternity chapter has been suspended by its national office and the university, pending the outcome of an investigation, the Kappa Alpha Order said Friday. The chapter at Missouri is required to cease all activities."

For the record, I don't think it was a real "Civil War Cannon" so no artifact was destroyed.

[Spinster]

Re: Frat Fireworks Nearly Cause International Incident

"Frat Fireworks Nearly Cause International Incident
For the record, I don't think it was a real "Civil War Cannon" so no artifact was destroyed.

I was wondering about that---while being pretty clueless about cannon, even the wheels of the carriage looked 'not quite right' to me.

We got a pretty good picture of the priorities of our local chapter when they passed on attending a well-funded heavy hitter CW lecture series in order to ride about the campus on a flat-bed log truck, in really bad uniforms, accompanied by beautiful girls in hoop skirts and thong panties (okay, I'm jealous, and wish I had legs like that). :cry_smile

On the other hand, these same young men sand and repaint the elaborate iron fencing around the grave of the Josiah Gorgas family on a regular basis, with materials provided by a local chapter of the UDC, and their cannon is manned by a local battery with a excellent safety record. Thus I cut them some slack when forming my opinion.

[Drygoods]

Re: Frat Fireworks Nearly Cause International Incident

After reading about that frat fracas article, I guess it goes to prove that there are plenty of stupid people out there. My hope is that the judge will be one of those who appreciates history and makes the kids pay severely for their foolishness.

However, after reading about those dummies, it made me wonder have you ever wanted to boot someone out of camp because they were just as stupid? I don't mean stupid in the sense that they did idiot pranks, I guess you could say that is enough to give someone the boot, but I wondered if you have ever asked someone to leave simply because they never understood the basics of history and interpretation.

For instance, if you had someone who after over a year's time knew no more about the CW era than when they started, and still couldn't name 5 generals (either side or both combined), what would you do about them? It's a fact that sometimes when we are there doing interpretation, we sometimes have to instruct our audience, but some folks are just clueless (like those frat boys).

Mfr,
Judith Peebles