I've always enjoyed reading your paper, but I just couldn't believe that you even published the tasteless article on marching bands from Doug Robinson. Marching bands begin working before the football teams, and they continue practicing after the football season is over. This is one of the flawed assumptions of the article. He thinks that marching bands exist only for half-time entertainment. Band members work very hard and have to be just as disciplined as any athlete ever thought of being. All Mr. Robinson's article ac-comp-lished was to reveal him as an uncultured, wannabe jock.
No one buys marching band CDs because they just play regular music. They play everything from Beethoven to "Phantom of the Opera" to "Hey Jude." If Doug Robinson can't tell the difference between these, he's definitely the one with the problem.As for playing Rocky, that's usually done by a pep band, and the pep band knows as many songs as the team does plays. I don't hear anyone complaining when the QB runs the same play four times in a row. Most people enjoy hearing marching bands, whatever they're playing. As the band marches a parade, people call for them to play a song, and they often only have one song for the whole parade.
Mr. Robinson needs to take another look at the uniforms and at his history books. They look nothing like what George Washington would have worn. Whoever wore football uniforms to anything besides a game? It's obvious that Doug Robinson simply needs to watch "Mr. Holland's Opus" and listen to a little more Beethoven and not comment about subjects on which he's completely ignorant.
I think everyone who ever played in a marching band or, heaven forbid, enjoyed the performance of one, deserves an apology for his rude and tasteless article.
Melanie Busby
Member, PGHS marching band