Saturday night, I had to choose between going to the Texas Tech Jazz Festival and celebrating my friend's birthday at the 65th Annual ABC Rodeo. I went to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with my family when I was a kid, so I thought it would be nice to reconnect with those childhood memories.
At the end of the night, I left with a sick feeling in my stomach. Leave it to Lubbock to mess up a rodeo.
Every year since 1949, the Beutler & Son Rodeo Company has served as stock contractor for the event, which is a fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Club. Talking to KCBD-TV, rodeo chairman Mike Redeker said when the Beutler family comes to town, it is "kind of in control of the rodeo." He said besides bringing all the stock, the Beutlers "also help us with production of the rodeo and the way the order and things go."
Don't get me wrong. I may be a bleeding-heart liberal from Arlington, but I love a good rodeo. I love the culture of the West. I love the landscape, the horses, the cattle, the food and all the music, movies and books that have romanticized it. Within the past couple weeks, I have practiced my John Wayne impression in the mirror - but don't tell anyone.
Unfortunately, "Brokeback Mountain" had a better connection with American cowboy culture than the ABC Rodeo had Saturday night.
Before the show, as the lights dimmed and the audience grew quiet, a girl carrying an American flag rode a horse around the arena. The announcer saluted the troops in a speech tinged with the "They're in Iraq so we can have this rodeo" philosophy. Then, a man took the microphone to pray. The prayer thanked Jesus, who spilled his blood at Calvary, for giving us cowboys and cowgirls and ended with a shout: "Father, let's rodeo!"
I'm a Christian, and I'm all for honoring the troops in Iraq, but the opening was a little on the tawdry side. Anyhow, I stifled my cynicism and got pumped up for some bull riding and bronco bucking.
Well, let's not kid around, the ABC Rodeo has some pretty good cowboys and cowgirls. There was plenty of cheering from me during the evening, and don't worry, I'm not going to go PETA on you and talk about animal rights, because thankfully, I'm not that liberal.
The riding was great; it was the entertainment in between that was utterly offensive.
In one particularly unnecessary skit, a clown chain-sawed another clown as we saw fake blood spurting from his body. Followed by an overlong round of flatulence humor, there were plenty of jokes about penis size and getting drunk. If I had wanted a night of sex, violence and immature humor, I could have skipped the rodeo and the jazz festival altogether to watch South Park.
The worst was yet to come, though, as two "Hooter's" girls came to the center of the arena to compete in a banana-eating contest. Good grief, where's the Lubbock Police Department when you need it?
This may seem like making a big deal out of nothing, but there were hundreds of children present to witness what was supposed to be a family event. It saddens me these children had to view such a distorted image of the American Western culture at such a young age.
Mike Redeker said to KCBD-TV, "I think rodeo really reflects the best things in America." I agree. A good rodeo is filled with exciting competition, gives people the chance to come together in celebration of one of this country's unique cultures and, perhaps most importantly, is a family event. The rodeo I saw at the City Bank Coliseum Saturday night was no family event, though. To do it all in the name of Jesus and the troops was an offense to both Christianity and the war in Iraq.
It's hard to criticize something that last year raised $36,000 for a charity, but, if it's true that the Beutlers are in control of the production, there's an easy fix: Get someone else to do it. We've got an entire year to plan for the next one.
As the audience cleared, and John Williams's rousing overture from "The Cowboys" played over the loudspeakers, the announcer proclaimed, "What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God."
Let's give God and the families of Lubbock a big gift by finding someone else to run the rodeo next year. We deserve better.
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