As you know, both my husband and I went to and graduated from Auburn. We are a die-hard, orange and blue bleeding, "War Eagle!" yelling, faithful part of the Auburn family. When, after our 2010 Iron Bowl victory, a malicious and delusional 'fan' came and poisoned our trees at Toomer's Corner, we were devastated. I was filled with regrets for not truly appreciating that they were living things and could have been taken from us in a second. In reality, observing them slowly die in front of our eyes was the saddest outcome I could imagine for those beautiful trees.
Now, you might be asking why I am bringing all of this up 4 years later. There was an announcement that Ol' Harvey, the poisoner of the trees, would be participating in a charity event by allowing us to throw pies at him and dunk him in a dunk tank. I closed my eyes and imagined hurling a pie at him and seeing him fall into the tank of water. While only momentarily gratifying, it in no way makes amends or helps the hurt. I then realized that it was a stupid and dangerous idea. They would need to have security with him at all times because I imagined all the things that people would try to do to him...and I am pretty tame!
This morning, I found out that he won't be participating because he and the organizers received death threats. It is awful that people threatened the organizers, and I wish the Auburn family had collectively held its tongue so as to not give that jerk the time of day. But really, what did they expect from such an idiotic gimmick? To present us with #1 on our most wanted list and give us the opportunity to see him wipe his face off or watch him fall into a tank of water? Sign me up! ...not. I have seen the comment "Auburn fans care more about trees than charity". This is false, completely dumb, and insensitive. We just rolled our eyes at the gimmick and felt it was a cheap shot. Truthfully, if they had just let us know about the charity event or asked the Auburn family to participate, we would have embraced it with open arms.
Yes, the rest of the world, we ARE still upset. We will always be upset. He took one of our most loved traditions away from us, and if you have never seen it or been there, you just can't understand what that did to us. I hate to use that phrase, but I feel it is warranted in this case. We are rebuilding the corner a little every day, and we have never let the actions of one 'fan' stop the tradition.
Job 14:7
“For there is hope for a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease."
War Eagle, forever.
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