Note: Thoughts expressed in the columns and letters of the opinions section are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinion of the CW editorial staff.

Opinion or not there is a standard level of integrity that a paper is required to live up to when posting something. In the article “More like the Ten-Cent Band” I saw no such integrity. Despite the claim this article wasn’t aimed at the members of the MDB it was still insulting, enraging and thoughtlessly provoking towards those exact members and even other members of its own school. The journalistic integrity, however, of the article is neither here nor there. Rather, it is the absurdity and blatantly disrespectful content of what I read in the article that has me writing this.

Now I can’t claim to have seen this year’s half-time show preformed, but I was a member two years back and just hearing them play on the way to my car after class makes me proud. The sound of the music gives me absolute confidence in the performance Dr. Ozzello, the staff, and every member of MDB are giving. The discipline, commitment, effort and time given reflect a pride and tradition that can only be found in a few places at this University.

Even the most die-hard fans rarely give up what most members of the Million Dollar Band give up every single day of the fall semester. Day after day they practice, sometimes only a few moves because they want it perfect, all because they care about and love the band. How many people are willing to cut short their fall and/or winter breaks just because they need to practice for an upcoming game?

Now the claim here is that it’s all garbage because someone can’t understand it? That seems more like a failure on the observers’ part than that of the performers. A lot of people don’t understand Shakespeare, yet last time I checked he was a pretty good and respectable writer. Now let us assume we do copy Ohio, Texas, and Tennessee’s routine; since when is it Alabama’s style to do things similar to other colleges? Where is the pride in that? They are the Alabama Crimson Tide Million Dollar Band!

They do things differently. Those bands have no imagination, no flare of individuality or originality. To insinuate that they should just conform to the same monotonous routine that everyone else is doing is insulting!

I believe they are better than them and as such I’m proud they are willing to explore new possibilities. So I’ll take the “cracked out Picasso” because quite honestly what he did was far more entertaining and not nearly as boring and bland as what the other guys were doing.

My suggestion is next time someone considers critiquing the MDB they do so without using such arrogantly unprofessional terms and perhaps give better advice than “lets conform!” It may also help to maybe take an hour or two out of their, what I’m sure is a colossally laborious, day and see how hard these men and women work in the MDB.  Perhaps then they’ll have a little more humility on the topic.

Michael Grierson is a junior majoring in philosophy.