Texas band uses Nazi flag on Jewish new year (Now w/ Video Link)

Arizona Republic ^ | September 30, 2003 | Associated Press

[Recourse]

Texas band uses Nazi flag on Jewish new year

Associated Press Sept. 30, 2003 07:29 AM

DALLAS - A Texas high school band leader is apologizing for his band's half-time performance on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year.

During a half-time show at a football game at a Dallas high school last Friday, a student from Paris High School went running across the field waving a Nazi flag.

At the time, the band was playing the composition that eventually became known as "Deutschland Uber Alles".

Band director Charles Grissom says it was part of a show entitled "Visions of World War II," in which the flags and music were intended to represent the warring nations.

Grissom says the musicians were booed and cursed, and had things thrown at them. He adds they have learned their lesson. The band's show will likely now include only the U.S. flag.

Grissom tells The Dallas Morning News it was "an error in judgment."

[Recourse]

You can watch a video of the swastika run across the football field at:

http://www.wfaa.com/cgi-bin/bi/video/G2redirect.pl?title=5190872

[dirtbiker]

Grissom tells The Dallas Morning News it was "an error in judgment."

More like a collosial "brain fart"

[Ex-Dem]

Sounds like this band is a protege of Rammstein...

[Island Girl]

Did the baton twirlers have giant pretzels on their chest?

[garbanzo]

It's Springtime for Hitler and Germany...

[sinkspur]

This was a cosmically stupid thing to do, to go to a game with Highland Park High School (in heavily Jewish north Dallas) on Rosh Hashanah and wave a Nazi flag.

Paris is not in the sticks, but this was truly a brain-dead stunt.

And all the silly band director can say is "well, this was a learning experience.

Are there people still walking around on the earth who don't know that the swastika is offensive to BUNCHES of people? And did nobody in Paris think that there might be some JEWISH people in north Dallas? And, I guess nobody realized that Saturday was ROSH HASHANAH, the Jewish New Year.

[pistola]

The Paris, Texas marching band displayed the flags of several countries during the WWII Visions march. Not only did they fly the Nazi flag, the marching band used a plain white flag to represent the French.

[jammer]

What was wrong with playing music from both sides? Beethoven did it in the popularly named "Wellington's Victory." Of course, the 1812 Overture has the Marseilles throughout. The error in judgement was from the idiot with the flag, who wanted to make a stupid, inane point.

[pdjplano]

Where is the outrage about the Japanese or Italian flags??

Stupid PC crap, the band did a fine job.

[LibKill]

I'll bet the bandleader is a registered democrap who did this to hurt Bush, Bush being from Texas.

Someone sic Sean and O'Reilly on this!

[Shermy]

I watched.


Seems to me the loudest boos were for the French flag.

[jammer]

The question I have is whether the Nazi flag was waved by a band authorized person or from a protestor (or ahole anti-semite). I didn't get from the article that the band authorized it, but was a victim of lunacy.

[jammer]

Oops, I see that the band did authorize it. Sorry. It was stupid.

[sinkspur]

The band director authorized it as part of a "WWII" montage.

This guy (Grissom) was on Mark Davis' local talk show yesterday and, I believe he said that they also waved the Japanese "rising sun" flag. Not as offensive, but still not very sensitive to WWII veterans.

[NativeNewYorker]

I watched the video and didn't see the Nazi flag.

FWIW, I lost family to Hitler, and even *I* am not offended.

These people were just dumb...not malicious. Doing this on the Jewish New Year, against a heavily Jewish school adds to the black-comedy aspect of this.

[Paul Atreides]

How on Earth could any sane person think that this would be a good idea? I'm sitting here in a complete state of bewilderment. I can't begin to fathom that level of depravity.

[sinkspur]

Stupid PC crap, the band did a fine job.

The band did what it was told to do.

The band director, on the other hand, is a clueless fool.

The Paris coaches were booed on their way up to the press box after the game, and they weren't even aware of what had happened.

Lots of hard feelings, I'll bet, in Paris over this.

[txzman]

What is even worse is that Hillcrest is smack in the middle of a large Orthodox Jewish neighborhood. You could not pick a worse place to do this in!

[jsbankston]

The People of Paris, Texas must be Socialists just like their Socailist brothers in Paris, France.

[sinkspur]

I can't begin to fathom that level of depravity.

That's harsh, Paul. Grissom is not depraved, but, from listening to him, he is very unaware of politicial sensitivities.

He's also very arrogant when he says "WE" learned a lesson.

The only one who needed to learn a lesson was CHARLES GRISSOM!