I think one thing that people are taking out of context is the term "Fighting" in "Fighting Irish." When most of the universities in the United States were founded, and proceeded to compete at the collegiate level of sports, they invariably adopted "fight" songs of some sort. Just as we at Texas A&M are the "proudest member of the Fightin' Texas Aggie Class of 200x," the "Fighting Irish" is simply a takeoff on the collegiate sporting side of mascots. Though, admittedly using the Fighting Texas Aggies as an example is slightly flawed (we got our Fightin' from the Fightin' Texas Aggie band--which got its name because the drum major selection for the band [a LONG time ago] involved throwing the candidates in a room with the drum major's baton...the one to walk out of the room with it was the next year's drum major), the "Fighting Irish" is more appropriately taken as the old term used to denote the "fight" or "spirit" in a school's population and team rather than "belligerent."
As for the other issue at hand, it's understandable how the people of the First Nations feel, and how the team of "Mohawks" were stripped of their mascot. Native Americans, though widely diverse in their cultures, share the fact that there are so few of them left. Additionally, they look to protect their names and heritages, rather than simply letting them be cheapened by high schools of Anglo-Saxon and/or non-Native Americans. These schools aren't on the reservations, they don't represent the Tribe. Why should they be allowed to have the name of people with a distinguished history on this continent? I know I take my
family name extremely seriously--it's been in America for better than 400 years. I also take the term
Texan seriously, as it is the land of my birth and the land I've been reared upon. While there are many misconceptions of Texans, we are proud of who we are, and God save any of you constituents of the 49 lesser states were you to impinge upon our good name
