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Steven Montez Doesn't Like Pullman

Thoughts on the value of tribalism

If you want a nice pull quote, Steven Montez said this week that Pullman, Wash., is "hardly ever nice." 

Montez wasn't trying to cause any trouble, I don't think, but this is the sort of statement people can get extremely upset about. Years ago, I spent one of the worst half hours of my life on a radio show in Waco, Texas on account of some things I wrote about it, and if I've learned anything about putting your opinions out in the public space, it's that people get very defensive about where they live and where they come from. 

I'm conflicted on a personal level about that. On the one hand, it seems utterly ridiculous to leap emotionally to the defense of a place on a map. On the other, as we all know, a place is a lot more than a place on a map. Places represent things. They hold memories. They sustain people. And a a sense of place -- maybe more to the point, a sense of "we" -- is a healthy thing for people to have. We're social creatures, after all. If there's no "we" -- even on the small scale, the local scale -- we're living in a pretty dark place. 

At the same time, too much "we" and things get pretty dark too. 

I don't expect people are going to get too mad at Steven Montez over that quote. I'd sure hope not, anyway. But sports are a great arena for thinking about these kinds of things. 

I've heard some people say Colorado fans aren't fanatical enough. People say CU fans are fair-weather fans who are more concerned with strapping on their snowboards and getting stoned. 

Well, to me, that makes CU fans seem like pretty reasonable people. Then again, "reasonable" is in the eye of the beholder.