RA CAMPAIGN -Sep-09

ALL ABOUT THE IMFAMOUS RA CAMPAIGN

In retirement I went back to college for remedial geology, Chaucer, metal smithing and other stuff.   Our Duluth branch of the University of Minnesota (UMD) was full of youth who needed a lot of education because they all wore baseball cap visors backward.  Then next year I was surprised to discover that their heads had swiveled round 180 degrees and the visor was in front and the face was in back!  Style is very important to youth.

       But there was another jolt for me, the walls of the halls of ivy sagged with the weight of religious posters. “Come celebrate Christ”, “Newman Club meets at this or that Catholic church”,  “Join Students for Praising Cheeses”, and much, much more.  I could go along with praising cheeses but maybe it was a typo.  My mind went to quandering over thoughts as, “Wasn’t this a secular state school?”  “Didn’t these kids know that science had been invented and superstitious ideas were embarrassing at a place of learning?”

       So in my usual helpful mode I produced competing posters for THE GREAT GOD RA CAMPAIGN.   In hindsight it was an error to refer to THE MIGHTY EGYPIAN SUN GOD because now one knew who or what RA was.   That was strange; didn’t they have any education going on here?  Why RA was in charge for a hell of a lot longer than any of the current crew. But that is the way with gods, here yesterday and worn out and ignored today. Many of my posters were torn down probably, by Yawheegians. But paper is cheep if you use the blank side of a used sheet so I just poked them up again.  It lasted over a year and was fun to listen to the student and faculty responses, (one included below). And now here for historical preservation and for your critical acclaim are some of them.