High school bands; no demagoguery; too many TV ads

High school bands

Friday’s paper revealed what many of us have known for a long time: Marching band is every bit the cult of competition as football. (See Friday story, “In North Texas, high school bands don’t play in football’s shadow.”)

When my son played football for the L.D. Bell Blue Raiders at the turn of the century, my wife and I attended every game.

At every game we sat through the same halftime performance, which was nothing more than practice for a single goal, the band’s reason for being — the state competition.

The crowd oohed and aahed, clapped and cheered at exactly the same points in each demonstration. It costs a cool $995 to participate in marching band at Bell High School, payable in easy monthly installments.

Not a thousand dollars. That would seem exorbitant.

Add in the cost to rent or purchase an instrument and pretty soon you’ve got some real money. I doubt the expenses end there.

I hope there are music education activities available to students whose parents can’t afford to send them to the big league.

No demagoguery

Eric Grunor wrote in a Friday letter that what stood out for him at the Oct. 13 Democratic presidential debate was the fact that “there was no mention of God, faith and morals.”

I thought it was refreshing!

There was no sign of demagoguery. Instead, candidates focused on real economic and foreign policy issues.

The only sacred text I want my president to follow is the U.S. Constitution.

Too many TV ads

Is anyone besides me tired of so many ads between our TV shows?

Five or more! You almost forget what the show is about.

Especially those advertisements for medications!

Weren’t medicines cheaper before we allowed all these ads?

Maybe the question is: Why is TV time so expensive?

Can’t somebody fix these problems? I’m wearing out my mute button.

This story was originally published October 20, 2015 at 5:33 PM with the headline "High school bands; no demagoguery; too many TV ads."