I find myself in considerable
pain. I'm torn over the imminent change of our site from ClanRam to RamsNation,
but my pain is from the flack that Dez is taking because of the change.
When Brandon asked me to submit a sample of my writing for an opportunity
to be added to the staff, I never dreamed that this would be my first
topic, but after a chat with Dez, I felt I had to address the issue.
When the question of
a name change was first posed in the Polls forum a while back, I went
on record recommending that we consider making the change for the very
reason it is now happening. In the poll, the majority opinion was to keep
the old name, and I accepted that. Now the change is unavoidable, and
many members are understandably upset. Some of these, who have been with
us for a long time and are among most ardent supporters of the site, have
threatened to leave. This is a source of great distress for Dez and for
me. If there was one thing I felt confident of with Clanram, it was the
unity and support of it's members. While we might not always agree, there
was always a solid level of respect, and an open-mindedness among the
members here that I have yet to see matched on any other Rams site. We
ALL saw what narrow-mindedness is like when we were attacked by members
of one of those other sites.That being said, I would like to address the
issue we face.
Whether for good or
bad, I find myself in a position where I can clearly see both sides of
the issue. Is the term "clan" offensive to Rams fans of African
descent? That is almost a certainty. True, the spelling is different,
but variant spelling doesn't change the association, and never will. To
expect people to change a word-association that has been a part of our
culture for over a hundred years is beyond reality. On the other hand,
Dez, Dod, and our other brothers live in a country where the term not
only has a completely different meaning, it is an honored part of that
culture, yet Dez has been inundated with negative messages from members
of our community.
We all know how important
ClanRam is to Dez. For the first year of it's existence, he bore nearly
all of the expenses and most of the responsibility. He moved us to theinsiders.com
only after he determined that it was the best chance he had to keep the
site alive. Many of us complained but in the long run, the move has been
to our benefit since the site probably would have had to cut services
or go under.
We also know just how
important the concept of the clan, and the name itself, were to Dez. Not
just Dez, but to all Scotsmen, and their descendants. Do any of us really
believe that this was an easy choice for Dez? I think that this is probably
as close to losing a child as you can get. To pour hours into setting
up and maintaining the site, to watch it grow from a handful of members
to a site with users from all over the world must be something like watching
your child grow. Dez, you have all my sympathy, brother. Time to get to
the bottom line.
Like many of you, I'm
getting fed up with all this "political correctness" baloney,
but not necessarily for the same reasons. Sometimes, it has merit. Sometimes,
it needs to be done. If something is offensive, it needs to be changed.
Most, if not all of you should be aware that the Rams organization is
VERY involved in a program here in St. Louis called The Diversity Awareness
Project. If the team we love supports this, then we as fans, should at
least honor their commitment to this project. One way to do that is to
change a name that might offend potential members. Is it fair? No, but
in the long run, we will see benefits that we otherwise wouldn't. What
benefits? Who can say, but I feel certain that at the very least, we will
gain some members that we might not otherwise have gotten. Most of the
long time users opposed the move to theinsiders.com, but we all survived,
and the site is better for it. True, the old site had options that we
no longer have, but the site is growing faster that ever before. Our home
has been one of the busiest off season sites in theinsiders.com
I, for one, trust Dez
and he has my full support He's had some tough decisions to make this
year, but I know his heart is to do what is in the best interest of this
community. I'm a proud member of this group, and will remain so. As far
as some of the posts saying that ClanRam goodies have been rendered worthless,
I prefer to think that they have become valuable collectors items and
a piece of our history.
Just One Man's Opinion.