Head Strong: Giving Obama a listen at Notre Dame

Some call his invitation to speak in May a travesty, but why shouldn't he speak? At a time of so much incivility, from politics to sports, his visit should not be denied.

By Michael Smerconish - Inquirer

Inquirer Currents Columnist

Here's a postcard from South Bend, Ind., where sports fans and some spiritual types have at least one thing in common: Neither is afraid to yell from the sidelines.

The University of Notre Dame announced that President Obama had accepted an invitation to speak at the school's May 17 commencement. The president, of course, supports abortion rights, civil unions, and funding for stem-cell research - positions that don't correspond with the Catholic teachings that underpin an institution like Notre Dame.

So it didn't take long for the fire and brimstone to come raining down on the school administration. Within days, CatholicVote.org and the Cardinal Newman Society had launched a Web site - www.notredamescandal.com - and circulated a petition that garnered more than 157,000 malcontent signatures. Last week, South Bend Bishop John D'Arcy said he would not attend the ceremony - the 25th at Notre Dame since he was ordained a bishop. It was a decision he characterized as a "defense of the truth about human life."

I wanted to learn more about the controversy. But while reading an NBC News blog on the subject, I was sidetracked by a seemingly unrelated letter to the editor written by a Fighting Irish alum and printed in the Observer, Notre Dame's newspaper of record.

Under the headline "Basketball cheer in poor taste," John Shank wrote: "I had the opportunity to attend the men's basketball game against USF a week ago with my 14-year-old son. We had seats in the section adjacent to the student section, the 'Leprechaun Legion.' I was shocked to hear the students shout 'Sucks' after each player from the opposing team was introduced.

"As students of the University of Notre Dame, you are held to higher standards, whether you like it or not. It goes with being enrolled at the finest Catholic university in the land. I enjoy most if not all of your other cheers.. . . So I ask, please for your own sake and the sake of a proud alum, clean it up!"

We can all picture the scene Shank described. It's a chant you can hear at Flyers games, Eagles games, and Big 5 basketball. It may have started with fans of the Wings, the city's professional lacrosse team.

I've never understood the motivation for shelling out the money for tickets and bearing the traffic and parking-lot nightmares at the stadium only to down some liquid courage and harass an opposing player or official. Maybe it's a reflection of what is going on in their lives. I know it amuses some people, but it ruins what would otherwise be a great environment for kids.

So what leads to unruly behavior among the assembled masses at a football or basketball game? It's a subject for Lynn Jamieson, professor and former chair of the department of recreation and park administration at Indiana University. She has done extensive research on how fan behavior becomes a factor in sports violence. Think "Malice at the Palace," the Indiana Pacers/Detroit Pistons brawl in 2004.

Jamieson told me the lack of supervision and security training - as well as an abundance of alcohol - can foster a combative spirit among some fans. From there, she said, the feeling goes viral.

"In most cases, this form of behavior occurs because there are no codes of conduct in place, [no] supervision to enforce safe and civil behavior, and a general decline in willingness to confront fans who act in this manner," she said.

"It becomes emotional contagion much like that which existed in the Sixties, with crowds demonstrating against some form of authority. Only this time, it's the other team as the enemy and not civil disobedience."

That makes sense. But I was struck by something else she told me. This type of unruly behavior has escalated as more and more time has passed without any real effort to discourage it, she explained. Along with that, the "general lack of civility that comes across campuses these days" has gone unchecked as well.

She's right. But it's not just on college campuses or in the nosebleed seats of our stadiums. These days, when discussing potentially hot-button issues like politics or religion, too many of us resort too quickly to base talking points or outright insults. Indeed, the fact that Notre Dame's long-standing tradition of inviting presidents to speak at commencement has now risen to the level of "travesty" in the minds of almost 160,000 people is itself telling.

Federal funding of stem-cell research or not, the students of Notre Dame have much to learn from President Obama. And that kind of once-in-a-lifetime experience should not be denied because some outside the university community object to a few of the president's political leanings.

Hopefully when he's introduced, nobody shouts out, "Sucks!"