Perry considering bringing Bonfire back to A&M as early as next year
This report is from Senior Editor Pam Colloff:
In the course of working on an oral history of the A&M Bonfire tragedy for our November issue—a story that will mark the tenth anniversary of the Bonfire tragedy, which claimed the lives of twelve Aggies—I had the opportunity to interview Rick Perry. During our conversation, the governor made an intriguing comment about the future of the tradition. “It’s really going to be interesting when Bonfire is reintroduced on the campus again, and it will be. I will not be surprised if it happens by 2011, maybe even 2010. I think Bonfire will be back on campus. The kids will have the experience again.”
How would Bonfire be brought back to campus, I asked the governor? “I’d leave that up to the board and the current administration to sit down and decide the safety parameters, the oversight, et cetera,” he said. “They are very capable men and women, and I trust their judgment.”
Tagged: a&m, bonfire, rick perry.
Anonymous says:
If guns are ok on campus, why not Bonfire?
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Jim Kirby Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 10:53 pm
Bonfire on campus was never the issue. The introduction of untrained students not following proper protocol and tried and true construction techniques led to a fatal accident which was and should have been avoidable. Under proper supervision the bonfire is no more dangerous than trying to get a parking spot on campus or at Kyle on any given weekend. Smell the coffee and for God’s sake stop drinking the cool aid before it’s too late.
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EOD Vet Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
You’re an idiot. Go supervise your dog taking a dump.
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ps says:
He trusts their (the Board and administration) judgment as long as they are loyal to him, though, right?
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Spirit of Buck Travis says:
I reckon that Good Hair knows so much about bonfire construction that he can help out the Aggies build the sucker!
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EOD Vet Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
He should, he was a Red Pot.
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Prince Royal says:
If anything EVER happens again with that fire, the blood will be on his hands.
But as long as he has his priorities straight!
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CurrentAggie Reply:
October 19th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
I am a current Aggie of the Fightin’ Texas Class of 2012!!! I would love for Bonfire to be on campus again but Perry has absolutley no say it what happens with the bonfire. He can say all he wants that is WILL be back on campus but it is only up to the school!!
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Anonymous says:
One word – insurance? Even with a reputable construction company acting as consultant (the current one wants help with the $2.1 million settlement) who the hell would insure such another accident-waiting-to-happen?
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rick Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 10:08 pm
Bonfire burned for 90 years without an incident like the tragedy in 1999. It can and should be brought back to its rightful place on campus. I bet you 99% of the victims, not their families, but the victims would want it to resume. people straying from the rules and safety precautions is what caused it to happen.
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'93 Ag Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Bonfire did not “burn without an incident like the tragedy in 1999.” There were traffic, load and stack related injuries as well as fatalities prior to 1999. Nonetheless, Bonfire was an amazing tradition and I wish my kids could have the same experience one day.
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Anon says:
Yes, the board and current administration demonstrated world-class judgment over the last year. Definitely something to be trusted and makes Texas proud! The A&M Board’s judgment and football team are two of the move overperforming things TAMU has going for them. Blue ribbons and gold medals all around.
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Another Aggie Faculty member says:
The safety concerns can be met by not using logs. Books by liberal professors should burn nicely.
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Commie Pinko says:
If there’s one thing Perry knows about it’s fire. See Texas Governor’s mansion….
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Cow Droppings Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 8:55 am
you stay classy commie pinko.
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Belle Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 9:12 am
SNAP!
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Rollie the JBC operator says:
Speaking of another Aggie, I was shocked to see that Chet Edwards had scores in the 80s from the ADA the last two years and scores below 20 from the ACU. He’s always been much more conservative than that. I was also surprised to see that he spent over two million in his race last year and his opponent only spent around $100k and yet Edwards only got 53%. That doesn’t look good for him next year if the GOP puts up a good candidate against him. What’s with his voting record going from moderate to so liberal?
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paulburka Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 7:53 am
Don’t know about the voting record, but Edwards told me that he always runs better in off-year elections than in presidential years, when military members who are deployed overseas vote heavily.
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Garvin says:
Only Rick Perry. Take an old tradition that no current students have experienced and turn it into another way to make A&M a laughing stock. No other major university would put a “tradition” over the safety and welfare of its current students. Old Army needs to go away and let A&M enter the 21at century.
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New Army Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
http://www.studentbonfire.com/index.php
Its not an old tradition. It still continues off campus without the permission or endorsement of the university.
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Anonymous says:
Whether it’s the Fightin Texas Aggie Bonfire or the Governor’s Mansion bonfire, there’s just something about fire that seems to attract Aggies’ attention.
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Harry Doghiney (D-TX) says:
Books by liberal professors should burn nicely.
Are all TAMU faculty wingnut rednecks, or just you?
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logic says:
Here’s an idea: Why not allow the student’s decide if the risk reward is worth it?
Me thinks students and Former Students would show to cut and stack in droves to support this. Why? Because Bonfire is more than just self it is the epitome of unity.
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Aggie '77 says:
If Perry or anyone brings back bonfire, it will be a very sad day for many Aggies. Perry’s manipulation of the current Board has caused such turmoil, we may never make it to the 21st century!
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NeuroticAg says:
I suggest you all just let me over -nalyze this issue and report to you with my superior intellect and wisdom. You have no idea how smart I am.
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watchole says:
I will never let texags 3.0 come out.
I’ll just keep dangling it in front of their faces till CDUB finally leaves texags.
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AndrewstheMAN says:
I wish there was some damn consistency in the monitoring of this website.
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watchole says:
Get back to work Andrew, I dont not pay you to post on other sites!
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EOD Vet Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Screw that guy Drew, post away. Speaking of which, you still brewing your own beer these days? I need a Drew Brew.
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trouble says:
I like girls and bonfires!
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CDUB98 says:
Staff, you need to ban this Watchole idiot!
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Man of Straw says:
Wow Aggie 77, bringing back Bonfire would be a sad day?
The real sad thing was that folks like Ray Bowen and Malon Southerland were negligent and didn’t think that maybe they should wander over to the stack and see what is going on. I mean, it was only a university sanctioned event on university property.
Old Army is what built A&M into a tier one school. How many former military or ag colleges are tier 1? How would you like it if your peers were overgrown community colleges like Texas Tech or Oklahoma State? Or maybe if you are a neanderthal, would could be like VMI or the Citadel, a little enclave of 1905 in the 21st century.
You can’t have what A&M is now without accepting what it took to get here. It took traditions like Bonfire to build strong bonds among the students when they were at A&M so that they would give back when they were out of school. Tech and Ok State have plenty of grads, even some rich ones, but they don’t give squat back to their schools as a whole.
By the way, why should the school even bother with insurance? The school has sovereign immunity.
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paulburka Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 7:57 am
Apparently not. A&M paid $2.1 million to settle litigation and there are more claims outstanding.
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Cru says:
Can someone please reach the top shelf for me?
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Skrangeo says:
Bonfire would be a terrible investment with limited dividends beyond the ashy soot that would likely ruin my latest $3,000 Armani suit.
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Nick says:
A student run, student built Bonfire started in 2002. It started small, but last year over 1500 students worked on it and over 10,000 Aggies attended Burn.
All indications show that it will grow again this year, especially since it is so much closer to campus this year.
A P.E. designed the new stack, still is similiar to the old one, and a board of directors exists to ensure proper procedure is carried from one year to the next, while staying back.
It may permantly exist off-campus, it may return. Who knows.
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Briscoe Democrat Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
Perry is not the only Texas governor to pimp his or her alma mater for political gain, I mean Briscoe did this for SIX YEARS and so on.
Clements got his hands caught in the cookie jar over the SMU football scandal, which sent his approval ratings into a deep slide and had he ran again in 1990, Richards would have kicked his a**.
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better than you Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
let the students decide…seriously…you just typed that..
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The Cranium Ag says:
Bonfire + Miller Chills + Ambien = Domin8′n
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JoeAggie says:
So if I go onto campus tomorrow and kill 12 people, I can come back in ten years and do it again. After all its tradition, gig em whoop, ahhhhhhh, whoop farmers farmers were alright
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billyG says:
If bonfire is brought back will the footbal team end its suckage?
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Briscoe Democrat Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Billy G., Texas A&M football is unlikely to end it’s slump anytime soon.
The winner of the Big 12 is most likely Texas now that Oklahoma has CHOKED and Bradford might be out for 3-4 weeks and Gresham is gone for the season.
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watchole says:
How’s rehab billyG?
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The Form says:
JoeAggie – I am not sure bringing back bonfire is the best idea, or if Perry is just posturing for votes, so this is not pro/con Bonfire. My point is that your logic is apples and oranges and really makes little sense.
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slick says:
Sigh. Just another day in Rick Perry’s simpleton world. Is it possible that this guy has just been in the right place at the right time, that a series of fortuitous events have put him where he is? He seems to have all the intellect and vision of an insurance salesman in Poteet, with apologies to the good people of Poteet.
I wonder what it’s like to be Rick Perry — to know that with your time in office you had the opportunity to really make a difference in Texas, but all he achieved was to keep the seat warm for the next guy. In the end, he’ll be just like Shivers or Jester, just kept things keepin’ on. Maybe they’ll name a dorm after him at A&M.
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Briscoe Democrat Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Slick, one of my high school classmates told me Perry is posturing at the White House in 2012 so that he can have a Presidential Library named after him one day (IF he beats Obama by then).
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Anonymous Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 4:39 pm
Maybe Rick is looking to out-do is buddy the bug-killer from Sugar Land…and look what happened to him! Almost to the top of the U.S. House and now a real live TV star!
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paulburka Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 8:05 am
I am quick to criticize Perry about politics, but I think that it is reasonable for him to support the return of Bonfire, assuming that it has the backing of the A&M community and that the conditions for assuring safety are met. Bonfire is a great tradition at A&M that, unfortunately, had a dark side of causing students’ grades to plummet during the long period of cutting trees and building the stack. The construction process was also responsible for many minor (and a few major) injuries over the years. (I have read the injury reports.) A&M can have a great Bonfire without doing damage to students academic ambitions or physical wellbeing.
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Stanley Crouch says:
Even I stand to learn from Governor Goodhair’s mad troll skills.
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Kathy Seeberger Gregory '84 - PinkPot '83 says:
What on earth is Perry thinking? I am appalled that he would even mention it. Not many students were as involved as I was from 1980 – 1984. I lived/breathed/and flunked classes during Bonfire, due to my dedication. However, there have been lives lost, one of those lives was lost during my Sophomore year. Now we’ve lost 12 more. While I’ll admit it was the best times of my life and I made life-long friends through Bonfire, the risk is NOT worth it. Bonfire DOES NOT need to return to the campus (or any other place) in any way, shape or form. There is no reason to bring it back. It is gone, and the Pro-Bonfire folks need to just get over it!
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ChiAg07 Reply:
September 9th, 2009 at 11:32 pm
I Cut and Stacked for 3 years off campus… and I think your flat wrong. We do need Bonfire back. Unity on campus now exists only in select spots and among select groups. Largely those connected in some way with Student Bonfire. Campus today is a hollow shell of what it was when I arrived on campus in ‘03. No one is forced to go out there. Its an acceptance of risk, the same kind of acceptance I give when I get on the 59 every morning to get to work… and I fear Houston Traffic more than I ever feared working on Bonfire.
For the record I dont think Perry should be sticking his nose in this decision. Hes got much more pressing matters to attend to.
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slick Reply:
September 10th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
I’m sure there’s plenty of unity among those who lay around and shoot heroin, but we don’t condone it. As you can tell from the current legal case before the Texas Supreme Court, there is no “acceptance of risk” when it is condoned and facilitated by the university. If folks want to have it off campus — fine, but you and Perry seem to want it on campus, as a school event, but not accept any responsibility for it. My 3-year-old uses similar logic when he wants his dessert without eating his dinner.
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paulburka Reply:
September 11th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Those on the inside at A&M are always saying that the Aggie spirit is not what it used to be. I have spent a lot of time doing stories about A&M, and the thing that strikes me every time I am there is how little it has changed, not how much. It sure doesn’t seem to me that there is any dimunition in the Aggie spirit or in the love that Aggies have for their school or their community.
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Anon says:
I have a friend who’s son was killed by that stupidity…Mr Perry is as stupid does….he needs to tackle some real issues like organizing our succession…..we can print money with his big hair on it…and build him lots of palaces each with a bonfire built by Aggie engineering and he can light each one each day of the year…..now thats inspiration……
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Rough, tough, real stuff says:
If Bonfire does return, it will be the one and only good thing Perry has done as governor!
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Tara says:
Being Head Yell Leader never qualified anyone for any position other than Head Yell Leader. Not SBP and CLEARLY not Governor of Texas. People have been hurt and killed by Bonfire for years before it fell. Besides all that Bonfire was not the “all uniting” entity that so many that came after it fell think it was. A couple hundred built it…the rest of us got drunk and watched it burn. Woo.
Does a governor of a state whose K-12 EDUCATION system is going down the drain really need to concern himself with this? No. Please God let Perry go away and go away quickly and have nothing else to do with my school.
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aggie student says:
Amen Tara.
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Another Aggie Faculty member says:
Harry Doghiney (D-TX) says:
Are all TAMU faculty wingnut rednecks, or just you?
I see the sarcasm detector needs a tuneup, Harry, even if you didn’t see this in the Statesman article about Perry lobbying the UT regents to pick his crony as chancellor: “Barnhill said he thought one of Perry’s concerns was that universities had been overrun by liberal professors and he thought bringing in Montford could help reverse that trend.”
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Chris Johnson says:
All those that have never experienced bonfire do not understand and should not comment. Bonfire is a great experience and event. The problem was not the “inexperience of the builders”. The problem was where they moved the bonfire to. Those who were involved with the bonfire before it was moved frmo Duncan Field and after understand what I am saying. Since the bonfire left, A&M has never been the same campus. It is a different atmosphere. There is less school spirit and pride. The more liberal faculty does not help either.
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paulburka says:
As I understand it, Bonfire was moved from Duncan Field because it became a fire hazard to the nearby neighborhood. And the reason that it became a fire hazard is that the redpots knowingly violated the height restriction, year after year, which I think was 59 feet. The College Station fire department may have had something to say about it too.
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Aggie '77 says:
No one may still be reading this thread but I wanted to give a thumbs up to Tara and aggie student. Bonfire did little to bond the student body as only a small percentage actually worked on it. When I was a student I wasn’t allowed anything but serve cookies. Didn’t do it, wasn’t much of a bonding experience. And hated the gender prejudice. Now there are more and more female ‘ol ags. And we have our memories of the campus and student body back then and ever since. The spirit hasn’t gone anywhere, it is here and very much alive. I don’t go to off campus bonfire, it will never be the same. And if you have to go to the off campus bonfire to find the spirit to beat the hell out of tu, you are looking for it in the wrong place. Whoop!
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