TRADITION!

The opening song to the musical Fiddler on the Roof is "Tradition" The song is sung by the townspeople and it highlights their place in the community. The rest of the story goes about breaking most of the traditions talked about in the beginning. The thing about traditions is that it exists sometimes for no real reason except that's how it's done. People hold on to their traditions because it's a link to the past. Some people even break their traditions because of past prejudice.

So what does tradition have to do with this post? Well, the people in Texas broke their tradition to instill prejudice. You see they are denying a boy a chance at an education in music:

Mikhael Rawls, a rising Texas high school senior, won’t be performing before music college recruiters next school year. He won’t even have the chance to audition for an elite ensemble of Texas high school singers. The Texas Music Educators Association eliminated this possibility for Rawls when they rejected his audition request for a soprano position, which is traditionally a girls’ part.

Two years ago the association stopped boys from singing soprano or alto, and girls from tenor or bass. (Had Bea Arthur lived in Texas we might never have seen her perform on stage or TV, likewise for Brenda Vaccaro). One wonders why they stopped allowing this, I mean if it's natural to sing in the range what is the problem? I think the problem is that boys are supposed to sing either bass or tenor and girls are supposed to sing alto or soprano, TRADITION!

If people like Ms. Massresistance didn't keep trying to label and discriminate against people and let them be as GOD intended them to be, the world would be a much happier place. Children like Mikhael Rawls would be given the chance hone his craft and sing with the voice God gave him.