Controversy in High Places
By Michael Smith, Staff Writer
6/24/2007
This week, you may have heard a certain group of people yelling the word, “RamRod.” You probably just thought, “Yeah, whatever, a morale-boosting slogan”, and didn’t think about it again. However, this word goes much deeper than just that. It turns out that the city of Fillmore decided to change the official name of their city to RamRod! The city got the idea for the name from the movie Super Troopers. I was surprised when I first heard this. Governor Mike Jones, who is from this city, agreed to write an executive order to change the city’s name officially, saying that it is in the best interest of the citizens. The first thing that I wondered when I heard this was whether or not the name would be passed on to next year’s group like the surpluses. It will not be passed on, however. The name will be reset to Fillmore next year. So now you’re thinking, “Good for them, they got what they wanted, so now we can move on”, right? No, my friends, it’s not over.
It turns out that a citizen of the city now wants to sue RamRod because of the sexual nature of their city’s name. She believes that it is sexual harassment. Wow! This is some serious debate over something that you wouldn’t think would cause such an uproar. I talked to the city of RamRod directly, and they had some interesting things to say. They believe that the term “RamRod” is being taken totally out of context. They are appalled that someone would take this the wrong way. They say a RamRod is a device used to load a musket. Their stance is that it signifies the sacrifices of our forefathers during the days of the Revolution, since they used muskets to fight. In fact, our first president used a RamRod to fight for our country. RamRod states that their city’s name has nothing to do with a sexual nature. Instead, it represents a cohesive bond of their citizens (at least for those that support the name). Governor Mike Jones has some strong opinions about this issue. Being from the city himself, he says that he is welcoming the challenge of a case, since it makes no sense and the opposition has no backing to their position. What else did he have to say about it? “Kiss my ass; I’ll take ‘em to court!” It looks like that citizen is going to have some tough work ahead of them if they are going to succeed against Mike Jones and RamRod.