University of Arizona: T-Shirts Were Meant as Souvenirs

14Jan/1111

University of Arizona: T-Shirts Were Meant as Souvenirs

Claim no co-ordination with Obama administration:

University spokeswoman Jennifer Fitzenberger told FoxNation.com "it was our idea to do the t-shirts." She said distributing merchandise at a memorial was appropriate and rejected the charge that the University over-commercialized the service. "Our intention was to have something to remember after the event...something that symbolizes our community's spirit...which would live on." When asked if the University had worked with the White House or any partisan groups on any level regarding the t-shirts she said "no."

Fitzenberger insisted the University made no money from the "Together We Thrive" t-shirts and they weren't for sale. "We took the idea to University of Arizona BookStores and they contracted it out with a vendor." Reports put the cost of the t-shirts at $60,000.

I'm just thinking . . . if it were a memorial event, it might have been better to donate the money to some charity. But, hey, that's just me. Anyway, souvenirs from an event memorializing the victims of an atrocity?

"Hey, dude . . . remember that time in college that little girl got shot by that Tea Partier? Good times. I've still got the t-shirt." Or as someone on Twitter said, "A nine-year-old girl was shot and killed, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." Weird and ghoulish. Did nobody advise anyone in charge that this was nuts?

Never mind. This is the dipshit institution that let Deb Frisch blackmail them into keeping her on faculty for six years, I think it was.

Citizen: "Oh, my God! Six people murdered!"
UofA: "Together We Thrive!"

It's mere coincidence that Organizing for America has been using the slogan "Together We Thrive" since 2008, wingnut.

I suggest that they change it to Together We All Thrive. Or "Together We Make Total Asses of Ourselves." New tone? I'm sorry. Was that inappropriate?

You'd better behave more civilly, before I try to pin a massacre on you.

UPDATE: PolitiFact sure are credulous. How about a little follow the money investigation? How about asking the student who is supposed to have independently invented the OfA slogan what made him think of that?

These people have learned nothing from the "incendiary rhetoric" scandal.

Dan Collins

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Comments (11) Trackbacks (2) ( subscribe to comments on this post )

KJ
January 14th, 2011 - 06:48

Me likey, Dan. Me likey. The t-shirts were a HORRIBLE idea. UofA should have set up a memorial fund for the survivors. Dinguses.

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- Dan Collins
  January 14th, 2011 - 06:53
  
  Thanks, KJ.
  
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jefferson101
January 14th, 2011 - 08:06

Sheesh, people.

The shirts may have been a little bit tacky, but they weren’t another call for violence and killing like what started all this. H8ers!

/sarcasm

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JohnL
January 14th, 2011 - 09:03

I just assumed that “Together We Thrive” was Axelrod. He used “Together We Can” for his Protobama Deval Patrick.

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Mr. Bingley
January 14th, 2011 - 09:23

Actually, this is quite telling:

“Our intention was to have something to remember after the event…something that symbolizes our community’s spirit…which would live on.”

It seems to me one reading of this is that they new this faux “oh we are all united peace love” crapola would quickly play out so they needed something to remember how concerned they were (honoring something as banal as, oh, say the memories of the victims really just won’t do) so a t-shirt does in fact perfectly symbolize their “community’s spirit.”

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- Danger
  January 14th, 2011 - 10:44
  
  Yeah Mr B.
  
  I guess the Fort Hood Soldiers didn’t rate a memerable slogan.
  
  Oh and Good Shootin Dan (the real one;)
  
  Keep Firing
  
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  - HeatherRadish
    January 15th, 2011 - 01:30
    
    The dead at Ft. Hood got a slogan: DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS!
    
    It sucks.
    
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Dave C
January 14th, 2011 - 10:43

Already on Craig’s List, someone in the Tucson area has an ad out, asking to buy one.. No one selling.. yet.

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Meep
January 15th, 2011 - 05:38

Well, that makes it all better.

NO IT DOESN’T – TACKY, TASTELESS, STUPID

Okay, so if it were the college students who thought this up and did everything — designed the logo, printed the shirts, distributed them — I could understand that. They’ve not had much experience with memorial services likely, so they go with what they know — collective branding experiences. They’re only in their 20s.

But if it were the “adults” who came up with this…holy shit, they’re idiots with no reflective abilities whatsoever.

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archer52
January 15th, 2011 - 15:28

Tucson is considered a very liberal town. Obviously, the virus that is liberalism has spread and made idiots of those in charge.

Here is how it should have been done

http://truthandcommonsense.com/2011/01/14/from-legal-insurrections-website-ronald-reagan-speaks-about-the-challenger-and-shows-us-how-it-is-supposed-to-be-done/

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Diondrum
January 15th, 2011 - 16:13

The t-shirt could have been the product of a student’s recollection of Ambrose Bierce during a drunken stupor, but I suspect it’s the product of Dear Leader’s campaign advisors.

Together we Thrive!

Unless, of course, you are dead.

Brilliant.

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