Port: Kid Rock, the North Dakota State Fair, and our overweening sense of entitlement

MINOT, N.D. — My hometown not too long ago made nationwide headlines in a means that you don’t need your hometown to make nationwide headlines.

Detroit rap rocker Child Rock was

scheduled to play the North Dakota State Honest

right here in Minot on Friday evening, July 22. Solely, he did not take the stage. The opening act, Evening Ranger, performed for the gang. Then there was a roughly two-hour delay. Then it was introduced that Rock would not be taking part in in any respect.

The blame went to the climate, and issues had been, a minimum of probably, fairly ugly that evening. There was even a twister warning. My household was on the fairgrounds and got here residence early the place we watched, on our climate app radars, a nasty storm skirt simply north, after which east, of city.

However the headlines did not stem from a live performance canceled resulting from climate considerations.

They had been impressed by the gang’s response to the cancellation.

Boos are to be anticipated with this kind of factor, however not belligerent inebriates, drunk and sweaty adult-sized infants, pelting volunteers and safety personnel and roadies with beer cups and different state honest live performance detritus.

One mouth-breathing knucklehead even stormed the stage, the place he was promptly tackled.

I hope his bruises are nonetheless smarting.

You’ll be able to argue that the nationwide information media’s response to this ugly flip of occasions in Minot was exaggerated. Many publications used phrases like “riot” to explain it, even suggesting that the venue was “trashed.” That is inaccurate sensationalism.

You can too argue that state honest officers dealt with the scenario poorly. They left a rock live performance crowd with nothing to do however drink copious quantities of alcohol for hours on finish in the summertime warmth earlier than canceling the present. Forecasting the climate could be difficult, however guessing how that boozy crowd was going to react was not.

However none of this could take away culpability from the gang itself. The movies of the occasion had been arduous to look at as a result of this wasn’t one thing that occurred on the opposite aspect of the nation. This was my hometown. I noticed acquainted faces within the video. Acquaintances. Enterprise professionals. Lecturers and civic leaders.

I used to be left questioning, when did all of us grow to be so entitled? And so fast to play the sufferer?

When did we persuade ourselves that being inconvenienced — and that is all a rock live performance cancellation is, an inconvenience — justified the verbal and bodily abuse of different human beings?

There may be some measure of chilly consolation to be present in the truth that this kind of factor is not distinctive to Minot. It is occurring throughout our nation. It simply hurts me extra to see it in my neighborhood.

The villains on this state of affairs usually are not the live performance promoters or the state honest officers (although they may have dealt with it higher) however the individuals themselves.

It is unpopular to say that on this age of virulent populism, but it surely’s the reality. We bemoan what’s occurring in our society, and we blame exterior elements like social media and politics and leisure, however the reality is it is us.

We’re the issue.

We have now to begin being the answer.