State Dance Controversy

Pennsyvlania's large legislative body apparently wastes time and tax dollars on trivial issues as naming the state bug, state fungus, and state dance. The debate on the latter resulted in a letter to the editor which follows:

It is not too late to stop the madness that is going on in the state capital. I am talking about the debate over the state dance. There must not be a rush to judgment to enshrine the "polka" as a the state dance. This is a decision that future generations will have to live with. History is not on the side of the polka and our high-priced legislators should wake up to that fact.

Despite the lyrics of a certain song, the polka did not originate in Scranton or anywhere else in the Keystone state. The dance started in "bohemia," a section of far-away Germany. Do our lawmakers realize the connotations that having a bohemian dance stamped as the state dance will have on our impressionable youngsters? To me the word "bohemian" conjures up thoughts of beatniks, poems that don't rhyme, and sour tasting yogurt. Do we want Pennsylvania associated with the likes of those things? I certainly hope not.

Any fourth grader will tell you that the polka is historically incorrect when discussing our state, the proud "Quaker state." William Penn and his religous followers were never noted for their dance routines. In fact, only two Quakers made it to the White House. Herbert Hoover was the first and he never danced. The other was Nixon. I have a videotape of Tricia Nixon's wedding and the Quaker president did a waltz, not a polka at his daughter's reception. Therefore, the Quaker state cannot be linked with the strange, bohemian polka.

During the War for Independence, our founding fathers and founding mothers had little time to dance. If they did, then it was the minuet, not the polka. If it was done at all during that era, it would have been done by lonely Hessian soldiers to alleviate the boredom. Remember that Bob Hope was not around yet to entertain our Hessian mercenaries. His USO show started much later. Again, my argument is sound; no historical figure in Pennsylvania ever did the polka. Not Betsy Ross, ner Ben Franklin, nor Milton Shapp.

I am not arguing against having a state dance. I think it deserves one. Hawaii has its hula. Virginia has its reel, and New York has its YMCA dance. I think that with baby boomers in the state gaining as much political clout as the senior citizens, I propose one of the following: "the watusi," "the twist," or the "bristol stomp." Any of those would be more dignified than the bohemian polka. The dances I have proposed have Pennsylvania roots. They were performed on American Bandstand and locally at the "Mayor's Dance" held at the Pottsville parking lot. They were also performed at Willow Lake, the Globe, the Moose and the Y, all before dancing disappeared from the social scene to be replaced by body surfing in a mosh pit. It seems that our youngsters prefer to be treated as if the were pieces of third class luggage at the eastern airline baggage pick-up rather than the dancing machines that God intended them to be.

Please stop what you are doing right now; pick up your phone and call your local representative and tell him, "Watusi, yes; polka, no! When will Harrisburg wake up and dance to the music"? We need a statesman in Harrisburg in the mold of Patrick Henry who will have the courage to stand up and loudly proclaim, "Give me Watusi, or give me death."