Question for the Exchange Rally

The Shafter-Wasco rivalry, some might say, is about the narcissism of small differences. Shafter and Wasco are 7 miles apart and might seem indistinguishable to an outsider. This is why highly specific, verifiable insults that don't also implicate your own side are so important. For example: Wasco's city government is reckless, a fact highlighted by the Securities and Exchange Commission forbidding the city from issuing more debt in the late 1990s. I also like to bring up the witness of great anthropologist Walter Goldschmidt, who spent some time observing Wasco in the 1940s and concluded that, as a rule, collective efforts of Wasconians end in failure.

People from Wasco counter that they have a better auditorium. It is a nice auditorium, but it only serves to remind how bad the gymnasium is. Moreover, taken together, these two buildings illustrate how disordered Wasco's priorities are.

All of this is provides background for the big question that looms over the exchange rally - Will Wasco refer to the Medina Affair? Pitched in a certain way, a skit highlighting Rene Medina transferring from Shafter to Wasco has the makings of a potent insult. It is no secret that Wasco has often been stung by people living between Shafter and Wasco opting to go to high school in Shafter. Here is a case of, not just any student, but one of the best athletes in his class, shifting allegiance from Shafter to Wasco. The problem with that way of telling the story, however, is that it undermines the official version, which is a story of Medina sacrificing for the good of his family and explicitly not deciding based on his school or sport preferences. That is the story that got the CIF off of Wasco's back.

Obviously a skit would have zero effect on Medina's status with the CIF and it wouldn't make the official story untrue. It would just be a contradiction. For a town that, for years, held up a sign before visitors, that read "Wasco: A Nice Place to Live," contradiction is nothing new.