Bolo Blowout

Rarely do I tread into the territory of the news, but this story caught my attention. Apparently, a 17 year old high school graduate named Thomas Benya, residing in Maryland, wore a bolo tie to his graduation ceremony. Here is a link to the story.

The geniuses at his school would not give him his diploma because he violated the dress code by not wearing a neck tie.

I have a newsflash for the school officials in Maryland: Bolo ties are neck ties. Perhaps in places like Maryland bolos are exotic and unfamiliar, much like wide open spaces and clean air. The article I linked to above emphasized that bolos are a Native American form of necktie. But living in the west I can tell them that bolos are worn by men (and sometimes women) from all different cultural backgrounds. It is not surprising or unusual to see a person wearing a bolo.

Hubby’s late grandfather, a lifelong resident of places like Colorado and New Mexico, wore bolos. He wore one at the party celebrating 60 years of marriage to hubby’s grandmother. The party was a formal event on a cruise ship (I wore sequins, for goodness sake). The captain didn’t have any bolo-tied wearing folk thrown overboard.

One of Colorado’s U.S. Senators, the now-retired Ben Nighthorse Campbell, wears them daily. He probably wears them to bed. Nobody in the U.S. Senate refused to shake his hand because he wasn’t wearing a silk tie in a windsor knot.

I just found it sad that a boy who worked hard for 12+ years was denied his diploma because he wore a misunderstood bolo tie. It reminds me of when I was in college, working at the Hertz rental counter at Grand Junction’s airport. Ski charters from the east coast would arrive and I would be asked questions like “are the roads paved here?” I suppose that’s what happens when a plane lands in “flyover” country.