Panthers, Spiders and ... Meercats?

There’s an old joke that goes like this.

Question: How many old-line  Richmonders does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Four. One to fetch the stepladder, one to hold it steady, one to mix the drinks, and another to discuss the cultural and social history of the old light bulb.

It seems it never ends. Now it’s all about the cultural and social history of the Douglas S. Freeman High School mascot, Rebel Man.

How many will it take to discuss that? Way more than four, it seems.

But they’re not just discussing it. It’s turning into a controversy, with a news story even turning up in the Washington Post and two op-eds published side-by-side in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Shades of the Washington Redskins affair!

Speaking as a native Richmonder -- yes, some of us still survive -- I’d like this fairly trivial cultural problem to go away. Here’s an idea: Call ‘em The Douglas Freeman Meerkats.

There’s no direct connection between meerkats and the late Dr. Freeman (a revered Pulitzer Prize winning author and News Leader editor), although he would have, I suspect, admired some of their qualities.

Meerkats form families of about 50. They post sentries for protection. They work cooperatively. They’re industrious. And they’re cute. Just watch “Meerkat Manor” and you’ll see.

Meerkats are already in the news in Richmond this summer.  A handful of meerkat pups, all males, were born in June at the Metro Richmond Zoo. (See the zoo's live webcam here)

(Freeman students might be especially pleased to know that meerkat families are called “mobs.”)

So that’s my suggestion. If Freeman adopts the meerkat as a mascot, Richmond can move on to solve even bigger problems, like where to put a baseball stadium.

But keep in mind two things: My advice is worth exactly what you’re paying for it; and my high school mascot was a panther and my university mascot was a spider.