photo: Horia Varlan/ BY-NC-SA

As heard on WABE, Atlanta.

By Dionne Humphrey

I’m in the band and the orchestra at my school and I’ve noticed some interesting parallels between these groups and our political parties.

Like the Republicans and Democrats, there’s definitely some tension between the marching band and the orchestra.

The marching band is really conservative, like the Republican Party. All band members dress exactly alike. We don’t show our personality when it comes to our uniforms. And there is a strict rule about respecting the drum majors, the same way Republicans tend to usually stick together behind their leaders.

But, the orchestra at my school reminds me of the Democratic Party. We're more into individuality than conformity. You should have seen the Halloween costumes we all wore on stage last year. I wore a cat costume and tied a mouse toy to the end of my viola. That would never happen in band! There's a sense of humor in the orchestra that I see in the Democratic party too. I'm not saying there is no such thing as a funny Republican, but Republicans are often too busy staying on point to be funny.

I’ve tried to figure out what leads a student to gravitate to either the band or the orchestra. We all have common goals – to play good music or pass good laws – but our approaches and cultures are different.

I guess I must be in the middle… you know, an Independent.