The Florida Masochist

A stupid controversy

I totally agree with Betsy about what is chronicled in this article from yesterday's Washington Post. A high school band playing "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" is somehow a violation of the separation of Church and State. That principle has been stretched to the point of ridiculous already. This is just one more example. The secular crowd in this country need to get a life. They are the real Devils in this story.

After the devil went down to Georgia, it seems, he got censored in Prince William County.

In preparation for a guest appearance at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, the marching band at C.D. Hylton High School had a logical and seemingly innocuous idea: play a Georgia-themed song. They decided on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the Charlie Daniels Band.

But early this month, a local newspaper, the Potomac News, published a letter by a Woodbridge resident who, after having seen the C.D. Hylton Bulldawg Marching Band perform the country-western hit at a football game, wondered how a song about the devil could be played at school events, because of the separation of church and state.

Fearing bad public reaction, Hylton's longtime band director, Dennis Brown, pulled the song from the playlist. "I was just being protective of my students. I didn't want any negative publicity for C.D. Hylton High School," he said.

But Brown's strategy backfired. The decision has created a furor, and even Charlie Daniels has weighed in.

"I am a Christian, and I don't write pro-devil songs. Most people seem to get it. It's a fun little song," Daniels said Friday in a telephone interview from Mokena, Ill., where he was scheduled to perform a concert. "I think it's a shame that the [marching band director] would yield to one piece of mail. If people find out that he can be manipulated that easily, he's going to have a hard way to go."

Christine Heeren, whose daughter Sandrine, 17, is the band's color guard captain, said many parents are frustrated that the song won't be performed but are unanimous in their respect for Brown as a thoughtful and popular band director.

"I am quite in a dilemma," she said. "The children were more disappointed because they spent a lot of hours in marching band camp. It takes a lot of patience and drilling."

Residents, alumni and parents have been fulminating in the Potomac News and on its Web site against censorship, the values of the media, the band director and, perhaps not surprisingly, the writer of the letter, Robert McLean. In the paper's online forum, people have written about a range of topics -- abortion, presidential politics, whether Daniels rocks or not-- that show how testy emotions have become.

To paraphrase from the song, fire has flown from their fingertips:

"God have mercy. How did we become a country full of weenies who give into the cranky nonsense of 1 voice?" one person tapped out on a computer. "I guess I need to go back to school. I thought the idea behind our country was that the majority ruled? You know, like the majority of people voted for the President's re-election and now the ruling party is knuckling under to every left wing nut out there? I give up!"

The Knucklehead of the Day award

Today has Knucklehead candidates raining down on me but I think the following is the best.

The Knucklehead for today is Preacher Pat Robertson. On yesterday's 700 Club he advocated the assaination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

"You know, I don't know about this doctrine of assassination, but if he thinks we're trying to assassinate him, I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it. It's a whole lot cheaper than starting a war. And I don't think any oil shipments will stop. But this man is a terrific danger and the United ... This is in our sphere of influence, so we can't let this happen. We have the Monroe Doctrine, we have other doctrines that we have announced. And without question, this is a dangerous enemy to our south, controlling a huge pool of oil, that could hurt us very badly. We have the ability to take him out, and I think the time has come that we exercise that ability. We don't need another $200 billion war to get rid of one, you know, strong-arm dictator. It's a whole lot easier to have some of the covert operatives do the job and then get it over with."

I don't like Chavez any more than most US citizens do, but I don't advocate assaination. Only Mr. Robertson does, and he calls himself a Man of God. What happened to the commandment, 'Thou Shalt not Kill' Reverend? Pat Robertson is a deserving Knucklehead of the day.

For whom the bell tolls

May I suggest some ear plugs for these people?

Complaints ring out over monks' bells
By CHRISTINE GIRARDIN Staff Writer

DELAND -- Separated from contact with the world by wooden lattice work, the monks of the Mother of the Good Shepherd Monastery firmly believe their most important duty is to pray for others.

Every day the three cloistered men enter their tiny chapel in a converted home off Mercers Fernery Road to pause for quiet meditation, offer Mass to the Catholic faithful or pray.

But like many other religious orders, the Augustinian Monks of the Primitive Observance are expected to keep the tradition of ringing bells several times a day. For the monks, it's a clarion call in celebration of the moment Mary learned she would become the mother of Jesus, said Father Seamus, the monk superior and a priest.

For some of their neighbors, however, the daily tolling is nothing more than the sound of controversy and frustration, as the monks stand fast against those who would quiet their bells.

Asking the monks to stop ringing those giant bells, one weighing 500 pounds and the other estimated between 1,000 pounds and 1,800 pounds, would be like asking them to stop worshiping, said Father Seamus, who like other monks doesn't use a surname.

"It's against who we are as Catholics, who we are as monks," he said.

The trouble started when the monks moved from their previous monastery on Peaks Island, Maine, to a 10-acre plot among the horses and ferneries of Glenwood. When the property sale was finalized in April 2004, the monks began ringing their bells about 10 tolls at a time daily at 8 a.m., noon, 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., much to the shock of neighbors used to quieter surroundings.

Karen Clark, president of the Glenwood Civic Association, said neighbors' requests for the bells to be silenced have fallen on deaf ears, but she added she doesn't object to having a monastery in the neighborhood.

"I just wish they would not be so arrogant, as far as those bells," said Clark, adding that the sound of the tolling bells can carry for miles on a clear day.

There's nothing much the neighbors can do to stop those bells, said Carol Kerrigan, Volusia County code administration manager. Bells and church chimes, safety signals, train whistles and other emergency devices are exempt from county noise ordinances.

The monastery in Glenwood isn't the only religious facility that regularly rings bells either.