Humor & Coping
How to Lampoon Madness in Church
Escaping through the funny pages
I can’t say that I have a lot of happy childhood memories, at least where school is concerned. The public school district where I spent twelve years was and is run by people who were more interested in provincial pedigrees than pedagogy. By this I mean it was a one-horse town that made a lot of judgements about who was fish and who was “foul.” It had two gods: one that was said to reside solely inside the confines of a particular Southern Baptist church; and another that demanded veneration of a stitched oblong ball made of pigskin. Not surprisingly, there was a strong crossover between church, fieldhouse, and school district leadership. I’ve long suspected these people thought Jesus was tall, white and an American.
They were easily affronted by anything new or different. It was rough sailing for a small, bookish kid with pale skin and freckles. I never went to any of the bonfire pep rallies for fear that it could turn into an impromptu witch and/or book burning. It was the only school district in the state where you could letter in cruelty. This place is how movies like Footloose get made, but the video clip from Blazing Saddles also speaks to their makeup.
