”...where most men have a heart

Many years ago before my brother left the teaching profession, my brother taught high school history. Among the many innovative techniques my brother introduced to his history classes was to do a content analysis of movies which captured the tenor of the times. When teaching the Cold War my brother would screen the Stanley Kubrick black humored, “Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Love the Bomb.” Several days after the screening, a vice principal who had a reputation for preaching the gospel at every turn approached my brother accusing him of showing his history class a pornographic movie. “Pornographic movie?” my brother asked. “Yes,” said the VP, “Didn’t you show a movie named Dr. Strangelove! “

A few months later that gospel preaching VP was quietly retired when he was caught preaching the gospel in his office to a pretty 16 year old while pantless . The more cynical teachers at the high school pointed out that if the VP was a pinko-atheist-meathead, the Board of Education would have made an example out of him. But, because of the VP’s widely known religious zeal, the more pious members of the Board allowed the problem to go away. Such is the hypocrisy of the pious and such is the moral point obviously missed by that ignorant self serving School Board.

Which leads me to the following: Edward T. Graney and his gang also missed the obvious point that there is no causal connection between juvenile crime and ice cream sales, prayer in school and the drop out rate, prayer in school and the beating of students, and finally the lack of prayer in school and student gun play. The connection between troubled white middle class kids living in pious white middle class communities and the need for these students to shoot their classmates and teachers is complex requiring in depth study. What Graney and his gang provide the people of our town in their incessant letter writing to the Coastline is a reactionary knee jerk self-serving analysis devoid of any reason or substance. To tell the people of our town that reintroducing prayer in school will stop kids from shooting each other is utterly ridiculous.

On the other hand I must thank you Mr. Edward T. Graney for your Good Friday letter to the editor last week. Your cold war rhetorical excesses coupled with your mangled use of the English language oozing like an infected sore with hate and contempt made clear to me and the people of our town that your religion is merely a facade behind which lies an Archie Bunker political and social philosophy. The difference between you and Archie, however, is the fact that we all know deep down inside Archie Bunker was nothing more than a confused big hearted working-class stiff . To quote the writer John Reed in another context,”...where most men have a heart, you have a sack of pus.”