I was dragged to a production of The Laramie Project a couple months ago at Shoreline Community College. I say “dragged” because while I love theater — I spent the middle twenty years of my life immersed in it — I am an exceptionally tough critic, and find bad theater to be extraordinarily painful. I especially hate maudlin, poorly-acted, amateur productions of artsy-fartsy experimental bullshit. But I had a nephew in the cast, and so there I was.
And it was great.
The acting was actually pretty damn good (though due to the family connection, I’d pretty much have to say that even if it wasn’t.) But the play itself was surprisingly gripping and moving, the surprise stemming not from the subject matter — the murder of Matthew Shephard and the community’s reaction in the aftermath — but from the unusual process in which it was written and the dramatic device it relies on. But quite simply, it’s a great play.
And so I was disappointed (but not shocked) to read that Davis High School in Yakima has canceled its production of The Laramie Project, apparently because some members of the community find it too controversial.
Let’s be clear. This play is not about homosexuality. It’s about prejudice, and it actually treats the Laramie community quite evenhandedly. It is also entirely appropriate for a high school audience.
No doubt it is a challenging play that may make some audience members feel a bit uncomfortable about their own prejudices. But if the Yakima community finds it controversial for high school students to stage a production of a play that laments the brutal murder of young gay man, then I’d say the community needs to be challenged.
Of course they need to be challenged as does most of those that live east of the mountains in this state. Hello Ms. Caswell & friends !
I’m sick and tired of being associated with those backwards-ass-country-fucks (BACFs) in Eastern Washington. I’m sick of subsidizing their roads and phone lines. And, I’m sick of their red-state mentality turning our state purple.
I say it’s time we secede. Everything east of the Cascades plus Lewis county can become its own state and everything else becomes our new state. Hell, they can even keep the name Washington. We can become Cascadia or Pugetopolis.
Who’s with me????
2 Be careful what you say. If we push ’em away, they’re likely to take their hops with them…whatever’s left after the fire, anyway.
2-
You realize, of course, that snooty Seattleites with nose in the air are EXACTLY why good, solid Democrats like Peter Goldmark don’t win elections?
Hell, Slade Gorton made a career out of bashing Seattle in the 809’s and 90’s- and Dino Rossi damn near pulled it off again in 2004.
If you think the answer to Democrats not paying well outside the coasts and Rust Belt is to say ‘the hell with you” like the Stranger does…well, get used to being a minority. This may shock you, but out of 10 voters who are asked to self identify, 5 are moderates, 3 are conservatives, and 2 are liberals. This has been true for a VERY long time (Gallup polling as far back as the mid-60’s).
Iif you’re only interested in winning in Seattle, your strategy’s great. But here’s something you might think about: Patty Murray won Pierce and Snohomish counties. Christine Gregoire lost them both. And Ron Sims didn’t make it out of the primary that year. The idea that the median voter in Western Washington is the equivalent of Baghdad Jim McDermott is demonstrably false.
More people need to see productions about gay people that DON’T paint them incorrectly as pedophiles.
2
The problem with splitting the state is that then eastern Washington would get two, presumably Republican, senators. Moreover, the ties that bind eastern and western Washington communities are far stronger than the easterners would admit. Seattle is their hub, and the honest ones among them acknowledge it. Also, as someone who spent much of my formative years in Wenatchee, as conservative a place as this state can claim, I know that eastern Washington does produce some good liberals. They just end up crossing the mountains and living over here. So, while splitting the state would be satisfying because of the punishment it would inflict on our rightwing brethren, maybe we shouldn’t go there.
6
We can punish them in other ways.
This would be just as likely to happen, say, in Chehalis or Lynden (western WA) as in Yakima, so I don’t get the broad brush attack on E.WA. I assure you there are large numbers of tolerant non-homophobes in Yakima, Chehalis, and Lynden. Homophobes everywhere need to be challenged, but the blind regional hatred accomplishes nothing.
I’d say a 6-3 (perhaps soon to be 7-2, maybe even 8-1) D-to-R split in the House delegation, and NO wins in a statewide election for Senator or Governor in over 60 years is being punished enough, don’t you think?
(The last drysider to win a gubernatorial or senatorial election in Washington was Clarence Martin, in 1936.)
Felix @ 8
I grew up in Chehalis (Shithalis), which is exactly why I included Lewis County in the mix!
The problem with splitting the state is that then eastern Washington would get two, presumably Republican, senators.
Then let them merge with Idaho. Just kidding of course. Idaho occassionaly sends strong Democrats to Congress and may just do that this November.
A merger would deepen the red. Not good for the old body politic.
Of course we shouldn’t split the state.
But that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun screwing with dry-side fucktards like Monte Benham, etc.
Try this:
Next time you’re jawing with some Chelan or Benton County agri-business geniuses, point out to them how “unfair” it is for general levy property tax revenues for schools raised in their counties to be “all mixed together” in the State’s general fund and potentially spent on West-side “hippie-dippy” school districts and their whacko ideas about teaching sex and feminism. This always gets ’em going.
After they get to raving and spitting, suggest that we should change the law so that the property tax money raised in a school district must be spent in that same school district. Nine out of ten of ’em will bite on that one every single time. It just kills me.
Condi Rice’s birthday is November 14, one day after the House & Senate come back after the elections.
Articles of Impeachment for her birthday?!?!
Happy Birthday, Beeeeeeee-OOOTCH!!
Um, GBS, the Congress that is elected on election day doesn’t take office until January 3rd.
Yakima is better than this. Or is it?
Chehalis and Lynden? Don’t forget Vancouver/Battleground. The necks seem to be pretty red in that area.
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico – Mexican fishermen captured a 7.5-foot crocodile in the Rio Grande, the river that divides part of Mexico and the United States, authorities reported on Sunday. Illegal migrants from Mexico frequently swim or ride inner tubes across the Rio Grande to reach the United States. Crocodiles do not normally inhabit the river, and authorities suspect it may have been brought to the area as a pet and then… [……………..It may be hard for illegals to vote Democrat while in the middle of a crocodile “death roll”. Still, many dead Democrats vote, so I don’t see the DNC getting to worked up over this issue. Still, can Jewish Democrat ACL Jew lawyers sue the crocs for violating the illegal aliens voting rights?]
Winter car care: Winter car care