Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Concord Town Meeting Applauds "Falsettos"

In an earlier post, I mentioned how MassResistance was trying to rally people in Concord to condemn the production of the play "Falsettos" which was held in 2009. An MassResistance supporter and anti-gay activist petitioned the Town to condemn the production, well, the Town Meeting was held last night:

Concord — Town Meeting saw no surprises its first night with little debate on all articles except the last of the night, Article 31: the anticipated controversy that urged residents to condemn the 2009 fall play “Falsettos” for its use of public funds and defamation of Jews.


But even those engaged in debate decided they had heard enough. Discussion was quickly quelled by an overwhelming majority in support of an opposing amendment to the original article, which instead commended the School Committee and school employees for their work to foster “responsible citizenship” and “to create opportunities for critical thought.”

However, the crazies were still out (Article 31 was the anti-gay petition to condemn the play, the school, the teachers involved, heck, it appears to target everyone):

“The choice is simple,” she added. “If you vote ‘yes’ to Article 31, you support health, piety, chastity and most of all life. If you choose to vote ‘no,’ as the Board of Selectmen, the School Committee and the Finance Committee
are prepared to do, then you support disease, anti-Semitism, debauchery and
death. Death to our town’s children."

But the people spoke:

Petitioner Jim Smith, with his son Arthur — a 2006 CCHS alum — posed the amendment to the article. They argued that a simple vote was not enough.


“We are concerned that merely voting ‘no’ does not sufficiently address what we believe to be the larger issue,” said Smith. “Whether sustained criticism, even by a few, will have a chilling affect on the abilities of our schools to teach, debate, discuss and even produce important literary works that examine complex and complicated social issues.”


snip


The amendment to Article 31 passed nearly unanimously, and came to a close with lines still at the podium in favor of the amendment.

A shot heard round the world indeed. Can't wait to read how MassResistance tries to spin this one although I'm sure there is a conspiracy theory involved somewhere.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Brian Camenker - Mass Hysteria



Because sometimes you just need to put things into perspective!

Tony Award Winning Play is MassResistance's Target

Forever trying to create controversy where it doesn't exist, MassResistance is highlighting the actions of one closed minded individual to get the Concord School System to condemn a high school production of "Falsettos!" In case you hadn't heard about "Falsettos!" it received the following awards/nominations:

  • Tony Award for Best Musical(nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical (winner)
  • Tony Award for Best Original Score (winner)
  • Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical (Rupert, nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical (Kaplan, nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Musical (Walsh, nominee)
  • Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical (nominee)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical (Walsh, winner)
  • Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Revival (nominee)
  • Theatre World Award (Kaplan, winner)

Yet this same award winning play is listed as "a vulgar and disgusting" on MassResistance's website. What's most astounding is that they call the play anti-Semitic which is astounding since the main theme of the play is readying the lead character's son for his bar mitzvah. The one reason they have a problem with this play is because the lead character comes out and leaves his wife for a man, plain and simply. They do not want anyone showing gay characters in a positive light.

They even have a video on their site which cuts and pastes pieces of the production so everything is out of context, not to mention illegal because 1) they videotaped a copyrighted production and 2) they videotaped children without their parents consent. The later is not surprising since that is what MassResistance is known for in the past.

MassResistance even questions a group's "Jewishness":
But just how "Jewish" is Temple Kerem Shalom? According to its website, it has no affiliation with any branch of Judaism and it enthusiastically supports the homosexual movement and other fashionable left-wing nonsense. In other words, their real "religion" is liberalism. They are to Judaism what a ham and cheese sandwich is to a Kosher diet. This kinds of temple usually attracts disaffected liberal Jews, much the way radical churches attract disaffected Christians. It's an embarrassment.
Again, not surprising since they believe everyone is supposed to condemn people who are gay just like them. Oh, and of course, they NEVER even saw the play!

Update: The woman who is complaining about the play also complained in 2007 when the high school put on the "Laramie Project"