===================================================================== Stuck In Traffic "Independent Comment on Current Events and Cultural Phenomena"ÿ Issue #10 - January 1996 ====================== Jim and Tammy's Legacy During the Christmas holidays, my family and I spent several nights driving around Charlotte looking at all the Christmas decorations on the houses and city buildings. People in Charlotte go all out for Christmas and we enjoy seeing the sights. One night we drove just south of Charlotte to see the Christmas sights at the Radisson Grand Resort. The Radisson is just the most recent owner of this huge family resort. It's probably better known by its fomer name, Heritage U.S.A., the headquarters of the PTL television ministry before the downfall of Jim and Tammy Bakker. The Bakker's were nothing if not ambitious and it shows in this resort. The place is huge. There are vacation homes, camping areas, recreational lakes for boating and swimming. Basically everything that you could possibly want in a family vacation spot. And it would be indistinguishable from any other family vacation resort if it weren't for the fact that religious references keep popping up at odd spots, despite the Radisson's obvious attempts to tone down the tacky Christian references. For example, one of the stores in the main hotel complex is called Cherub's Landing. Another was called Vision Tronics with the `T' replaced by a Christian cross symbol. At the ice cream parlor there are three sizes of ice cream sundaes, the David, the Goliath, and the Noah's Ark. One of the meeting rooms is called The Upper Room. The Radisson has also been trying to tone down the Jim and Tammy influence with some success. The shop area in the main hotel no longer has the estate planning office (where you can draw up a will to leave your estate to PTL) and there is less and less donated furniture in the hotel lobby each year. But the Radisson hasn't yet been able to wash away all of the Jim and Tammy influence. The women's clothing stores still carry clothes like those that you used to see Tammy Bakker wear on the PTL show. Lots of glitter. Lots of makeup. And the main hotel area still has live entertainment featuring singing groups that sound like they are straight from the PTL show. You know the type, that Contemporary Christian sound. Perhaps the biggest legacy that Jim and Tammy left behind is all the unfinished construction that you see everywhere. The next to the main hotel, there is a huge unfinished tower that's probably 40 stories high. I believe this was the tower that brought down the Bakkers. As I recall, it was originally intended to be time-share condos. And according to Federal prosecutors, PTL deliberately oversold in order to raise money. Today, it's just this huge unfinished building, the Bakker's personal Tower of Babel. Despite all the unsightly incomplete construction, and despite the absence of the PTL ministry, the resort is quite active. It appears that many people still enjoy their vacations at the resort. The night we visited, there appeared to be a fairly good size crowd of people enjoying the resort activities and there are lots of other vacation resort type attractions in the area. The main reason we had gone down to the Radisson resort was to see the light show. Every year, the resort puts together a huge drive through display of Christmas lights. They have candy cane forests, lighted reindeer leaping across the road, lighted elves and Santa Claus, huge lighted snow flakes and snow men. All kinds of neat stuff. And of course they have an equal mix of Christian imagery as well. They have a live nativity scene, complete with the Star of Bethlehem above it. As was typical of the PTL Ministry era, there is no lack of enthusiasm when these folks decide to do something. The whole thing was really quite impressive. And not only do they put on a great show, they advertise it heavily during Christmas and there is always a big crowd that comes out to see it. But, just like the former PTL ministry, their abundance of enthusiasm comes with an equal lack of tact and forethought. This incredible light show filled with its symbols of Christmas and Christian imagery is called "The Festival of Lights," which is of course how our Jewish friends refer to Hanukkah. ============================= Outing The Treasury Secretary In October, The Washington Post reported a story, which was later picked up and circulated by the Reuters news service, about Senator Arlen Specter calling for the abolition of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. Senator Specter headed the Senate investigation of the ATF's handling of the Waco Massacre and the Siege at Ruby Ridge and is perhaps the most informed congressman on the agency's misconduct for the past two years. Senator Specter proposed that the ATF had outlived its usefulness and that whatever legitimate duties the agency now performed could be better handled by the FBI or other federal law enforcement agencies. The Washington Post also ran a quote from Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin defending the ATF and its usefulness: "It would be a mistake to pull apart this vital law enforcement agency that effectively fights guns, gangs, and explosives." It is interesting to note that, while Mr. Rubin correctly labels the ATF as a law enforcement agency, his justification notably lacks any mention of law enforcement. He says simply and quite plainly that the ATF is in the business of fighting guns, gangs, and explosives. I can almost understand an agency "fighting gangs" since the common usage of the word `gang' pretty much assumes illegal and violent activity. Although it would be interesting to see a court case that pitted the ATF's gang fighting against our Constitutional right of assembly and free association. Fighting guns and explosives is a different matter all together. Since these items don't exist in nature by themselves, but only exist when people manufacture, buy and sell them, fighting guns and explosives is in fact fighting the people who own those things. So to go on record saying that the ATF is in the business of fighting guns and explosives is no different than saying that the ATF is in the business of fighting people with guns and explosives, which is exactly what the ATF was doing when it raided the Branch Davidian compound and is exactly what it was doing during the siege on Ruby Ridge. Whether or not the Federal Government should or should not be fighting people who own guns and explosives is a matter for debate. But the fact that Government is doing so is uncontested. ==================== Haiti: A Year Later When President Clinton committed American troops to reinstate Jean-Bertrand Aristide as the president of Haiti, one of the assurances given to the American people was that U.S. Troops were not there to "prop up" the Aristide presidency, but simply to help restore law and order to Haiti until peaceful elections could be held. Troops are currently scheduled to begin withdrawing from Haiti in February after the Haitian elections are held. At one point there were 14 candidates for the presidency in Haiti. Rene Prevel is the current front runner in the election race, but that doesn't come as a surprise to anyone. Prevel has served under Aristide in the past and was hand picked by Aristide to be his successor since part of the deal cut between Aristide and Clinton just before the invasion was that Aristide would not run in the upcoming elections. Despite there being so many candidates in the election, news reports from the area are filled with phrases like "Prevel is expected to win...." and "Prevel is expected to be the next president of Haiti." It may be that the current Aristide government is wildly popular in Haiti and that Prevel is inheriting the good will of the electorate. Or it may be that the other candidates in the race are simply so disorganized that they are unable to mount a serious bid for the presidency. Or it may be that the Aristide government is leveraging its incumbency and the tense military situation to thwart the other candidates' campaigns. In any case, Prevel has already gone on record indicating that he will ask that the troops not be withdrawn from Haiti, "in the best interests of Haiti." He has so far refused to elaborate on why it is in the best interest of Haiti to keep foreign troops there or under what conditions he would support a U.N. military withdrawal. So whether or not the U.N. military mission, which is led by 2200 U.S. troops, is actively engaged in supporting the current government or it is simply having that effect by the virtue of its presence, it is clear the Prevel prefers to have 6000 foreign troops backing up the Haitian National Police. This would seem to indicate that the Aristide government is not as popular as we were led to believe before the invasion and raises serious questions about why the election results seem to be such a foregone conclusion. ============================================ "It takes a headstrong woman to wear a hat." ====================== Lessons From Old Salem Over the Christmas holidays, my family and I visited Old Salem, which is the restored Moravian community in the heart of Winston-Salem, NC. I had been to old Salem once before, when I was in grade school. At the time, I was mostly interested in the beeswax candles, the handmade barrels and furniture, water systems built from log pipes, and of course the delicious Moravian baked goods. But this time I was more interested in the unique political, religious, and social structure of the Moravian culture. The Moravians trace the beginning of their religion back to the 15th century Europe, in the area that is today the Czech Republic. Their martyr, John Hus, was burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Church because he refused to recant his sacrilegious criticisms of the Catholic Church. Hus had the wacky notion that communion should be available to everyone, not just the Church officials, and that the Bible ought to be available to people in their native language rather than just in Latin. After Hus' execution, some of his followers formed a church which they called "Unitas Fratrum" and it grew and prospered despite repeated persecution. In the 1700's most of them moved to Germany where they enjoyed the leadership and protection of Count Zinzendorf and they founded the town of Hermhut. From Hermhut, the Moravians sent missionaries to the new world and several towns in America were founded by the Moravians, including Savannah, Georgia; Bethlehem Pennsylvania. In 1753 the Moravians bought a huge tract of land in central North Carolina, which they named Wachovia, from its British owner who was impressed by the Moravians wholesome lifestyle and industriousness. Reading between the lines, it appears to me that North Carolina was desperate to get some commercial activity going. The only other major towns in North Carolina at the time were the port town of Wilmington, and a town near the present day Fayetteville. But neither of these towns accounted for much commercial activity and North Carolina was a very poor state. In 1766, the Moravians began building the town of Salem and soon Salem was a major trading post for exchanging raw, rural goods of the south with manufactured goods from the northern colonies and the Moravians had a reputation for being fair traders with low prices. One of the more surprising things I learned from this second trip to Salem was that the religious freedom that the Moravians sought in the New World did not necessarily translate into individual freedom. The Moravian motto, according to one of the Museums in Old Salem is: "In essentials, Unity. In nonessentials, Liberty. In all things, Charity." That sounds great, but when you examine the Moravian social structure, it appears that there was very little that the Moravians considered "nonessential." In the words of the Salem museum, Salem was a "closed congregation town" and all spiritual and economic matters were directed by the church. If you weren't a Moravian, then you weren't welcome to live there. The town's population/congregation was divided into "choirs" that segregated members by their sex and marital status. Married couples were permitted to live separately in their own homes but were still considered to be members of their "choir." Children lived with their parents until they were about 12 or 13 years old. At that age, they became members of either the Single Brothers' choir or the Single Sisters choir and were moved into large dorm like buildings to be raised "in the Family of God" rather than by their parents. Once a single person married, they could then move into their own home. And judging by the membership rosters in the museums, when one's spouse died, he or she moved back in to the Singles' choir. It's unclear what became of the estate. However, one can guess that when your spouse died and you moved back into the Singles' choir, the ownership of your estate reverted back to the church. All commerce outside of the congregation was held as a church monopoly. There were special stores and inns set up by the church used to conduct business with visiting traders. There was no mention in any of the museums or by the tour guides regarding economic transactions within the congregation were conducted. I assume there was some kind of money used among the members. And it was unclear to me how goods were transferred from the craftsmen to the church so that they could be sold. The impression one is left with is that the members of the congregation viewed their craft as an act of devotion and were happy to donate their work to the church. And yet it was quite apparent that some of the Moravian families were quite well off relative to the other families. So the usual human economic competition must have been present in the congregation in some form despite the communal appearance. And as you would expect, the average Moravian's day was dominated by religious services and prayer. From what I could tell, the Moravians gathered en masse at the Church at least once a day for services and individual families seemed to have home services as well. Artistic and recreational activities were almost always church related. To their credit, the Moravians placed a high value on educating their children. And while it is true that girls studied home and domestic crafts while boys studied trade crafts, I was amazed to learn the girls and boys studied the same core subjects. All girls and boys were given church sponsored education in subjects like reading, writing, math, natural science, and music. I think the Moravians were well ahead of their time in this regard. The Moravians approach to slavery was equally unusual. The Moravians believe that there are passages in the Bible that justify slavery. But just as the church planned and owned all economic property in Salem, individual families could not own slaves. Slaves were owned by the church and leased out to families as laborers. The museum literature and the Salem tour guides give you the impression that slaves were treated relatively well compared to the way slaves were treated in the rest of the New World. While slaves weren't treated like full citizens, they weren't treated like subhumans either. For one thing, slaves learned skilled trades just like everyone else. They weren't restricted to hard labor. Many of the black slaves used their trades to save money and buy their freedom. Black slaves and free blacks were integrated into the community in that they worshipped at the same church with the white Moravians, they could, if they wanted, be Baptized into the Church. And apparently the free blacks had the same educational opportunities that the white members of the congregation had. I'm sure the free blacks' and slaves' lifestyles weren't nearly as wonderful as the Salem tour guides would have you believe, but the Moravians did appear to be ahead of their time with regard to relations between the races. The Moravians appeared to stay true to their religion. While I did not have the opportunity to read about their religious believes, they appeared to be consistent to their founders' attempts to make religion accessible to all. Communion was available to all and Baptism appeared to be by choice rather than automatic. And everyone had the potential to be saved. There was none of the hellfire and brimstone found in other early American sects. And they followed through on their belief that the Word of God should be accessible to all people in their native language. The Salem Moravians translated religious texts into the language of the native Indian tribes. In one of the museums, they had a book that showed the Lord's Prayer in both German (I think) and Cherokee, on of the few tribes that had a written language. However, there's no indication that the Moravian's missionary efforts were successful. By today's standards, the Moravians seemed to have an oppressively regimented lifestyle. Everything a Moravian did had to be approved by the church leadership who, if they couldn't decide on a course of action, resorted to the Biblical practice of "casting lots", i.e., flipping a coin, to make their decisions. And yet you get the impression that the Moravians were very happy with their lifestyle. The town grew and prospered. According to the tour guides and museum literature, the Industrial Revolution destroyed the Moravian's way of life. To some extent, I suppose this is true. As Salem grew and prospered as a major stop on several trade routes, more and more non-Moravians moved into the area to settle. Since Salem was a closed community, the non-Moravian population founded another town, just a few blocks north of Salem which they called Winston. Because of its location, Winston boomed and became a major center for the emerging manufacturing industries in North Carolina that came with the Industrial Revolution. Winston grew so fast that it enveloped the community of Salem and in 1913 the two towns merged into the modern day city of Winston-Salem. So on the one hand it's true that the Industrial Revolution had something to do with the demise of the Moravian culture. On the other hand, one can claim that the Moravian social structure simply became obsolete. The regimented social and economic structure that had been their strength and key to survival was no longer necessary and eventually became a hindrance to their success. While Salem was undoubtedly a huge success for its time, it was still a very difficult lifestyle. Their church seemed to have codified the trades so heavily that they had not advanced their trades in hundreds of years. Everything was built by hand. Every stone on every building was laid by hand. The amount of work this took is so staggering that it's difficult for us to even comprehend manual labor on that magnitude. But a small scale example I encountered on my second visit really helped me understand. Imagine holding a cast iron coffee bean roaster over a hot open fire for 30 minutes just to roast coffee beans so you could make a pot of coffee. No store bought, pre-roasted coffee. No Mr. Coffee with automatic drip. So there is more than a little hypocrisy when the Old Salem curators tell us how much labor was involved in day to day life among the Moravian community and then follow up by telling us how the Industrial Revolution, with all its labor saving efficiency, destroyed the Moravian lifestyle. But there is also some truth to the claim. Just as the Moravian lifestyle was necessary for survival, both in terms of survival of the religion and economic survival, but then became obsolete and unnecessary, the Industrial Revolution and the culture that surrounds mass-production was necessary for its time. And perhaps, now that the Industrial Revolution has done such a fantastic job of providing for all our day to day needs, the culture surrounding the Industrial Revolution is beginning to become outdated and unnecessary. Times change. Religions, cultures, governments that seem unquestionably essential and necessary during one century may be obsolete the next. But we can learn from the past and apply it to the future. Perhaps we now can afford to apply the craftsman like devotion that shows in the Moravians' work and lifestyle to the efficiencies we've learned from the Industrial Revolution and build a new way of life for the next century. ===============Review Context Is Everything A review of Strange Ritual: Pictures and Words by David Byrne "I saw people in a remote village/ proudly wearing their - digital watches/ I saw a young Indonesian girl/ possessed by the spirit of Mutant Ninja Turtles/ Saw palatial estates, with crumbling/ decorations - and human furniture..." --David Byrne During the height of the New Wave, synthomatic drum machine and filler strings music movement of the late 70's and 80's, Talking Heads, an art school band led by an angst ridden, pencil necked geek named David Byrne, was making a name for itself by serving up stripped down, straight forward, simple songs that combined an uncanny beat with absurd incomprehensible lyrics. Their songs were so simple you could hear every syllable of the David Byrne's lyric. You could understand every word he uttered, and any particular phrase would sound normal, even cliche'. But when you strung it all together, it sort of fell apart like some Post Modern trick. It's as if David Byrne discovered culture jamming before anyone else. But Byrne wasn't content simply to become an oddity within the pop music world. He left the Talking Heads and pursued a series of solo projects which were simultaneously pop culture entities and critical examinations of pop culture itself. He gave us a charming movie, True Stories, based on tabloid newspaper articles cultural folklore. He gave us a psuedo-documentary/avant garde art film about a bizarre religion in Brazil. He gave us The Forest, an album that combined classical music with raw screams and wails. He gave us a pop album, Uh Oh, with lyrics describing the maladies of suburban life. It was all either absurdly familiar or familiarly absurd. With his latest projects, a self-titled pop album and this companion photography book, Byrne turns his eye to the Global Village. Byrne has travelled throughout the world taking these pictures, but rather than take pictures of landmarks and famous sights, he turns his camera to the absolutely mundane. We're not talking about postcard-esque, slices of life in other cultures. We're talking about street signs, lighting fixtures, vending machines and grocery store shelves interleaved with pictures of religious icons, places of worship, and unusual buildings. But Byrne's goal doesn't seem to be to convince that the world is a dull and dreary place, but rather that some sort of Meaning, incomprehensible perhaps but Meaning nonetheless, permeates everything we do, everything we create, everything we throw away, whether we intend it to or not. Is it a coincidence that the same colors used in paintings sold by a street vendor in Mexico are the same colors used to sell Aluminum foil and dishwasher detergent in a grocery story? Do baby Jesus and Buddha lose their significance when they are mass produced in plastic figurines by the thousands in bright, primary colors? Or do they transcend Industrialism? What do the bones of Saint John the Baptist's hands, the footprint of Mohammed, and a pile of raked sand in a Shinto Temple have in common? Why are vending machines universally understandable? How can a book titled How To Do All Things be only a half inch thick? Byrne doesn't answer, but poses these questions for us in his pictures. Over and over again, we see hints of meaning in common images put in unusual contexts. As Byrne puts it, "I see cultural referents and associations being misapplied in pleasantly confusing ways. Anything is up for grabs. Anything is available for anyone to use. Language, clothes, religions, facial features, hairstyles, narratives, gestures, foods, colors." Pleasantly confusing indeed. While we usher in the Golden Age of the Global Village, Strange Ritual reminds us that this Global Village is not a perfectly planned society with smooth meldings of all cultures into a homogenous Universal Man but rather a haphazard, make-it-up-as-you-go-along sort of culture, borrowing a little bit here and a little bit there in a scary, fun, spiritual kind of way. ====================== About Stuck In Traffic Stuck In Traffic is a monthly magazine dedicated to independently evaluating current events and cultural phenomena. Contact Information: All queries, submissions, subscription requests, comments, and hate-mail about Stuck In Traffic should be sent to Calvin Stacy Powers preferably via E-mail (powers@interpath.com) or by mail (2012 Talloway Drive, Cary, NC 27511). 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