More bad news from Purdue, my alma mater: the famed Purdue Christmas Show, once the joy of my fall semesters, will be abandoned in favor of a lame, free, virtual show. The motto of PMO (Purdue Musical Organizations) is "No fun without music and no music without fun." What is fun about a bunch of faces on a screen? No backstage antics, no frantic homework help sessions in the Hall of Music between sets, no standing shoulder to shoulder and carefully blending voices...ARRGHHHHH! Why must politicians ruin singing, of all things?!
Rhetorical question, of course. Politicians want unhappy people, so they can offer them happiness. Singing makes people happier. Happy people won't see a politician as their savior.
This was my response to a PMO letter (fundraising) that tried to put a positive spin on the death of the Christmas Show this year:
"Enjoy your virtual lives, if you can. I am sick from Purdue's capitulation to mass hysteria--I thought of all the places in the world, Purdue would boldly continue to live real life. Politicians are not content to destroy limited constitutional government--they must also completely break our wills by destroying everything that makes life liveable: church, social life, peaceful assembly, and even singing! And they do it in the name of preserving a limited and depressing, merely physical, existence instead of a rich life full of real-time sensory experiences.
I will watch from North Carolina, where many of us are hoping to break our chains in November and dropkick our tyrannical governor who hates churches and gyms, but loves riots and political fundraisers. Contact me when you all decide to militantly make music in spite of the politically-motivated, opportunistic overreaction to a bad virus that is nevertheless highly survivable. You will find me in the libertarian camp, biding my time, waiting to see just how much freedom you all are willing to give up--and praying you won't give it all up.
I know everyone else says, "stay safe." I will say, "stay free." Like Aslan, life is not safe--but is good!"