MONDAY NIGHT LIVE has a Myspace page

Yes the rumors are true: Monday Night Live now has its own page on Myspace! And it does a really good job of conveying the off-beat personality of Reidsville, North Carolina's premiere television call-in show, too. On the page you'll find a history of the long-running show, hilarious "in-jokes" like references to Commander Ashtar and Tom Wopat and Richard from Danville, pictures of hosts Mark Childrey and Ken Echols (and maybe a few other familiar faces), and even the show's theme music - "Tusk" by Fleetwood Mac - playing in the background... along with much more! The only thing missing is that Jaybird isn't on the friends list... but maybe he'll get a Myspace page of his own soon (hurry up Jaybird!).

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MAN ON FIRE: What ALMOST happened to protest uniforms at Reidsville schools

This morning I was going back though the past few months of blog posts looking for something I'd written pertaining to education. In the course of searching I found the video of WGSR's Star Talk on June 14th where Mark Childrey interviewed me about my plans to address the July 9th meeting of the Rockingham County Board of Education while dressed as a Jedi Knight. It was all to protest the "Standard Mode of Dress" (legalese for "school uniforms") at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools that the board had approved.

As was reported here a few weeks later, the board wound up rescinding the earlier vote to implement the policy after POTSMOD (People Opposed To Standard Mode Of Dress) turned the meeting into a media spectacle with picketing by students, black armbands and not just a Jedi but an "escaped convict" too :-)

Well, I watched the video again and it got to the part where I was alluded to Mark that I had "something much more outrageous" in mind if the board continued to refuse to acknowledge us. What this was, I told Mark, would "drop jaws all over the place".

Fortunately, the board did hear us out. And we are thankful that they did and that they overturned their initial vote for the uniforms.

But I was not bluffing. There was something that I had planned to do if the board, at the July meeting, continued to deny our protests.

If the Jedi Costume didn't grab their attention, I was seriously intending to escalate this thing, big time.

The only people who've known about this before now were my wife Lisa, Samantha Fettig of POTSMOD, Richard Moore, "Weird" Ed Woody, and just a few others. They were all sworn to secrecy about it. They also, every single one of them, tried their darndest to talk me out of doing this.

But after studying it long and hard and figuring that (a) if it was in the public interest to do this then I'd have no problem with attempting it and (b) it would be an awesome experience if I survived, I was all the more bound and determined to be ready to do this.

So what was it?

If, after the July 9th meeting, we could not help but believe that the Rockingham County Board of Education was not interested in our concerns about the school uniforms and why we did not want them, then I was going to pick a date and send out a whole wazoo-load of press releases, telling every TV and radio station, newspaper, blogger and whoever else came to mind to be at a certain spot at a certain time.

When the press was all situated, I was going to come out wearing one of those flame-proof suits that cover you from head to toe, set myself on fire, and with the cameras rolling stand there with a sign saying "SCHOOL UNIFORMS BURN ME UP!"

The effect was hopefully going to be like what you see in the photo on the right.

The plan was for me to stand there for several seconds all lit up holding the sign, long enough for everyone to get good footage and pics, and then have volunteers with fire extinguishers douse out the flames.

So intent on going through with this was I, that the announcement of my plan for it was written into the first draft of my speech before the board. Luckily a cooler head (bad pun I know) prevailed and the "threat" didn't make it into the second version of the remarks. But I can only imagine what the look of horror on the faces of all those board members might have been, had I gone through with publicizing it that night...

...and especially what the reactions from a certain few of the members would have been. You see, they're the ones who know me. We've been friends for many, many years. And they would be the first to tell you that they KNOW that I am outrageous enough to try something like this! Emphasis on "try": they're well aware that I would take a stab at it even if success wasn't guaranteed. If the stunt might be glorious and spectacular, that's all I need to know to want to attempt it. Although so far as physical danger goes, this would have been one of the more daring things that I'd have ever considered.

Would I have really done this? For my brothers and sisters in POTSMOD and for the kids at Reidsville Middle and Reidsville High schools, you bet that I would have.

Thankfully (and I really can't stress that nearly enough), things didn't get to that point at all. The board voted 7-3 at the July meeting to overturn the uniforms policy at the two schools. So ever since classes started a few weeks ago the middle and high school students in Reidsville get to wear whatever they want, so long as it adheres to the reasonable dress code.

But for a few weeks there, in the summer of 2007, Rockingham County was almost the site of its very own version of the Burning Man tour.

Look, it could have been worse. At least I didn't have The Wicker Man in mind when I hatched this crazy plot...

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Video of WGSR interview about the July 9th "costume party" protest

There's apparently starting to be some interest in the stating of my intentions a few days ago that I would address the Rockingham County Board of Education at its July 9th meeting... fully costumed as a Jedi Knight. The only thing that I am leaving off the ensemble is my lightsaber. For one thing, I am being extremely cautious in adhering to the school system's weapons policy: even though this is not a functional weapon by any means, I'm not taking chances. For all intents and purposes, this is simply a "different" mode of attire than what you usually see at a school board meeting. As it is, I don't see this being construed as a special circumstance, and I'm not going to intentionally make it one, either.

Besides, I have something much better than a lightsaber that I intend to take with me. You could say that I will be a Jedi without a lightsaber... but one well-armed with a Sword: parse that as you will. People will know it when they see it.

This clip is from yesterday's Star Talk on WGSR Star 39 in Reidsville. Mark Childrey interviewed me (via telephone) live on the air about what happened at this past week's meeting of the board, and the plan for next month's meeting, including my inviting any other opponents of the Standard Mode Of Dress (S.M.O.D. or "school uniforms") to likewise come dressed in wacky attire, in protest of the board's indifference toward the public regarding this matter.

Speaking of which, that is why I am protesting in this manner. Yes, I'm against S.M.O.D. very much... but it has really started to bother me that the board - which is supposed to be hearing and representing our concerns - is ignoring why it is that we don't want the uniforms and instead is beginning to play political football with the issue. That's what this is all about: if the board will not pay attention to our words, then we should - peacefully of course - oblige them to pay attention to us in other ways.

And I do mean something that I say in this clip: that there are members of this board that I respect. I respect them an awful lot. With the exception of a very few, I've no reason not to respect any of them. But we out here in the public have a moral obligation to speak up when something's not right... as it is here.

Anyhoo, there's the first (and probably last) TV interview about the "Hey PAY ATTENTION TO US, Darnnit!" protest planned for next month's meeting. If this should get any more press attention, I'll be sure to post the appropriate links.

Thanks to Tyler Richardson for providing the video!

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