Stanley Nelson discusses his new documentary film, ‘Freedom Riders’

Director Stanley Nelson

“What the civil rights movement did,” reflected documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson, was to force people “to make a choice.  You couldn’t ignore it anymore.  It was stuff that was on the front page, it was in your face, you had to choose: which way are you going?”

Nelson, whose new film, Freedom Riders, was screened at the Virginia Film Festival in Charlottesville on November 5, made his comments in a panel discussion following the screening. 

Other participants in the discussion were civil-rights activists Joan Mulholland of Arlington County and Dion Diamond and the Rev. Reginald Green of Washington, who were among the original “freedom riders” of 1961.  The panel was moderated by Larry Sabato of the UVA Center for Politics.

Effective engagement of the news media

In response to a question from Sabato, Nelson pointed out how the civil rights movement’s strategy of engaging the news media was slow in emerging but eventually “incredibly effective.”

During the 1961 freedom rides, he said, “the media’s role really changed.”

When the freedom rides started in May of that year, “there was no media coverage except the black press,” such as the Washington/Baltimore Afro-American and Johnson Publications (Ebony and Jet), which each had a “representative on the ride.”

The rest of the news media, however, “totally ignored the rides and there was no media coverage at all,” Nelson said, which caused difficulty for him and his team of filmmakers, because there was a dearth of archival material from the early part of the freedom ride phenomenon.

What changed “by the end of the freedom rides,” he explained, was that there were “400 people coming in [and] that was a huge news story, so you had the nightly news and you have all the print journalists and camera people there.”

By mid-summer, the news media was reacting to the civil rights movement’s strategy “to hold the front page” for at least five days at a time, to keep people’s attention on the issue so that it became “impossible to ignore.”

Making a choice

In researching the freedom rides, Nelson explained, “one of the fascinating things that we found making the film was that” in the Deep South (Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi), “there was a very small percentage of people of white people who supported integration -- a tiny percentage [of] 1, 2, 3 percent.”

At the other extreme, he said, “there was another small percentage of people who were violent racists, maybe 10 [or] 15 percent.”

That meant, he explained, that “the rest of the people, 80-85 percent, just were able to kind of go on, and ignore what was going on” – hence his remark that the civil rights movement, in general, and the freedom rides, in particular, forced people to make a choice about which way to go.

How ‘Freedom Riders’ became a film

After the panel ended, Nelson told me that the Freedom Riders project came to him while he “was working on a film for ‘American Experience’ called Wounded Knee.”

The producers “called and said that they had purchased this book, Freedom Riders by Ray Arsenault, and would I take a look at it [because] they’re thinking of making it into a film.”

Nelson “said yes without even getting the book,” because he “knew a little bit about the story and realized it would be great, so that’s how that happened.”

Making the film took about 18 months from start to finish, Nelson explained.  It will be broadcast on PBS as part of the “American Experience” series in May 2011, “which is the 50th anniversary of the freedom rides.” 

Currently, Nelson is showing Freedom Riders at film festivals and also at schools, including a screening at Charlottesville High School earlier this month.  In addition, some college students will be recreating the freedom rides next year as part of a fiftieth anniversary commemoration that will also promote the film.

Video from the Virginia Film Festival's panel discussion about Freedom Riders, sponsored by the UVA Center for Politics, is below.

(This article originally appeared, in slightly different form, on Examiner.com on November 18, 2010.)

Video, Part I - Recorded at the Culbreth Theatre on the grounds of the University of Virginia on Friday, November 5, 2010.

Larry Sabato introduces the panel:

Video, Part II:

Video, Part III:

Video, Part IV, in which Larry Sabato poses the question about the news media:

Video, Part V:

Video, Part VI, in which the Reverend Reginald Green -- who in junior high was the lead singer in a group that included Marvin Gaye -- leads the crowd in a rendition of "We Shall Not Be Moved":

As noted above, Freedom Riders, the film, will be aired on PBS stations as part of the "American Experience" series in May 2011 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Freedom Rides.

NOTE:  In 2009, the UVA Center for Politics sponsored a screening and panel discussion at the Virginia Film Festival about another milestone in the civil rights era called Locked Out:  The Fall of Massive Resistance.  That panel included former Virginia Governor L. Douglas Wilder and several survivors of the shutdown of government schools in the Commonwealth:  Rita Moseley of Prince Edward County, Donald Martin of Charlottesville, Michael Jones of Arlington County, Delores Brown of Norfolk, and Faye Coleman Hoes of Warren County.

Update, May 10, 2011:  PBS has announced that Stanley Nelson's documentary film, Freedom Riders, will be broadcast on public television stations beginning Monday, May 16, 2011, as part of the American Experience series.  Check your local listings.

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The End of 'Liberty'? Not Exactly...

Generally, receiving unexpected money in the mail is something to celebrate.

When I found a check for $30.55 in my mailbox early last week, however, it was a bittersweet event.

Why was that?  It marked the end of an era.  The check was the refund on the remainder of my subscription to Liberty magazine, which is switching to an exclusively on-line format starting in 2011.  The print version of the magazine will be no more.

I have been reading Liberty since about 1990.  It is always a delight, especially when I begin -- as I invariably do -- with the feature on the last page, "Terra Incognita," a collection of oddities from the world press, showcasing strange behavior by governments and political elites, and sometimes just strange behavior, full stop.  The additional short items in the front of the book, under the heading of "Reflections," may represent the first group blog -- having existed for years, if not decades, before the concept of "group blog" ever manifested itself.

Editor-in-chief Stephen Cox also has a monthly column on the abuses of language that can be thoughtful and provocative, often bringing me to say, "Yes, I get peeved about that, too; I'm glad I'm not the only one."

Though not an organ of the Libertarian Party, Liberty has often been the only publication that treats the LP both seriously and critically, serving not as a cheerleader (though the magazine and the party have clearly been on the same side in the struggle against statism) but often as a gently chiding friend.  For example, the founding editor, the late R.W. Bradford, ran a series of articles about a decade ago calling attention to alleged malfeasance on the part of LP executives and officials in the campaigns of Harry Browne, who was the LP nominee for president in 1996 and 2000.  This investigative journalism led to better management of the party.

Liberty also offered book and movie reviews from a libertarian perspective, recollections of the early days of the libertarian movement, and lots of articles about Ayn Rand and her disciples.

I was lucky enough to be published in Liberty, at least once -- a review of Paulina Borsook's book, Cyberselfish, which I found to be a caricature, rather than a serious exploration, of libertarian thought and libertarians.

I am sure that I will occasionally visit Liberty's web site to keep up with all the writers whom I've come to enjoy, but unless I receive regular email, Twitter, or Facebook updates reminding me to do so, I'm afraid I will be neglectful.  (That's how I end up visiting the web sites of Reason and The Freeman several times a week.)

The print edition, with Liberty's plain appearance and rich content, will be missed.  In the meantime, I have dozens of copies strewn around my house.  Since they all look alike, I can pick up any one of them, ignore the date on the cover, and pretend it's new.  Even if it's not, I'm bound to learn something.

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Opt-Out Alliance and Traveler's Rights Card

Former Georgia Congressman Bob Barr, who was the 2008 presidential nominee of the Libertarian Party, has launched a new activist group called the Opt-Out Alliance, in reaction to the assault on our liberties by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). 

The Opt-Out Alliance joins the Rutherford Institute, Republican Liberty Caucus, Libertarian Party, and countless other civil-liberties organizations, tea-party groups, and incensed individuals who are not just complaining, but acting on their anger with regard to the TSA's overreach (and underreach, for those whose nether regions have been patted down).

Reports of TSA agents removing the clothing of small boys, letting a man soak in his own urine after they punctured his urostomy bag, and forcing women to detach their prosthetic breasts have raised the ire of fair-minded citizens everywhere.

The Opt-Out Alliance, which states its mission as "fighting for basic dignity and decency for air travelers," provides its members with a wallet-sized card that explains your rights as a citizen against unreasonable searches.

According to the group's web site:

The cards provide you with:
-- The appropriate steps to Opt Out of TSA Full-Body Scanners and "enhanced" pat downs.
-- Information on how to file an official complaint -- on the spot.
-- A traveler's Hotline Number to report your experience to the media.

The Opt-Out Alliance is riding a tide of righteous discontent. Not only travelers, but Americans in general are finally waking up to the fact that the government wants to upend the principles of a democratic republic: It wants to cow us into submission and make us obey it, rather than the proper form in which government obeys us.

Benjamin Franklin's warning about giving up essential liberty for temporary safety has never been more appropriate, and more necessary, than it is today.

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Remembering David Nolan

It's eerie and it's sad.

On Friday, sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., David Nolan added me as a friend on Facebook.

By Saturday evening, David Nolan had passed away.

The founder of the Libertarian Party and the creator of the paradigm-shifting Nolan Chart was killed in a car crash in Arizona, apparently caused by Nolan's suffering a stroke while behind the wheel.  He was 66 years old.  Tomorrow would have been his 67th birthday.

Although I only met Nolan a few times during my years as a Libertarian Party activist in the early and mid-1990s, his influence on me (and others) was strong.  Dave Weigel explains that Nolan played a moderating and conciliatory role at sometimes raucous LP gatherings, including the contentious 2008 presidential nominating convention:

I met Nolan in 2008, while covering the Libertarian Party convention for Reason -- in Denver, again -- and liked him instantly. He was a center of calm in the middle of an rough and media-grabbing battle for the heart of the party. He calmed the occasional (okay, frequent) sense that the nomination of one candidate or another would destroy the LP by praising all of the candidates and telling the losers to suck it up. He did not seem like a man who was retiring from politics, so I wasn't surprised to see him make one last hopeless run for office as a Libertarian, campaigning against John McCain in this year's U.S. Senate race.

I won't repeat the oft-told tale of how the Libertarian Party was started in David Nolan's living room in Denver in 1971, a reaction to the Nixon administration's decision to impose wage and price controls on the American economy.

I wasn't there, but it's amazing that a then-27-year-old political activist could almost singlehandedly establish a political party that would later have tens of thousands of members (and ex-members), lead to the election of hundreds of public officials across the country, and spread the message of libertarianism during political campaigns, when voters tend to be paying closer attention to issues.

During the 1996 LP convention in Washington, there was a commemoration of the founding of the party, which that year was celebrating its 25th anniversary.  In one of the meeting halls of the Washington Convention Center, a recreation of Nolan's Denver living room served as a stage for early LP members to reminisce about the founding.  Nolan participated, as did 1972 vice-presidential candidate Tonie Nathan (the first woman ever to receive a vote in the Electoral College), and Pennsylvania LP activist Don Ernsberger, who recalled that he used a mailing list of about 50 people to recruit members to the new party, and at the time he thought the list included every libertarian in the United States.

An underestimate, to be sure.

Unfortunately, nobody had thought to record the recollections of the early LP leaders, either on video or on audio.  An opportunity for a lasting oral history of the founding was lost, except in the memories of the hundreds of LP members who were there that day.

Even if Nolan had not been one of the founders of the Libertarian Party, his legacy would be secure simply in his creation of what is now universally known as the "Nolan Chart."  He helped us break out of the constraints of a paradigm that insisted upon a two-dimensional, right/left political spectrum and demonstrated that the way people really think about politics is three-dimensional -- not just right/left, but also up/down.

I have used the Nolan Chart, and the accompanying World's Smallest Political Quiz (developed by the late Marshall Fritz), when I lecture to college classes about libertarianism.  It's a good way to break the ice and also to explain how libertarians do not fit into a two-sizes-fit-all liberal/conservative mold.

I have also used the Nolan Chart and the WSPQ in an Operation Politically Homeless display at county fairs (with the LP), at Republican gatherings (with the Republican Liberty Caucus), and at gay pride festivals (with Gays and Lesbians for Individual Liberty).  The chart and the quiz are both effective conversation-starters and also good recruiting tools.  It's always amusing to see some Republican finding out he's not conservative, or some Democrat finding out she's not liberal.  On more than one occasion, I've observed (metaphorical) steam coming out of someone's ears when he discovers he's a statist or -- far more often -- a satisfied smile upon learning that he's a libertarian.

Countless members of the Libertarian Party and other libertarian -- small-L -- groups have joined the movement upon taking the quiz and seeing their dot on the Nolan Chart.

In a note sent late last night (or quite early this morning) to members of the Libertarian Party of Virginia, longtime LPVA activist Marc Montoni wrote:

There is not a person who has been involved in our organization who wasn't touched by the life of David Nolan. He helped build our political home and devoted decades of his life to its guidance and service. Nolan's work has influenced the lives of millions of people through the thousands of small and large successes that the Libertarian Party has had in its four decades of existence. If Libertarians hit the streets to protest a tax increase, it was Nolan's creation that brought them together. If a Libertarian is among the nearly 1,000 people who have won election to public office, it was Nolan's creation that helped staff the campaign team.

Other tributes to David Nolan have been posted on the Libertarian Party's blog.

Nolan's final act of political activism took place on Facebook shortly before he died. He expressed a wish that, to celebrate his birthday on November 23, friends and acquaintances should make financial donations to the Advocates for Self-Government.

As one of his friends noted on that Facebook page, what a fitting tribute it would be if that request for contributions turned into a moneybomb for the Advocates.

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Has Virgil Goode Fully Abandoned the GOP?

With little fanfare, former U.S. Representative Virgil Goode has joined the national executive committee of the Constitution Party, essentially severing his ties with the Republican Party.

This is not the first time Goode has switched political parties. Having served in the Virginia State Senate as a Democrat for almost 25 years, he was elected under that party's banner to the U.S. Congress in 1996, becoming an independent in 2000 (after having been one of the few Democrats to vote for the impeachment of President Bill Clinton in 1998), and finally switching to the GOP in 2002.

Goode ran as a Republican until he was defeated by one-term Democratic Congressman Tom Perriello in 2008, after a recount showed a razor-thin (727) vote majority. (Perriello was subsequently defeated by state Senator Robert Hurt of Chatham this past November 2.)

According to Richard Winger at Ballot Access News,

On November 18, former Virginia congressman Virgil Goode accepted an appointment to the Constitution Party’s national Executive Committee....

Goode has been somewhat involved with the Constitution Party ever since he left congress. He has spoken at several Constitution Party national meetings during the past two years.

Winger draws an analogy to Goode's joining of the CP's national committee to Bob Barr joining the national committee of the Libertarian Party. Barr, a former Member of Congress from Georgia, said at the time that he had no intentions of running again for public office, but in 2008 he sought the LP's presidential nomination and received it.

Whether Goode has ambitions to be a presidential candidate -- one could not say that a nominee of the Constitution Party has ambitions to be President -- is not known. Commenters on Ballot Access News suggest a CP presidential ticket that would include Goode and former Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo, who this month placed second in the race for Governor of that state, ahead of the Republican party's nominee.

Tancredo and Goode share a visceral xenophobia that would make them compatible as national ticketmates, regardless of which one was the presidential nominee and which was the vice-presidential nominee.

It should be noted that Virgil Goode's wife, Lucy Goode, is a vice chairman of the Fifth Congressional District Republican Committee.

The Constitution Party's press release welcoming Goode to its leadership ranks can be read here.

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Charlottesville Illuminates Its 2010 Christmas Tree

Times have changed.

In Jerry Herman's song from Mame, "We Need a Little Christmas," young Patrick expresses astonishment that his Auntie Mame wants to begin celebrating Christmas so early, because it's just "one week past Thanksgiving Day!"

That was in the 1920s.  Now it's the 2010s and Christmas celebrations begin one week before Thanksgiving Day.

At least that's true in Charlottesville, where tonight civic officials, media figures, and local residents came together for the "Grand Illumination" of the downtown mall, and the sparking of 18,000 lights on the Christmas tree at Central Place.

Here are video highlights of the ceremony, featuring Bo Sykes of the Newsplex and Libby Allison of NBC29 as emcees, General Registrar Sheri Iachetta leading the singing ("Deck the Halls," "Jingle Bells," and "We Wish You a Merry Christmas!), and Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris, Vice Mayor Holly Edwards, and City Councilors Satyendra Huja and Kristin Szakos, as well as Albemarle County Supervisor Duane Snow, marking the festivities.

For those in a nostalgic mood, check out this post from 2008, with video of that year's Christmas tree illumination in Charlottesville.

Also, check out the Christmas items I have designed at my CafePress shop, called (naturally) "Gifts from RickSincere.com."

Update, Saturday, November 20:  I just uploaded another video from the Grand Illumination to YouTube.  This one has musical selections from the Jeffersonland Chorus, a barbershop harmony group.  They sang, among other familiar tunes, "Jingle Bells," "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen," "O Holy Night," and "Silent Night."
 

RLC Rejects TSA's Assault on Passenger Privacy Rights

From the national office of the Republican Liberty Caucus -- what I like to call "the Republican wing of the Republican Party" -- comes this press release about the TSA:

For Immediate Release: November 17, 2010

Republican Liberty Caucus Rejects Transportation Security Administration's Assault on Passenger Privacy Rights

AUSTIN, TX -- The Republican Liberty Caucus (RLC) denounces the recent changes in the airport passenger screening practices of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

RLC Chairman Dave Nalle said the intrusive nature of new TSA procedures draws attention to the fundamental flaws in the government's strategy of attempting to address the threat of terrorism through increasingly draconian domestic security measures.

"In the name of public safety, government agencies have been given more and more power at great cost to our civil liberties and in violation of the Bill of Rights," Nalle said. "The emergence of an unaccountable state security apparatus in America is a reminder of Ben Franklin's maxim that 'they who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety'."

"The new TSA procedures of giving randomly selected passengers a choice between a full body, backscatter x-ray scan and an intrusive, hands-on body search are unacceptable," Nalle contends. "These searches are a clear violation of our 4th Amendment rights, because they are not reasonable and are carried out with no probable cause. The increase in security at airports with more technology and more violation of the privacy rights of passengers cannot be justified on the basis of any increase in the threat of terrorism, because there has been no such increase," Nalle explained.

The Republican Liberty Caucus believes that Americans have seen enough abuses of the Constitution and calls on the federal government to curb abuses by the TSA and other agencies. We recommend putting control of passenger security in the hands of the airlines, which have a vested interest in making sure that flights are safe. We also support Representative Ron Paul's "American Traveler Dignity Act" (H.R. 6416), which would make TSA employees accountable for their actions.

Nalle observed, "With the increasing level of government intrusion into our lives in the name of security, America reminds me too much of what I saw in the Soviet Union, where I lived as a teenager. How long will it be before police will be stopping us in the street at random to ask for our identity papers?"

The Republican Liberty Caucus, founded in 1991, exists to promote individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise within the Republican Party. Learn more and become a member at http://www.rlc.org/join-the-rlc/.

###

Related Links:

· RLC Legislators Working to Dismantle TSA Rules

· Actions You Can Take to Assert Your Rights

· Join the Resistance Movement on Facebook

· Follow the RLC on Facebook and at our Blog

Virginia Film Festival Starts Today

My favorite weekend in Charlottesville's calendar starts later today, when the 23rd annual Virginia Film Festival takes the stage at venues across the area -- including the Paramount, Regal, and Vinegar Hill cinemas downtown and the Culbreth and Newcomb Hall theatres on the Grounds of the University of Virginia.

The biggest "get" at this year's festival has to be director, screenwriter, and film historian Peter Bogdanovich, who will be presenting at least two of his best-known movies, The Last Picture Show and Paper Moon, during the course of the weekend.  (Two other Bogdanovich films, What's Up Doc? and Cat's Meow, will also be screened.)

About a month ago, Virginia Film Festival director Jody Kielbasa announced most of this year's program at a news conference at the X Lounge in Charlottesville.  Let's go to the video!

Part I:

Part II:

My coverage of the 2009 Virginia Film Festival can be seen here, here, and here, with a later post about Matthew Broderick here.

Posts from the 2008 Virginia Film Festival include this one on director/screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga, and additional videos here and here.

Video from the 2007 Virginia Film Festival can be found here and here, with photos from that year's festival here.

Reports on the 2006 Virginia Film Festival include this one, this one (with popular silent video of William Moseley), this one (with Robert Duvall), and this one.

A report on the 2005 Virginia Film Festival is here, and this episode, featuring my confrontation with Vanessa Redgrave, was mentioned by former festival director Richard Herskowitz in his farewell remarks three years later.

Watch this space for future reports on the 2010 Virginia Film Festival.

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1, 2, 3: Vote No, No, No

Most voters who go to the polls today in Virginia will be surprised to find, in addition to candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and a smattering of local office, three ballot measures asking for their permission to amend the Constitution of Virginia.

Two of the measures deal with creating conditions for exempting certain classes of individuals from local real estate property taxes, and the other permits the General Assembly to increase by as much as 50 percent the amount of tax revenue set aside in the so-called "rainy day" fund.

When it comes to amending the basic law of any jurisdiction, it is up to the proponents of the change to provide a compelling reason to do so.

In the case of these three amendments, it has been difficult to find any proponents at all, much less enthusiastic proponents who have laid out a persuasive argument in favor of change.

On the other hand, there have been those who have analyzed the three proposals and found them severely wanting.  One of those is Charlottesville radio show host and former city councilor Rob Schilling, who has recommended to his listeners on WINA-AM and the readers of his blog that they vote "no" on each of the measures on the November 2 ballot.

I agree with him.

With regard to the two property-tax measures, it is not a good precedent to set to allow any discretely defined group to be exempted from the common responsibility to pay taxes.  While I strongly support across-the-board tax cuts and accompanying cuts in government expenditures, carving out exemptions for politically well-connected or popular minority groups (in this case, disabled old people and disabled veterans) casts a very bad example.  First, it encourages other groups -- narrowly- or broadly-defined -- to seek similar exemptions for themselves.  Second, it means that all other taxpayers will have to pay a higher amount when their tax bills are assessed and collected.

With regard to expanding the "rainy day" fund, I would have less of a problem with it if "rainy day" were more specifically and narrowly defined.  If it were designed, for instance, to be used in the case of natural disasters like hurricanes, blizzards, or earthquakes that create large areas of destruction or, in another instance, in the case of a terrorist attack or conditions of armed rebellion, my objections would be muted.

The problem with the "rainy day" fund, as it is currently used, is that it gives legislators an excuse to dip into savings whenever there is a revenue shortfall, rather than finding ways to cut spending.

If there is a surplus in revenue, it should be returned to the taxpayers as a refund or tax cut, not added to a supply of "mad money" for members of the General Assembly to play with.

I believe that the default vote for any referendum or other type of ballot measure is "no."  So my recommendation for today's election:  Vote no on each and every proposed constitutional amendment. 

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Guest Blogger Tim Hulsey Reviews 'Sanctified' and 'Locomotion'

Sanctified satisfies at Lincoln Theatre; Locomotion derails at Kennedy Center

Tim Hulsey

Special to The Metro Herald

“Democracy,” said H.L. Mencken, “is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.”

If that's true, then the new musical Sanctified, now playing through November 14 at the historic Lincoln Theatre, is theatrical democracy in action.  A potent brew of shout-and-holler gospel music, country comedy, Sunday-school piety, and aw-shucks know-nothingism, Sanctified knows exactly what its audience wants, and gives it to them good and hard.

The plot, what there is of it, involves the East Piney Grove Baptist Church, a dwindling African-American congregation in deep but otherwise unspecified financial trouble.  The young pastor (John McClure, Jr.) has pinned his church's last hope on a 30th anniversary Gospel Revival, and brought in his opera-diva cousin (Mary Millben) to assist with the proceedings.  A lay minister, Deacon (Frederick Strother), respectable to the marrow but lacking spiritual fervor, schemes to remove the pastor from his post.

Meanwhile, two mysterious “delivery men” (William T. Newman, Jr., and Joshua Nelson) work behind the scenes to ensure the revival's success – and it hardly counts a “spoiler” to reveal that these delivery men are actually angels in disguise.  Of course, the pastor's plans for this revival will go awry in a most amusing and heartwarming – if predictable -- manner.

Still, scene-stealing turns from Almonica Caldwell as a gossipy church lady and Ellis Foster as a doddering, unintelligible elderly chorister keep the proceedings lively, even through Sanctified's overlong, overstuffed second act. 

Moreover, playwright Javon Johnson provides a generous helping of strong comic business – most of it amusing, and all instantly recognizable -- for the squabbling, backbiting members of the East Piney Grove Gospel Choir.  But Bernadine Mitchell, as elderly Sister Sarah, walks away with the heart of the show, delivering her character's Christian homilies with world-weariness and absolute sincerity.

Then there is the score, a blend of traditional gospel tunes and original material by Rollo Dilworth and Raymond Reeder.  For a patchwork score like this, the music of Sanctified holds together fairly well, and the original title tune, “Sanctified,” is an instant Sunday-morning classic, guaranteed to linger in the mind for days.  Mary Millben, a Leontyne Price-soundalike (with showy coloratura to match), gets top honors for solo vocals, though gospel-music veteran John McClure, Jr., a top-five finalist on BET's Sunday Best, takes a strong second place: Their first-act duet “Come Out the Wilderness” is far and away the vocal highlight of the show.  Only the treacly second-act love ballad “A Miracle in Your Eyes” and the rap number “Tougher Than My God” feel out of place here; the style and subject matter of these pieces are not in keeping with the rest of the show.  (As an added bonus, for several nights of the run, the promoters of Sanctified have asked a “guest artist” to perform the next-to-last number of the evening.)

Technical aspects of the show are uneven.  The historic Lincoln Theatre, which hosted legendary performances by Duke Ellington and Ella Fitzgerald, may be the perfect venue for a show like Sanctified, but with Sanctified, problems with the sound mix along with the unpredictable acoustics of the venue occasionally make some of the voices (especially Millben's) shrill, tinny and unpleasant.  The crew seems to be working these problems out, slowly and gradually.  But visually, at least, the show is always striking, thanks to a stylishly evocative set by Tony Cisek and moody lighting from William H. Grant, III.

Playwright Javon Johnson seems to have conceived Sanctified as a Tyler Perry-esque response to the ever-popular Smoke on the Mountain series of country-gospel musicals.  The show strikes more than its share of false notes, particularly in its callous attitude toward the “hincty” college-educated opera singer, and in the impossibly trite angel subplot.  But like the East Piney Grove Gospel Choir itself, it overcomes its many problems through sheer good will.  This isn't highbrow theater by any standard, but at its best, Sanctified illuminates the triumphs and tribulations of a close-knit community of faith.  Sanctified is a mess, but it's a rousing, entertaining mess, guaranteed to leave the audience both sanctified and satisfied.

I wish I could say half as much for the world premiere of Jacqueline Woodson's Locomotion, which just finished a brief run at the Kennedy Center.  Woodson adapted this 70-minute children's drama from her Newbery Honor Award-winning book, chronicling a turbulent year in the life of an inner-city African-American orphan who finds a much-needed outlet for self-expression in his daily poetry journal.

 The book Locomotion has become middle-school required reading for all the right reasons, but few of its rough edges and hardly any of the narrative drive have made the transition from page to stage.  As eleven-year-old Lonnie Collins Motion (the “Lo-Co-Motion” of the title), Nickolas Vaughan sounds and acts more like a happy children's television host than the brooding, introverted character of the book.  Fatima Quander, playing all the women's roles in the show, is convincing in none of them.  Of the three-person cast, G. Alverez Reid makes the strongest impression, mostly in the role of Lonnie's classmate Enrique.

 As adapter and playwright, Woodson peppers her script with easy bromides, flat speeches, one-dimensional characters and crass tearjerker moments, in a manner that, ironically enough, betrays the tough-minded spirit of her original book.  Jennifer L. Nelson's broad direction condescends to her intended audience of children, most of whom seemed bored and restless at the performance I attended.  Production values are excellent, as one would expect from the Kennedy Center, but on the whole, this Locomotion goes nowhere fast.

Sanctified:  Book by Javon Johnson, original music by Rollo Dilworth and Raymond Reeder.  Directed by Derrick Sanders.  Lincoln Theatre (near U St./Cardozo Metro Station) through November 14.  Two hours and fifty minutes, including 15-minute intermission.  Tickets $37-$47 plus service and facility charges.  For tickets, call (202) 397-SEAT or visit www.ticketmaster.com.  For more information, call (202) 328-6000, or visit www.letsgetsanctified.com or www.thelincolntheatre.org.

Locomotion:  Adapted by Jacqueline Woodson from her Newbery Honor Award-winning book.  Directed by Jennifer l. Nelson.  Kennedy Center Family Theater, October 23-31.  70 minutes, no intermission.  For tickets to Kennedy Center performances, visit www.kennedy-center.org or call Instant Charge at (202) 467-4600.

Teachers' Union Cites Me in Anti-Robert Hurt TV Ad

When, wearing my "Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner" hat as a political writer for Examiner.com, I interviewed state Senator Robert Hurt (R-Chatham) a few days after he won the GOP nomination for Congress in Virginia's Fifth District, what was most striking about the candidate's replies to questions was their blandness.

When asked, for instance, to name three federal programs that he would favor eliminating or privatizing, Hurt could think of only one, the Department of Education, whose purpose, he said, was "not clear."

Such a response was both non-controversial and disappointing. Non-controversial, because eliminating the federal Department of Education has been a goal of the Republican Party since at least 1980. Disappointing, because his answers showed Hurt to lack bold thinking about how best to limit -- or shrink -- the size and scope of the federal government.

So it came as quite a surprise when, months later, the National Education Association began to air a TV ad favoring Hurt's opponent, incumbent Congressman Tom Perriello, and attacking Hurt for those very positions he took in his interview on Examiner.com.

In fact, the NEA cited the "Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner, 6/13/10" in its campaign commercial, which has been broadcast frequently on local Charlottesville television stations (NBC29, Newsplex) for about two weeks. In the meantime, it has had just 357 hits on YouTube since it was posted there on October 19.  (By comparison, a rough-hewn, meant-for-TV ad posted by independent candidate Jeff Clark has had 360 hits since September 28.  For contrast, check out Hurt's first on-the-air ad, which has had 1,435 hits on YouTube since August 24.)

Here's the NEA's ad, which runs 31 seconds in length (and seems interminable in its frequency on local television):

The NEA's television commercial does not cite my earlier interview with Hurt, in which he asserted that Tom Perriello "dances with Nancy," referring to the current Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).  Nor does it cite my interview with Perriello himself, in which he made strange claims to having a "libertarian undercurrent" in his political thinking, or the refutation (one might say "refudiation") of Perriello by actual, local libertarians.

Whether the NEA's ad discourages voters from casting a ballot for Hurt because they disagree with his position on the Department of Education, or whether it encourages other viewers to vote for him because they agree with that position, remains to be seen in the results of the election on November 2.

The fact that the nationwide teachers' union finds Examiner.com -- still a newcomer to the media stage -- a reliable and credible source speaks volumes about the positive potential of this publishing platform.

(This blog post is adapted slightly from an earlier article on Examiner.com.)

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