patrickmurfin

                     One of several logos in use.                           Protesting MINUTEMAN racists in San Diego.

            Let’s see, when the Illinois MINUTEMAN PROJECT was looking for a place to hold their Klavern—sorry—“seminar” it must have sounded something like this:

            “How about CRYSTAL LAKE?

                        Tried to ban GAY GAMES—Check.

                        Banned PEACEGROUP from parade—Check.

                        KU KLUX KLAN rallied in county in the ‘90’s—Check.

                        MILITIA MOVEMENT recruited in county then too—Check.

                        Near-by CARPENTERSVILLE tried to set English only rule.—Check.

                        Local letters to the editor columns filled with anti-Hispanic vitriol.—Check.

                        HOLIDAY INN has largest meeting facilities in the area—Check.

            Bingo!  We have a winner!”

            Yes, another proud moment for my home town.  The NORTHWEST HERALD reported Monday that the Illinois Minuteman Project will be holding a seminar at the Holiday Inn on August 25th.  The topic will be “encouraging” local law enforcement to co-operate with the IMMIGRATION AND NATURALIZATION SERVICE, now a wholly owned subsidiary of the DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURTIY.  SHERIFF DAN BECK of Allan County, Ohio, who has been riding high as a “run-‘em-out-of-Dodge” tough guy will be the principle speaker.  He advocates “aggressive patrolling”—stopping everyone with a deep sun tan and checking for identification—and turning over “suspects” to the INS for deportation.

            As usual the Illinois Minutemen trotted out their Latina Minutewoman R0SANNA PULIDO.  While it is possible to find long time residents of Mexican heritage who are resentful of the wave of undocumented immigrants, few are willing to hitch their stars an organization with known links to extremist skinhead, Klan, and neo-Nazi groups.  But such brown faces are so valuable to the organization to counter accusations of racism that they will go to any lengths to recruit them and elevate to high profile positions.

            Let me be crystal clear.  I do not want to do anything to interfere with the FIRST AMENDMENT free speech rights of the Minutemen to meet, speak or protest.  Let ‘em do it.  Buy I reserve my free speech rights to call them out for the racist scum that they are.

            I am sure you will be hearing more about this.

Poll #1010888
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 0

How do you like your blog?

          When I started HERETIC, REBEL, A THING TO FLOUT a year and a half ago, I imagined that I would regularly review and comment of the news of the day, then rise to the ranks of the big boys (and girls) who become blog-o-sphere super stars—ass kissed by politicos caught up in the promise of the activist base and fawned over by the established pundocrocacy that once scorned them.

            No such luck. This blog remains pretty much as I described it in a very early post—“the little lemonade stand at the far end of the cul-de-sac in February.”  We count our readership in the dutiful dozens, spiking upwards into the scores when our reporting here hits a local (McHENRY COUNTY) nerve—the GAY GAMES controversy or the current dust up among the CRYSTAL LAKE GALA, McHENRY COUNTY PEACE GROUP, and the McHENRY COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

            It’s easy to see why.

            First, I set this thing up on LIVEJOURNAL, a distant third to MYSPACE and FACEBOOK as of a social networking site and only tangentially a blog host.  It flies under the radar of many blog aggregators specialized search engines.  That makes it really hard for folks who are not introduced first hand to find it.  But, hey, I am a technological idiot and have at least figured out how to use this platform.  Plus I am too lazy to haul it over to somewhere else and too cheap to pay for anything.

            Second, with two jobs and multiple volunteer responsibilities, I could never maintain the sheer pace necessary to keep up with all of the news.

            Third, by the time I was ready to write about something about a jillion other folks had already said the same thing I would, very often much better than I could..  Following the practice of some bloggers, I could just link to all the good stuff I find (and thus encouraging mutual links back here), but I wanted this site to be an original voice.  Besides, I figured that most of my readers were already looking at many of the alternative sources I do—ALTERNET, TRUTHOUT, TOM PAINE, DEMOCRATS.COM, HUFFINGTON POST, DAILY KOZ, etc.

            And fourth, as advertised, this blog is truly eclectic—and often obscure.  Any reader whose eyes have glazed over upon encountering one of my seemingly interminable posts on, say, military history or UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST minutia will know what I am talking about. One has to have both infinite patience and a specialized interest to wade through them.  Then there’s that damn poetry.  Sometimes I can almost hear the groans coming back at me through the computer.  There are a lot of announcements for McHenry County organizations for whom I am the designated flack—at least I know one place where the press releases will get published. 

            All in all, not the kind of stuff that will build a general readership.  I understand.  I really do

            But in the interest of building that wider readership without abandoning all of the quirks that make this blog adorable in the same way as the WORLD’S UGLIEST DOG, I will try an experiment today.  I am going to post three short pieces in the more traditional blog format.  Read them below.  Then, vote in the poll at the begining of this entry.  Do you like a more conventional blog format with short, newsy posts loaded with links or do you prefer the current mix aimless ramblings, over-the-top bloviation, bulletin board announcements, and god-only-knows-what-else-swept out from under the bed?

Hot. Sizzling hot. Bacon frying on the sidewalk hot. Hot enough for the most fervid wet dreams of eternal damnation cherished by the handful of protestors and “Christian witnesses” who turned out for the Gay Games rowing events in Crystal Lake.

Despite the dour signs wired to the snow fence surrounding the “Designated Free Speech Zone” across the street from Main Beach Park and a cluster of folks—all men--passing tracts and waving the Bible, the mood at the event was friendly, casual, even joyous. Taking advantage of ample shade and a semi-refreshing breeze off of Crystal Lake itself, certainly more than a thousand folks stretched south of the beach area for about three hundred yards to the area where the sleek racing shells were launched. They drank plenty of icy water and peered out toward the center of the lake to try to make out the racers and decipher results.

It took some persistence to get here. The Gay Games rowing events became emotional flashpoints at a series of public meetings of the Park District, City of Crystal Lake and Village of Lakewood late last winter into early spring. At first a tied Park District vote, against the strong support of the professional staff, turned down a request from the Crystal Lake Rowing Club to host the rowing events of the Gay Games on the lake. Our usually quiet and obscure ex-urban community became an object of national scorn for its seeming clueless bigotry. The Park District reversed itself when the board president returned from a Mexican vacation and broke the tie by supporting the games. Despite some further protest and with the vocal support of the local media including the NORTHWEST HERALD and DAILY HERALD newspapers, the city and village fell into line.

Since then all pubic bodies worked closely with game officials and the Crystal Lake Rowing club to make sure the event came of smoothly and safely. Almost 30 officers from the Park District Police, Crystal Lake and Lakewood departments, and the Illinois State Police were on hand for crowd control to separate protestors should trouble break out. None did.

Belying the hysterical claims of event opponents, Gay kooties were not noticeably spread in the lake. Flamboyant drag queens were notable by their absence. Sodomy was not practiced in the bushes. No children were corrupted. In fact local “civilians” out to enjoy the beach, picnic, or watch their children frolic in the playground, melded seamlessly with Gay Games athletes, volunteers, and spectators.

It was difficult to actually see the events from the shore. Racing lanes were laid out in the center of the lake and to the unaided eye the boats resembled water bugs scampering across the surface. Multiple teams participated in several events from single on up to six person crews. Teams were both avowedly gay and regular club and university teams competing just like in any other regatta. This isn’t the sports pages, so I can’t give you any results. But I can tell you this. One hundred degree weather or not, the real winners of the rowing events of the Gay Games in Crystal Lake were our communities themselves.

Bereft of a professional camera or telephoto lenses, I was not able to get any useable pictures of the competition. But enjoy this gallery of representing atmosphere of the event.

All photos by Patrick Murfin.

Moments before the regatta was scheduled to begin a pitiful handful of protesters huddled for shade in the parched "DesignatedFree Speech Zone” behind placards wired to the fence. I don’t care if they are bigoted pin heads, the idea of a “Free Speech Zone” frosts my nuts.

 
A women’s team prepares to launch their shell

 
Down the pier they go, headed for deep water.

 
Crystal Lake Rowing Club President Walt Gary (in tie dye), the busy major domo of the regatta, consults with an athlete before the first race.  Walt is also a member of the Congreational Unitarian Church, which offered strong support of the games during the earlier controversy.

 
Two five person shells head out to the mid-lake racing lanes.

 
One team relaxes under their own pavilion prior to the races.

A small portion of the large crowd observes from the shaded shore line.

On my way out, I spotted this enthusiastic Bible thumper on the sidewalks just outside the main entrance to the Main Beach Park.  Somehow he had escaped the “Free Speech Zone” and was raving loudly about the fate of sinners.  Several near-by police ignored him, as did most of the Gay Games spectators and supporters entering the park.  I bet he ended his day voiceless and near heat prostration.  I just wanted to give him some cold water, point him to some shade and advise him to chill out.  

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            The fallout over the rowing events of the Gay Games coming to Chicago continues.  Today’s NORTHWEST HERALD (May 26) reports that Crystal Lake Rowing Club facilities have been repeatedly vandalized.  The Rowing Club is the local sponsor of the event and brought it to the Park District.

            Ironically the Club’s storage shed and pier are located at Naoki Kamijima Park on the west side of Crystal Lake.  The park was named in honor of the memory of the owner of a nearby local convenience store who was murdered a few years ago in a well publicized hate crime spree.

            Park District Police noted that although some vandalism is not uncommon in local parks, there was none at all last year at Kamijima Park.  Early in May someone attempted to disassemble the club’s pier.  On May 16 a police report noted that feces were smeared on a club lock.  The following day and attempt was made to break another lock and the path from a storage shed to the pier was strewn with broken glass.  A syringe was also found at the site that day, but police doubt that it was related to the vandalism.

            The Rowing Club’s high school program participants found the glass and helped to remove it.  Club President Walt Gary expressed special concern about the glass because, “that’s a beach and little kids play there.”

            Gary is reluctant to blame the vandalism on Games opponents without proof, “I just want it to stop.”

            Park District officials see a clear connection.  Park District Director Kirk Reimer opined that “Some one out there has a bone to pick.”  If so it would not be the first vandalism to Park District property due to the games.  A sign at Park Place, the facility where hearings on the Games were held, was vandalized by spray paint earlier.

            Controversy over the games has never, as some had hoped, subsided.  The NORTHWEST HERALD prints several letters a week opposed to or in support of the games.  Local religious groups and “Pro-Family” activists are still planning large scale protests at the Games on July 16.  It is also being used by right wing activists and Republican politicians circulating a petition to put an anti-gay marriage advisory referendum on the state-wide ballot this fall.

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The rowing events of the Gay Games have cleared their last hurdle.  The Village of Lakewood, which shares the shores of Crystal Lake with the City, approved the waiver of boat decal fees for the day and the adoption of extended no-wake hours at its meeting last Tuesday.

Following the example of the City, the Village clamped down on divisive discussion about gays.  That does not mean the measure proceeded without controversy.  Village residents, many of whom have lake shore homes with docks, have been traditionally jealous of their lake privileges and hostile to “outsiders” invading their stately privacy.  And many residents voiced objections along those lines.

But with ample evidence that the board had routinely extended similar accommodations to events on the lake approved by the Park District, trustees had little choice but to accede.  To do otherwise, after the widely acknowledged public controversy, would have left them open to legal action for violating the State Human Relations Act.

The village president and one other trustee managed to be absent for the meeting and thus never committed to a vote on the record.  Some anti-Gay forces have openly called for the ouster of any public officials who voted for the games and are planning to field candidates in the next Park District and municipal races.  The remaining 5 trustees voted to approve the games by a 4-1 margin.

Following the vote Crystal Lake Rowing Club President Walt Gary, who is helping to coordinate the event with Gay Games officials, noted that a lot of preparation is now needed for the games.  Large numbers of local volunteers will need to be recruited and security plans drawn up with local police agencies.  Protests and “mass evangelization” has already been promised by anti-gay activists and church leaders.

The races will be held on Sunday, July 16^th.

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And now for another chapter in that ongoing soap opera—The Gay Games Come to Crystal Lake.

When we left our story, the Crystal Lake Park District reversed its self on the vote of the Board President, who had been absent for the first meeting.  It was that vote, turning down the use of Crystal Lake for a rowing event of the Gay Games this summer that catapulted this sleepy suburb to national attention.  The first vote came after semi-hysterical residents claimed that Gays would corrupt their children and perhaps even contaminate the Lake with Aids.  Not a pretty sight.

The revote was an epic struggle with impassioned speeches for and against the event.  See earlier posts on this blog for details.

Since that vote anti-Gay forces have been crying foul in letters to the editor.  They maintain that the re-vote should not have been allowed.  In their own web sites and e-mail lists, they buzz with rumors of vile conspiracies and plot electoral and personal vengeance against Park Board officials that crossed them and local Municipal official who maintained that their own decisions on the Games would not be based on any consideration for or against homosexuality or homosexuals.

The first test of that resolve played on Tuesday before the Crystal Lake City Council.  Narrowly at issue was the kind of traffic and police issues related to any public event.  Mayor Aaron Sheppley warned the crowded meeting that public comments would be strictly limited to the issues at hand:  setting special no wake periods on the lake for safety, closing a short section of Lake Shore Drive (not to be confused in any way by the much grander thoroughfare in Chicago) to accommodate boat launching and retrieval, and a waiver of the usual $15 annual user decal required on the lake. 

Sheppley succeeded in doing just that. Pro and anti event advocates were warned once each that no debate on Gay issues would be allowed.  Both sides then crouched their comments in the terms of the debate.  The antis tried to make the case that the event should be disallowed because the accommodations required were an undue burden on local residents.  But since similar accommodations are routinely made for all sorts of events on Park District property, the argument did not hold water.

In the end opponents were only able to chip away a bit on the edges.  No wake times were reduced by an hour.  Races will have to be run crisply and effectively, but Games officials are sure they can be held.  The loading and unloading times and sticker waiver were unchanged.  In the end the vote was 6-1.  Council member Jeffrey Thorsten dissented but said he did so only because he wanted an additional one hour reduction of the no-wake period.

The vote attracted wide local media attention.  TV trucks from most Chicago stations were on hand with live stand-ups during the 10 O’clock news.  The Wednesday front page on the NORTHWEST HERALD, the local daily with the widest McHenry County circulation, featured the lead headline and two photos.  One picture featured Games supporter, The Rev. Dan Larsen of the Congregational Unitarian Church (conflict of interest alert—my church and damn proud of it.)

A final vote over other arrangement must be held by the Lakewood Village Board.  A regular board meeting is scheduled for next Tuesday, but an agenda has not yet been posted.  The Village President hopes to mirror the Crystal Lake debate.

But even without the introduction of Gay issues, Lakewood may be a tougher nut to crack than the City.  The race course is laid out largely within the Village boundary.  And the Village has a history of resenting no wake restrictions—many villagers are lakeshore property owners with private piers and motor boats.  In the past they have regarded the right to speed in those boats absolutely unfettered to be the most precious liberty prescribed by the Bill of Rights.  They have gone to virtual civil war with both the Park District and the City of Crystal Lake over proposed restrictions.  Wealthy Lakewood residents have even bankrolled Crystal Lake Council candidates who would not interfere with their God given right to swamp canoes and fishing skiffs in their speedboats.

They also often complain when the common rabble show up to events like the Lakeside and Gala Festivals, two back to back summer festivals held near the lakeshore each of which attracts thousands of visitors.  These festivals take up the two weekends prior to the Gay Games and some residents are already complaining that the Games will further restrict their enjoyment of the lake.

Still, Village official routinely approve special event requests.  Failure to do so this time will undoubtedly result in a very expensive law suit buoyed by extensive evidence of bias against gays created by the earlier controversy.  Betting is that the Village will fall in line with the City and Park District and the Games will go on officially unhindered.

You can be you will hear it here.

Meanwhile “Christians” are planning for mass protests and/or evangelical witness.  Several ministers have said they play to try to save the souls of unfortunate gays and lesbians by personally and repeatedly offering the chance to repent and come to Jesus.

What would have been a relatively small event of a few dozen athletes and a couple of hundred observers using a portion of the lake one weekend day is now guaranteed to become a major media event with both side mobilizing their supporters to turn out in force.  This, in turn, will strain the budgets and police departments of the City, Village, and Park District.  Support from the McHenry County Sheriff or other law enforcement agencies may be required.  We’ll let you know.

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Just today an aquaintance let me know that I had shown up in a Google search about the Crystal Lake Gay Games controversy.  Not only were my own blog entries on the subject noted, but so were refrences on Cal Skinner’s McHenry County Blog.  Since Cal was kind enough to help readers find my blog, I thought I would return the favor.

A big part of Cal’s time is now evidently spent on the McHenry County Blog.  The man must never sleep.  At least during the recent election period and during the controversy over the Gay Games, and the High School newspaper censorship dust-up (see my next blog entry for more info on that) Cal managed to make multiple lengthy posting daily.  He is a regular source of the red meat that keeps Conservatives agitated, outraged, and angry at all times, sort of a local Bill O’Rielly.  It is frankly flattering and encouraging that such a busy man would bother with the likes of me even in passing.

And it was very much in passing.  Both entries mentioning me were made on March 2^nd,

early in the controversy over the Gay Games.  The first makes passing reference to my blog entry “Don’t Let the Religious Right Kill the Gay Games in Crystal Lake.”  After quoting the concluding sentence of my letter on the topic to the Crystal Park District, Cal wrote:

Murfin describes himself as “an active member of the Industrial Workers of the World.” He is a member of the Congregational Unitarian (which he also describes as the “Unitarian Universalist)” Church and President of the Interfaith Council for Social Justice in McHenry County, according to his web entry.

Although benign sounding, that entry contains a couple of the little tricks that are evidently taught to conservative commentators in some intense training camp somewhere.  First is a selective quote from my blog profile.  By placing the quotation marks one word to the left of the verb in the original sentence he makes it appear that I am still a member of that notoriously dangerous bunch of reds, the IWW.  In fact the original quote said “was an active member…”  Not that I am at the least embarrassed by my association with the fighting union, but in point of fact I have not been a member since the early 1980’s, before I moved to Crystal Lake in 1985.

 
Secondly is the wonderfully sinister sounding insinuation that I am somehow misrepresenting my religious affiliation—“…a member of the Congregational Unitarian (which he also describes as the 'Unitarian Universalist') Church."  As some one who has been on the scene in McHenry County all of his life and who supposedly is conversant with religion, Cal surely knows that the Congregational Unitarian Church is the name of my Woodstock Congregation (a congregation dating to 1866 by the way and celebrating the Centennial of its current building).  The congregation is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA.)  This is not something we try to hide.  In fact we proudly proclaim this association.  For more than a decade I have personally prepared worship notes for the congregation that appear in the local press and send out other press material.  We regularly identify our UUA affiliation.

His next post wins a prize for either high paranoia or shameless pandering in the time honored tradition of Joe McCarthy.  Click here for the full text of “Gay Games Intrigue Getting Curiouser and Curiouser.”

 In it he describes learning how Off Square Music has booked Judy Small to perform at the Congregational Unitarian Church “the night before the date of the Gay Games…”  Small, he reports, once recorded a gay themed CD. Ergo this is evidence of a long term plot and collusion by the church to exploit the games by packing crazed but paying perverts, who will be flooding the county for the games, into the performance.

There are a number of problems with this scenario.  First, as Cal himself acknowledges, the concert was booked months ago, long before the controversy over the rowing events erupted in Crystal Lake. He papers over this with vague recollections that the games were being planned last August.  Indeed, they were, after a dispute with Toronto over who would host the events.  But discussions of the rowing component did not begin for months.  In fact Crystal Lake was identified as a potential site rather late so that the application had to be rushed to meet Park District deadlines.  In other words there was no connection between the booking of the show and the Games at all and Cal knows it perfectly well.

Additionally, Off Square Music is totally independent of the Congregational Unitarian Church.  They have been producing folk concerts at various venues for several years.  For the past two years they have rented the church for their monthly concerts.  The church has a similar arrangement with for concerts sponsored by the Woodstock Folk Festival, and occasionally rents to other musical events like recitals.

In Cal Skinner’s mind the butt-buggering, baby-murdering, family destroying Christ killing, atheist, Bin Ladin loving, Bush hating, communist conspiracy is a well oiled machine capable of stupendous feats of organization.  It must be our long apprenticeship under our masters, The Elders of the Protocols of Zion and the Council on Foreign Relations.  Yeah, that’s it.

Cal sure convinced one loyal reader.  Donna Clasen posted the following comment on the blog:

I just don't know how that man can be called a Pastor. What is the Unitarian Church? It's like the church of nothing and everything. Someone should look into them further and see about that "church" losing its tax exempt status.

Well, of course I’m not a Pastor nor ever claimed to be.  No matter.  Mere facts mean nothing.  What is interesting is her call for an investigation into our “church” (note quotation marks.)  We should evidently lose our tax exempt status for speaking our mind.  Never mind the Skinner’s own blog reproduces official statements from other local churches opposing the games.  That alright.  They have God on their side while the Unitarians are at best apostates.  It is this mindset of intolerance, which identifies opponents as not just mistaken, but actively evil. As sworn “enemies of God” we deserve no civil rights. 

Cal might claim that Clasen’s sentiments are not his own.  Maybe.  But he cannot demure from calculatingly encouraging them.

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