2006 Reidsville Christmas Parade

Last night at about 6:30, the 2006 Reidsville Christmas Parade - the first-ever night-time Christmas parade in the city's history - kicked off. The parade organized in the Pennrose Mall/Turner Drive part of town and progressed down Scales Street toward the downtown area. And Lisa and I were there to watch it all. Actually since it was WGSR Star 39 - the TV station that I work at - who was in charge of the parade this year, I've been able to watch everything behind the scenes about it for the past few months now. I spent a few hours yesterday afternoon helping with getting floats situated in the staging area. And I could have taken part in the parade... but I chose instead to watch it with Lisa.

Okay well, on with the pics!

This first pic is of Ken Echols, co-host of WGSR's popular Monday Night Live. Ken should not be confused with his neer-do-well brother Fred Echols who is sometimes heard on the radio...

Here's Lisa. Now I wish that I'd gotten her to take my pic too while we were there. Since it was cold and some headgear was called for, I wore my fedora to the event.

Ken Echols and Mark Childrey - the hosts of Monday Night Live - perched atop the scaffolding from which they were doing live TV commentary about the parade. The WGSR crew was up 'til 5 a.m. Saturday morning, then got a few hours sleep and was soon back at it later Saturday morning getting everything ready to televise the parade live. I've never seen a city street covered with so much cable. Anyway, Ken and Mark were in fine form as usual last night.

Looking down the street toward the direction the parade would come in from.

The man who put it all together: WGSR Star 39 General Manager Charles Roark. Charles had been working for months getting this parade together. He was running one of the cameras down on the street last night.

It was sometime after 7 when the parade reached the downtown area, headed up by a police cruiser followed by these JROTC cadets.

Calvin and Lisa Phelps, the Grand Marshals of the 2006 Reidsville Christmas Parade. It was Calvin Phelps who bought and re-opened the Chinqua-Penn Plantation... something that a lot of people around here thought would never happen again.

Local singing sensation Cindy Price. That car looked hot! Cindy doesn't look too bad herself :-)

The Reidsville Senior High School Marching Band. Conspicuously absent was the Rockingham County Senior High band: believe it or not the administration of RCSH (my alma-mater) wouldn't let their band perform in the parade this year... because they believed it wouldn't be safe for the kids to be out that late at night! I'm not going to comment any further on how ridiculous a thing it was to keep the RCSH band out. But the RSH band played well.

A pack of Cub Scouts.

The Rockingham Theater's float. After the parade the Rockingham Theater (which is located just across the street from where were were standing) had a free showing of It's A Wonderful Life. We didn't go watch it though. Sometime I need to check out the Rockingham Theater again: the first and only time I've ever been in there was when Alien 3 came out in 1992. Maybe if/when my next movie is finished we can premiere it there :-)

Layne's Brothers Pharmacy had their entire flotilla of delivery vehicles scattered across the length of the parade. Alright all together now: "What time is it? IT'S TIME FOR A LAYNE CHANGE!" The brothers never fail to deliver that pun every time they're in the studio doing their show :-)

This next photo requires some explaining to those not from around here. This is part of the Williams-Trull entry. Williams-Trull is a business in Reidsville that sells tractor parts and lawn mowers. This sign - the one saying "MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM THE FAMOUS SIGN" - has been outside their location for a long time. Well, earlier this year the City of Reidsville started fining them a ton for having an "illegal" sign. It caused quite an uproar, especially when other businesses started getting fine notices in the mail too. Oddly enough, I inadvertently got pulled into the mess when The Baritones premiered and a lot of people noticed that the City of Reidsville had, per their own rules, placed an illegal sign at the Farmer's Market! Well anyway, I think it got resolved somehow but the folks at Williams-Trull couldn't resist making everyone laugh at the city for how it acted during this whole thing.

More of the Williams-Trull float.

Play Paint, a local paintball company. Its marchers were all wielding paintguns and doing fancy moves with them. I was reminded of the "Legitimate Businessman's Association" marchers with Fat Tony and the other Springfield mobsters in the parade from that episode of The Simpsons a few years back.

WGHP Fox 8's Brad Jones, talking to WGSR's Jessica Robinson.

Knutson Landscaping received First Place in the competition for best float. Among other things their float featured a mechanized reindeer pulling Santa out of a chimney.

I forget which dance troupe this is. But you see Charles in there with the camera? My pictures do it no justice: Charles was really boogying with the dancers last night!

The First Congregational Christian Church float.

I forget who had this float. It was really pretty though.

These guys were kewl! It was a group of skateboarders that marched in the parade. They stopped in front of the dignitaries and TV cameras and did some pretty amazing skateboard stunts. A few of them came close to wiping out and eating pavement... but all the same they amazed everyone watching with their tricks.

Cheryl's Dance Center, another dance troupe.

The Wentworth PTA float. I think they earned Third Place in the floats competition.

Ahhhh you knew these guys had to be in there somewhere: its them wacky Shriners! Some years they've come marching in playing band instruments and swinging swords. A few times they've driven carts. This year... they were on mini-motorcycles! They were definitely quite a crowd-pleaser.

More of the Shriners in action.

The Care Kids entry with a mounted group on horseback following close behind.

The High Sheriff of Rockingham County, Sam Page. He's looking pretty sharp on horseback with that Santa hat perched atop his cowboy hat.

Remember a few weeks ago when my photo appeared in The New York Times? Well, I'd been asked to be part of this float but I respectfully declined: I really did want to spend the parade watching it with Lisa instead. But the other two local school board candidates feature in the article - Richard Moore and Eric Smith - came in costumes from their respective commercials on the Neely Chronicle/Political Soup "Big Bad Political Car". The "motif" of this float was "Chosen NY Times Favorite School Board Candidates Who Don't Steal".

And here's another shot of Richard Moore as the "Big Bad Political Car" drove past.

And finally, the grand finale of the parade: Santa and Mrs. Claus! This was the big float that WGSR was sponsoring and I hadn't seen it until the actual parade last night, but I gotta say that's one of the fanciest floats I've seen in this town.

Here's a close-up of the Clauses.

And with that, the 2006 Reidsville Christmas Parade drew to a close. Mark Childrey echoed a sentiment shared by many there last night when he said that this was probably the best Christmas parade that Reidsville had ever put on. It was definitely the most unique in that it was at night, and there were some people wondering how this was going to work out... but when all was said and done, this parade was a rousing success!

Special thanks go out to Charles Roark, Matt Smith, Lori Martin, Debbie Moore, Jimmy DePalma, Jessica Robinson, Mark Childrey, Ken Echols, Tyler Richardson, Bobby Martin, Brandon Lantern, and everyone else who worked behind the scenes to pull it off.

And very special thanks to a lot of good people who I got to meet last night who told me that they'd voted for me :-)

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School board election: 4,648 is the new 4,584!

According to a story just up at the Reidsvile Review, with the canvass of votes for Rockingham County now in, it looks like I picked up some votes. For the past week and a half I've been proud of the 4,584 votes that was the "final tally" on election night. Well, after the canvass, it turns out that I got 4,648 votes.

Thank goodness I didn't go ahead with getting 4,584 tattooed on my chest like I've been threatening to do... :-)

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Just got back from the 2006 Reidsville Christmas Parade

This was by every possible stretch the best Christmas parade that Reidsville has ever put on... or at least the best one that I've ever seen. For the first time in history the parade this year was at night! I'll be uploading pics from it hopefully by sometime tomorrow.

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Now playing exclusively in Rockingham County, North Carolina...

(For anyone finding this and wondering what it's about, please read "An open letter about - and to - Ron Price".)

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The DHARMA Initiative targets Rockingham County

The lead article in today's Reidsville Review is titled "Futurist tells county like it is". Look at the photo that accompanies it:

It looks exactly like the emblem of the DHARMA Initiative from the TV show Lost:

Maybe there's a DHARMA station somewhere in Rockingham County. What would it be called, I wonder...?

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"Loser": News & Record reporter responds

In response to my initial e-mail regarding the use of "losing" when describing unsuccessful electoral candidates, Gerald Witt replied back:

Mr. Knight,

Thank you for reading the News & Record and for contacting me.

Two tenants of journalism are accuracy and brevity. Thus the choice of the words, "lose, lost, losing and loser."

This is a common descriptor for those who do not win elections or anything else, as defined in most dictionaries.

In writing, using "lose" makes more actively-worded sentences than the phrase "candidate who did not win an election." It's also more efficient and direct.

Thank you,

Gerald

I sent him back the following e-mail:

Gerald,
Simply using "unsuccessful" would more than suffice.

sincerely,
Chris Knight

To which he immediately provided a follow-up:

Ah, good point. I'll remember that.

Thank you,

Gerald

I'm heartened that Gerald got back to me, and that our conversation will lead him to reflect this in his reporting in the future. I like to think that however things work in the scheme of things, that his words will make a powerful connection in many people's minds... although I wish that connection didn't have to be made at all.

Maybe to most people, "losing" is synonymous with "not winning". Unfortunately I believe that this is the case with a lot of people who would otherwise consider running for public office: they fear that if they don't win, that this marks them down as "losers". When it's not that way at all: it only really becomes "losing" when a person has decided in his own mind that he is going to think of himself as "lost" if he doesn't come through all the way in an election.

General Nathaniel Greene did not "win" the Battle of Guilford Courthouse. Everyone knows that. But very, very few historians will argue that Greene did not guarantee American victory at Yorktown after his thorough thrashing of Cornwallis's forces. Does anyone dare label Nathaniel Greene as a "loser" in the history books?

Conversely, Adolf Hitler won election in the largest margin of victory in German history. I doubt that in hindsight many people nowadays are going to be quick to call that a "victory" by any stretch.

Within the concept of a game for sake of the game itself, there is such a thing as "losing". But you only really "lose" in life if you don't even try. And the worst kind of losing is not choosing to try at all even when you know that something is wrong and won't get any better unless you do try.

There are very few who do actually win. There are many more who do not win. But sadly there are vast too many who do not even bother to play...

...And they are the only ones who really "lose" in life.

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"Losing" an election, and what I'll do if Price vacates his seat

The News & Record today runs an article about the Ron Price situation. It's written by Gerald Witt. And Witt gets something wrong in his write-up here: I don't believe this was intentional, but he conveys the sense that a lot of us who are pursuing this thing with Price are doing it because we "lost" the election.

I don't believe any of us "lost" in last week's election, and I wrote about this at much further length a few weeks before election day. A democratic republic is not supposed to be run as if it's a sporting event. And the sooner we move past this mentality that it's this "us versus them/winner takes it all baby" thing, the better off we're all going to be.

Here's part of the e-mail I sent Witt about this...

Dear Gerald,
I just read your article about the Ron Price situation. Just a suggestion: in the future you may wish to use "unsuccessful" instead of "losing" when referencing candidates who did not win an election. I've thought about this a lot over the past few months: anyone who appeared on the ballot who did not win a seat did not "lose" the election. It simply means that they did not get enough votes to achieve a seat. "Losing" is something that happens in a game because one person did not exert as much skill or strategy as the person who won. And the democratic process is anything but a game. Or it's *supposed* to be a lot more than a game anyway. When you think about it, there really is a difference between "losing" a game and "not winning" an election. Those of us who were candidates who did not win seats offered our services, were considered by the voters and were politely turned down: "losing" doesn't figure into that at all. I for one didn't "lose" this election: I just came about 700 votes from acquiring a seat... and I'm still rather shocked that I got the number of votes that I *did* get :-)

To use the word "losing" so much implies that because we "lost the game", that the candidates who are raising this issue about Ron Price have some kind of axe to grind. That because we *weren't* successful, we're now using this to "vent our rage" on Ron Price.

That's not it at all. And I've already said that I'm not going to pursue Price's seat if he vacates it. For me personally, I don't want to see such a bad example set for the students of Rockingham County if Price takes this seat and somehow thinks that that's going to smooth over the fact that he broke the law...

I've mentioned this to other news outlets but it hasn't been picked up yet, so I'll repeat it here: I'm not going to be pursuing the seat on the school board if Ron Price vacates it (and if he's interested in doing the right thing then he will). If it opens up, mine will not be one of the names nominated to fill it... or at least I won't be applying for the nomination personally anyway. It was my desire to win a seat by popular vote. In my mind, this isn't the right way at all for me to achieve that. I would rather it go to someone much more deserving of the position. If another election is held for school board, I will run again... but that's the only way that I'm going to even try to win a seat.

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Ron Price is issued criminal summons over signs

Breaking now on Reidsville Review/Eden Daily News/other Media General newspapers:

Price summoned over signs

Jennifer Williams
Staff Writer
Friday, November 17, 2006

A criminal summons has been issued for school board member-elect Ron Price. Price is accused of injuring an advertisement, a misdemeanor.

Body: A criminal summons has been issued for school board member-elect Ron Price. Price is accused of injuring an advertisement, a misdemeanor. The summons guarantees that Price will be present for his 9 a.m. Nov. 30 court date.

On Monday, Nov. 7 Price was seen taking Brad Miller campaign signs along N.C. 14. Officers found seven road signs in Price's trunk. Both Miller's campaign and the Democratic headquarters declined to press charges against Price.

Debra Moore filed the complaint and Vernon Gammon is listed as a witness. Debra Moore is the wife of Richard Moore, narrowly failed school board candidate. It was reported in the Nov. 8 issue of The Reidsville Review that Gammon, the spokesman for Teamsters Local 391 and Miller supporter, witnessed Price taking the signs. Moore said "as the wife of a candidate" people taking signs "just really burns me up." Moore also told the newspaper that she supported Miller.

Price was elected to fill one of Rockingham County School's five newly created seats the day following the sign incident. Since then several unsuccessful candidates including Penny Owens, Christopher Knight, and Eric H. Smith, have publicly called for Price to step down. Several candidates have published their letters to the web. Owens, who says she has attended school board meetings and work sessions consistently for six years, lobbied for the five new seats to be created.

According to Sheriff's office representative Dean Venable, the complaint was issued Nov. 13. The complete official report was not released prior to press time. Venable said the complete report would be released after the paper work had been completed.

Price did not return phone calls from the newspaper.

Staff writer Jennifer Williams can be reached at jwilliams@reidsvillereview.com or (336) 349-4331.

Earlier tonight I received word that the Ron Price story may be about to break out bigtime. If/when it does I'll be posting the appropriate links here.

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Unconscionable

As my grandmother used to say: "It's not the whole world gone mad... just the people in it."

When bidding ended it sold for $3,600.

Not that it's really my business that someone is willing to pay thirty-six hundred dollars for a PlayStation 3. But this really does seem to be materialism at its worst to me. The Xbox 360 has been out for a year but it'll probably still be another year before we get one: by then it'll be a lot more inexpensive, many more games will have been published for it, and at that point most if not all of the bugs will have been ironed out. To buy a high-end game system - or any other sophisticated piece of electronics - at launch is to welcome all the technical glitches that are probably still in the product.

There's more important things in life than waiting in line for a week at the local Best Buy for a game console... that may not even be in stock anymore by the time you get to the counter. And someone doesn't need to have the latest bleeding-edge toys to have fun.

(Now, I probably wouldn't mind a crack at a Nintendo Wii: much lower-priced, and its controller is really one of the most innovative things I've seen come from the video-game industry in quite a while... but I can still hold off on getting one.)

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Ron Price now attempting to "scrub" his signs statements

If you go to Ron Price's blog there is nothing but a single post - also dated November 9th as the previous one about the "sign incident" - only this one is concerned with, of all things, "bio fuels" (here's the permanent link to the post). Apparently, Price is trying to hide his earlier comments regarding his being caught stealing the Ron Miller signs. Well, as of this writing you can still follow this link and read the original post he made last Thursday... but in case THAT goes missing I'm going to copy and paste the original text of his statement here for future reference:

Thursday, November 09, 2006

Sign Incident

On the eve of the elections I came across a wrong that had been committed, signs that I had put up were taken down and others put in their place. I tried to correct it by committing another wrong removing the signs that had been put in the place of my signs. Two wrongs do not make a right.

For my actions I am truly sorry and I apologize to Congressman Miller, the Democrat Party and the citizens of Rockingham County. I know that neither Mr. Robinson nor Mr. Miller condone or support this type of action taken on their behalf by their supporters.

I thank Congressman Miller for not pressing charges and making an even bigger issue of this incident than it has already become. I cannot speak on the behalf of the others but my actions were not in accord with the Judeo-Christian Values that I cherish so much. I apologize to those who elected me and I pledge to serve you better as a member of the Rockingham County Board of Education.

posted by Ron Price | 5:41 AM

Ron, if you are reading this, I'm going to reiterate this once again: we no longer trust you to serve us on the Rockingham County Board of Education. You are fast proving to us that you have no intention of putting the needs of the students ahead of your own ambition. Sadly, I am beginning to wonder if you ever had their best interests at heart to even begin with. The longer you persist in your insistence that you will be seated on the board, the less honorable you are coming to be perceived as being.

There is a lot more that I could say about this matter, but I'm gonna hold off on that. For now.

EDIT 12:02 PM EST: Within a few minutes of my first posting this, the original "signs incident" post on Price's blog completely disappeared. So someone is reading this space, apparently.

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Teaser poster for HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX

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The very last Rocky trailer ever

"Ain't gonna be no rematch."

Punch here for the final trailer (in Quicktime) for Rocky Balboa.

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RUMOR CONTROL: Reidsville Police Chief puts end to stories surrounding Ron Price's car trunk

Throughout the day I've been trying to reach Ed Hunt, Chief of Police for the City of Reidsville. About thirty minutes ago Chief Hunt returned my call: I was really impressed that even at this late hour he got back in touch with me.

He and I made some pleasant conversation and then I brought to his attention the subject that I've spent much of this past day investigating. Since sometime yesterday the rumors have been flying that in addition to the seven Brad Miller campaign signs that school board candidate Ron Price had stolen, that several other signs belonging to other campaigns were also found in the trunk of his car on the night of November 6th (the evening before last week's general election). To say that this place has been rife with speculation about what exactly was in Ron Price's car trunk would be a severe understatement.

Chief Hunt actually called me twice in the last little while. The first time he told me that he wasn't aware of anyone else's signs that had been found in Price's trunk, but that he would check with the officers involved with the incident and probably get back to me on Friday. A few short minutes after that, Chief Hunt called me again and said he had just spoken with one of the officers (who was off-duty at home this evening): they had a very good look at the insides of Price's trunk and the only things in it were a stack of his own signs, some Vernon Robinson signs, a few Robinson bumper stickers and the Brad Miller signs that Ron had picked up. No other candidate's signs were in the trunk.

There we have it: verification from Reidsville Police Chief Ed Hunt that other than the materials related to his own and Robinson's campaigns, the only other campaign signs that were in Ron Price's trunk were the seven Brad Miller signs. The rumors can hopefully now cease.

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"Who's side are you on?"

Now, a different kind of humor from this past political season. There was a really tense race for District Attorney here between incumbent Belinda Foster and challenger Phil Berger Jr. I may weigh in on more about this further down the line but for now, all I'll say is that Berger deeply impressed me very early on.

Bit of background for this: since this past summer Marvel Comics has been running a massive crossover story titled Civil War. The plot involves compulsory registration of the superhero community by the federal government. Some heroes - like Iron Man and Spider-Man - came out in favor of registration (Peter Parker even revealed his secret identity before an international press conference) while others led by Captain America are against it. Suffice it to say this has led into one massive super-powered fisticuffs involving conflicting allegiances and rising bodycounts. The tagline of the series has been "Who's side are you on?" Well, when the series was just getting started Marvel Comics released some banner graphics saying "I'm with Iron Man" and "I'm with Captain America". Very rapidly, this became ripe for all kinds of parody.

I'd thought of posting this on the blog awhile back, but instead opted for neutrality until after the election. Now I wish that I had put it up here. But here it is now for your enjoyment...

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An open letter about - and to - Ron Price

RELEVANT BACKGROUND: On the evening of Monday, November 6th 2006, Rockingham County Board of Education at-large candidate Ron Price turned himself into the Reidsville Police Department and admitted having illegally taken campaign signs belonging to incumbent U.S. House candidate Brad Miller. The police found several Miller signs in the trunk of Price's car (OFFICIAL REPORT: Page #1, Page #2). Price claimed that he had seen several signs that had been knocked down that belonged to Vernon Robinson, the Republican challenger for Miller's seat and the candidate that Price had been campaigning for. Price then said that he took down several Miller signs because they were illegally placed along the road and was going to take them to the DOT. Curiously, Price replaced the Miller signs he had taken down with Robinson signs... in the same "illegal" locations.

And then the following night, Ron Price came in fifth place in the election for Board of Education. He is now set to be sworn into office on December 11th... in spite of committing this multiple misdemeanor.

You can read newspaper accounts of the incident: News & Record from Nov. 8th and the Eden Daily News from Nov. 8th. You can also read Mr. Price's own statement on his personal blog.

In the past week, I have been very much bothered by this situation that Mr. Price has put himself in. I do not believe that he is now fit to serve a term on the school board, and several other people have told me likewise.

I finished writing this letter yesterday afternoon. The first real thing I did with it was e-mail it to Ron Price. I tried calling him to tell him that this was coming but I could only get his answering machine. I told him that he had an e-mail from me, that in keeping with Matthew 18 I was taking this to him as a private matter first before taking it to "the full assembly". That if he wasn't convinced to step down by this morning that I would have to go ahead and publish it. And that I was very, very regretful that this had to be done.

He hasn't responded at all. So he's left me no choice: this now goes before "the church"...

---

Dear friends and neighbors throughout Rockingham County,

In the second commercial from my school board campaign, I told you that "most of all I'm just a guy who's trying to do what's right". I also said that I cannot be someone who would do nothing when he knows something is wrong. And that whether I won this election or not, I would do my best to point out what is going on around us. With this letter, I am regretfully now having to live up to those words.

In choosing to step forward to offer our services as possible members of the Rockingham County Board of Education, the sixteen of us who were candidates on the ballot effectively took a vow that we were going to look after the best interests of the students of Rockingham County. That vow did not become null and void effective November 8th, 2006, regardless of whether or not we won a seat on the school board. Indeed, each of us has now made a lifetime commitment to serve the children, whether by volunteer action or the simple virtue of our character.

I believe that the situation before us now is a test of that character, by which our children will rightfully come to judge us.

Over the course of the past several days I have been deeply troubled by the situation regarding school board member-elect Ron Price. At first I believed the better course would be to hold my peace. But considering that I gave a strong recommendation about Ron to many of my friends and family members, his actions have put me in the predicament of being faced with having to explain myself to these people... many of whom did cast a vote for Ron at my urging. In remaining silent, I am being perceived as complicit and approving of what Ron did. I cannot allow that. And thus, it falls to me to offer nothing but the strictest condemnation of Ron Price.

On the evening of November 6th, Ron Price decided in his mind and of his own free will that the good of his political party took priority over doing what is morally – and legally – right. He stole signs belonging to a political candidate that he was working to campaign against. And once caught in the act, he apparently concocted a story that to the best of my knowledge has convinced no one. Indeed, I found Ron's story to be petty and insulting.

Quite simply, here is the problem: if Ron Price is allowed to take a seat on the Rockingham County Board of Education, the message that is effectively being sent to all the children of Rockingham County is that it is okay to lie and cheat and steal and run roughshod over other people, so long as you are doing it in the name of your political party or some other group. In other words, we would be teaching them the antithesis of everything that America is supposed to stand for.

It seems like such a small thing. And yet as a historian I cannot help but recollect that most of the atrocities of Nazi Germany were committed because otherwise normal and conscientious and even God-fearing individuals voluntarily yielded their free will to that of the state. In the name of "the party" or "the state" it is all too easy for good men to excuse their slouching toward wickedness.

All of us know that this goes on all the time in this country. It's so routine that we are now inured to it. But it has to stop, if this country is to have any future worth passing on to our posterity.

But if it doesn't stop here and now, then where does it stop at all? And if not stopped by us... then by whom will it be?

Is gaining a personal political victory more important that simply doing the right thing and respecting others as you would have them respect you?

And I have to wonder: if Ron Price cannot be trusted to respect the property of others even if it is something so minor as a three-dollar sign, how is it reasonable that we should be expected to trust him with a $110 million budget?

The best thing that Ron Price could now do to serve the children of Rockingham County is to demonstrate first-hand that we are a nation of laws and not men... by voluntarily relinquishing his claim to having won a seat on the Rockingham County Board of Education.

Ron Price's actions have hopelessly polluted his credibility as a member of the school board. And if he continues to insist that he is going to take a seat, he will be doing irreparable damage to the moral education of the children of this county... a moral education that he has by the way promised to uphold in his capacity as a candidate with a Judeo-Christian ethic.

Ron, I'm directing this to you as your fellow candidate, as someone who has come to know you over the past few months, and as a fellow servant in Christ: you cannot take this seat. For the foreseeable future, your actions have tainted your elected position without the possibility of redemption. In our faith there is such a thing as forgiveness... but there also must be accountability for what we have done.

If you insist on taking this seat, you will be demonstrating to the students you will be swearing to serve that America is no longer a country where one's actions have consequences. This is supposed to be one of the virtues of the conservative philosophy, and throughout this campaign you have touted yourself as the "conservative candidate". Now its time for you to prove whether you are a man of your word.

But if you surrender your claim to the school board seat, you will be setting an example to the students of this county that will last far, far longer than anything you might do if you do take the oath of office. I don't believe that it would be something limited to Rockingham County either: you would be setting an example for young people all across the country for many years to come.

It's all in your hands now, Ron: you can either jealously hold onto something that is now no longer morally or ethically yours... or you can surrender, and let it fall to the ground so that God might let something even more wonderful than anything you can imagine grow from it.

Sir, I very strongly and sincerely urge you to graciously step down from the elected position you are apparently insisting on taking. You will be doing far more harm than any good you could possibly do if you take the oath of office and become a member of this school board.

The measure of a real statesman is how much he's willing to sacrifice personal gain for the good of his countrymen.

What about you, Ron: how much of a statesman are you willing to be?

And Ron, I mean this with every bit of sincerity: if you feel a calling to run for the school board again in two years or four and you believe it is indeed God laying that on your heart, then you should do so. I would definitely support your decision if you did.

But there is no way that I could support you on the school board now as I can with every other member who is either there now or about to take office. And I'm far from alone in that regard: a lot of people have confided in me during this past week that they simply can't trust you right now. At this point you are too self-blemished to hold public office… especially in one charged with carrying out the preparation of our youth to be the next generation of America's leaders.

Ron, step down. You may have the legal claim to the seat, but there's no way you could ever regain the moral authority to wield it with any sense of integrity.

Sincerely,
Chris Knight

November 13, 2006

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"I'll do it!"

The original suggestion comes about 35 minutes or so into the June 7th 2006 edition of Political Soup (Windows Media format). But if you want to hear the real declaration, start watching around 21 minutes into this one from July 19th.

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Following instructions

"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

-- Matthew 18:15-17

This may not be an assembly of fellow believers that we're dealing with, but I just wanted to let it be known before I unloaded this thing that I'm making a serious effort to adhere to what Jesus taught us to do in Matthew 18.

Very special thanks to my best friend Chad, who wisely counseled me to take this passage of scripture into consideration before going any further.

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"People should not be afraid of their governments..."

And yet there were some who thought that what I did with my first commercial was outrageous. Check this guy out...
A volunteer with the We The People Foundation dressed up like "V" - complete with plastic daggers - from the movie V for Vendetta and attempted to deliver petitions of grievance to the White House, the Justice Department and a few other places around Washington, D.C. It's pretty scary how this guy was confronted by the law enforcement types: in so many ways, they're shown in the video of the incident acting exactly like the jack-booted thugs in both the V for Vendetta graphic novel and movie. The issue of the petition has to do with whether the income tax is actually legal or not... and there's substantial evidence indicating that it wasn't even legally ratified like an amendment to the Constitution is supposed to be. Anyway, this appearance by "V" is being considered a "dry run" for November 14th, when supposedly a hundred "V"s will descend on Washington, much like what all those people did in one of the final scenes of the movie (which wasn't in the book by the way).

I think stuff like this is great! This is the same kind of thing that drove me to make my first commercial something of a "stunt": if it gets people thinking and in a good way, then there's no shame in doing it. Go read the Bible sometime: the prophet Jeremiah spent his entire life doing stuff like this to get people's attention to what God was trying to tell them. I think Jeremiah would heartily approve of using "V" like this, if it's addressing a real wrong. If you want to be part of We The People's mass "V" protest here's a page with info including where to find a complete "V" costume. This is all supposed to go down tomorrow: can't wait to see what happens.

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In Memoriam

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Behold... VENOM! Effects-unfinished SPIDER-MAN 3 trailer hits YouTube

"I'm here to ask you for one thing... I want you to kill Peter Parker."

So I guess Sam Raimi really doesn't like Venom, huh?

This should have been in the real official trailer for Spider-Man 3 that was released this past week.

There's no telling how long this effects-unfinished trailer is going to remain on YouTube. I'd give it another 3-5 hours if that long. If you want to hold on to it, remember: KeepVid is your friend!

EDIT 12:09 AM EST 11-14-2006: It lasted well over a day but I just checked and YouTube has since yanked the video at Sony's request. Which makes NO sense from a marketing point of view because... well, because people want Venom! If they had included that one very fleeting shot of him from this in the official trailer they put out last week, they would have jacked up the "wanna see" factor a dozen-fold. It's not like we don't know at this point whether Venom is in this... so why not tease us a bit with him?

Oh well... never underestimate the marketing genius that is Sony. Remember: this is the same outfit that took Star Wars Galaxies - which should have been a reliable moneymaker from now 'til the end of time - and thoroughly thrashed and gutted it into a pathetic shell of its former self. I'll trust Sam Raimi to do right by Spider-Man: Sony, not so much.

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Back to The Virginia Creeper

A little over a year ago in October 2006 I wrote about biking the Virginia Creeper trail. Well, today we did it again, once more with friends from our church. They had arrived yesterday afternoon and camped overnight last night not far from the bike rental place in Damascus, Virginia (in southwestern Virginia next to the North Carolina and Tennessee state lines). Lisa, her friend Tanya and her husband Jamie, and myself couldn't leave until this morning. So just after six Tanya and Jamie arrived in their minivan and we took off on the 3-some hour drive to Damascus.

About 20 minutes after we got there around 10 the group from church pulled into the driveway in the church van. After everyone got a bike, we shuttled to the top of Whitetop Mountain and started enjoying the steady ride downhill back to JC's Outdoors, the outfit that had provided the bikes. It took us about 3 hours this time to cover the 17 miles from mountaintop back to the "Ole Barn" where JC's is located at: a bit longer than it did last year. But this time Lisa and I really were enjoying the scenery a bit more, given the better weather than last time.

But anyway, we took a lot of pictures along the route. Here are just a few. I can't wait to see the ones that Lisa took after they get developed: there's some really beautiful stuff in there.

Okay, here's the pics from my digital camera...

Lisa and me from early on the trail.

Tanya and Jamie, also from early along the Virginia Creeper trail.

Lisa at the first waterfalls we came to.

The intersection of the Virginia Creeper and the Appalachian Trail. The Appalachian trail runs all the way from northeast Georgia in the south, to the mountains of Maine way to the north. We know some girls from church who actually hiked the entire Appalachian Trail a while back.

A pic tha Lisa took of me at the second waterfalls we came to. Those things in my ears are the earbud speakers attached to my MP3 player.

Scott Baxley, the associate and youth pastor of our church, at yet another waterfall.

On the way down I started off listening to Straight Outta Lynwood by "Weird Al" Yankovic. After that had played completely I used my MP3 player to listen to the soundtrack from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and then some modern classical stuff during the final leg of the journey. The very last thing that was playing on it was the soundtrack for Peter Jackson's King Kong: no matter what the movie is that Jackson makes, the music for his movies are always excellent for listening to while being part of the landsape (last year I listened to most of the soundtrack from The Lord of the Rings during the trip).

Anyway, that's my report on where we were today. If/when Lisa gets her pics back I'll try to remember to post those here, too :-)

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Campaign website updated

The official campaign website just got an update, and probably the last one. It's a letter I've written to my supporters and to those who cast their ballot for me. I really hope that I didn't forget anyone in this: there were so many people who helped in one way or another. If I committed the grievous error of omitting anyone, I will add them to the "thank you" section of the letter as soon as possible.

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The official theme song of the Knight for School Board 2006 campaign

Now that the campaign is over, I can finally let my hair down about some of the things during the past three months that were for the most part shared solely among "the staff".

F'rinstance, it was decided in mid-September that we had found the perfect theme song for the Knight for School Board 2006 campaign.

So here it is, courtesy of YouTube: the music video of "White and Nerdy" from the Straight Outta Lynwood album by "Weird Al" Yankovic...

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Home again: My campaign yard signs

I've been busy the past few days going around the county and picking up my campaign's yard signs. It's been a lot of work but I feel compelled to do it for two reasons: one, as an Eagle Scout I hold to the Boy Scout camping maxim of "leave it as you found it". Secondly, and most important to me personally: I love my yard sign! It's my first ever political sign so there's that "firstborn" thing going for it. A lot of people - including me - thought the little knight chesspiece logo was really cute: I might just have to "adopt" it as my personal lil' emblem. And call me crazy, but I'm really proud of my signs: they stood in pouring rain and blazing sunlight for weeks on end and faithfully served their purpose. I feel like I owe them a debt of gratitude. And who knows: a couple years from now I might be recalling them back into service.

Well anyway, it's important to me that I try and collect every one that was deployed out there. Most of them are now back in my possession and accounted for. I'm going to be headed out later this weekend to get some more. Sadly, more than a few have disappeared: I might get lucky and find some at the county DOT headquarters. But I fear that most of the missing have vanished like so many Argentinian dissidents. I found one poor sign shredded to bits along the side of Highway 14 near the Caswell County line. Very curiously, a lot of my signs - especially in the Eden area - were nowhere to be found when I went for them, even though the signs of several other candidates were still in the nearby vicinity. Because of that and some other things, I'm now reasonably sure that many of the signs were deliberately stolen... and not for sake of having them for souvenirs either.

I'm going to give it a few more days and see how many more turn up. And then, I've something special planned in memory of those missing in action. Tune in Monday or so to see what it is :-)

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Jack Palance dies at age 87

Darn. First Basil Poledouris, then Ed Bradley. Now this. Guess bad news really does come in threes. Jack Palance definitely lived a full life: who'll ever forget his doing those push-ups at the 1992 Academy Awards?

"Believe it... or not."

Godspeed Mr. Palance: you were one of the greats.

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SPIDER-MAN 3 trailer is here!

'Nuff said...
This movie is gonna ROCK!!!

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I have an idea

That's all I can really say for now. It hit me about 10 this morning. I've talked it over with one other person, and the response was pretty enthusiastic about it.

This election may have yielded something truly remarkable. It would definitely be worth trying, at least...

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Basil Poledouris has died

Basil Poledouris - one of the greatest composers of this generation, especially of scores for film and television - has died of cancer. He was 61: way too young if you ask me.

Two things that this man did stand out in my mind right now: the score that he did for the mini-series Lonesome Dove, which was nothing short of magnificent. And the music for Conan the Barbarian: without question one of the greatest movie soundtracks of all time. I think my favorite tracks from Lonesome Dove were the theme, and that one you hear when Gus and Lippy are riding away from the saloon with the two pigs following after the wagon... I loved that track! And as for Conan the Barbarian, well, everything about that score resonates on some kind of primal level. "Prologue/Anvil of Crom" is something that I've told Dad he needs to have playing in his knife shop whenever he's using the forge to heat up his blades. "Riders of Doom" and "Battle of the Mounds" I like for similar reasons, but that quieter part from "Battle..." when Conan is praying is especially good. Whenever I find myself locked in some kind of torturously slow task the "Wheel of Pain" track always winds up playing in my head. But my absolute favorite track from Conan the Barbarian has got to be "Atlantean Sword": the one that plays when Conan falls into the tomb of the ancient Atlantean general and finds the sword that he uses for the rest of the movie. The music in that scene evokes dreams of antiquity beyond reckoning. It's the kind of music that almost makes historians and archaeologists weak in the knees. Poledouris did the music for quite a few other films, including The Hunt for Red October and Robocop. And if Paul Verhoeven had ever been able to make Crusade with Ah-nuldt Schwarzenegger, I always thought that Poledouris would be the one to score that, too.

Well, it's sad that he's left us. I might have to put Conan the Barbarian in the DVD player sometime this weekend, and raise a toast to his memory.

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ELECTION - THE DAY AFTER: 11:11 PM EST

This is probably the last post I do with the "ELECTION..." format that's been used since early yesterday morning. There'll still be some thoughts posted here in the next couple of days, but now's a good time to wrap-up the "live commentary" that I've had going for the past almost-48 hours now. In the next little while I'm probably going to finally unwrap the Police Squad! DVD that I got today and watch it a little, before going to bed.

I still can't believe how good I'm feeling tonight. The news came a little over 24 hours ago that I hadn't won a seat... but I've still got the most wonderful sense of euphoria at how good I did do. By the way, I didn't realize it until earlier this evening but I came within 813 votes of landing a seat, and only 117 votes less than Jon Mason, who came in seventh place. Considering the intense voter turnout - despite the rain and cold we had all day yesterday - this was a very close race for the most part. You can view the final election results here.

Okay, time for me to go and unwind a little before hitting the sack. I've got to be at work tomorrow morning at 7, but Thursdays are usually pretty laid-back at the station. I'll have time to compose more thoughts during the day tomorrow.

This is your live Rockingham County Board of Education election day coverage from the perspective of candidate Christopher Knight, signing off... :-)

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ELECTION - THE DAY AFTER: 10:04 PM EST

Well, I guess he does have a tumor after all.

WOW!! Now that was a cliffhanger! Excellent episode... even if ABC did break in with that crap about the Virginia U.S. Senate race. Look, so far as I'm concerned Kate's story was a LOT more important than whether Allen or Webb won: they're both more fake than anything Lost has given us. Can't wait 'til February, when we see what happens next.

EDIT 10:13 PM EST: Let me rephrase something I wrote a little while ago: Lost is FAR more believable than ANYTHING regarding either the Democrats or the Republicans.

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ELECTION - THE DAY AFTER: 9:07 PM EST

Lisa and I both theorize that Ben is not dying of a spinal tumor. That he and the Others are playing mind games with Jack. Think about it: doesn't it seem too convenient that Ben's x-rays just happened to be where Jack - a neurosurgeon - would see them and be naturally interested in them? Yeah, I guess it could be argued that Ben wanted Jack to see it and naturally be sympathetic enough to do the surgery... but that still doesn't seem right somehow. Jack spotted the x-rays in the very same episode when Ben conned Sawyer with that whole "chest bomb" thing, so it's altogether possible that this tumor thing is all a big con too, to get Jack to cooperate with them willingly.

Okay, back to the show...

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ELECTION - THE DAY AFTER: 8:33 PM EST

Back in August, not long after I'd filed to run, I discovered the perfect way to celebrate my winning on November 7th... if I won at all. I'd told quite a few people that if I won, the first thing I would do to celebrate after kissing Lisa would be to run out and buy this. Well, even though I didn't win, I'm still riding high on euphoria at how well I did do. So today, to celebrate a good campaign - that got national attention even - and because it's been a long time since I've treated myself to anything, I followed through on my plan. And bought this around 3 o'clock at Wal-Mart. It just came out yesterday...
I've been waiting years for Police Squad! to come out on DVD. And now it's finally here! This was the short-lived TV series that years later spawned the Naked Gun movies. Haven't watched it yet though (spent the rest of the evening picking up signs and running an errand and some time visiting the TV station) but I'm looking forward to it.

I've also spent part of the evening calling supporters and well-wishers. The sentiment from everyone has been that they're proud of how well I did and that I ran a good campaign.

And you know something? This is the first time in a long, long time that I've allowed myself the luxury of feeling proud of myself. It's been so long since I've felt that, that... I don't even remember when was the last time, or what it felt like. But I'm letting myself feel it now.

To everyone who supported me and kept me in your thoughts and prayers: Don't feel disappointed about this election. Ever since last night, this has been a good thing! Given a lot of factors that were working against me, I had a remarkably great showing... especially for a first-timer. And like I said last night, maybe I didn't win this election... but this was the first time that I've felt that I'd finally taken a step on the road that God has planned for me. Even though (as my good friend Melody commented) I was always on that path... well, it really is quite astonishing to actually see your own feet walking on it.

There's more that I'm going to be writing about in the next day or so. One thing in particular, I haven't said anything about it openly yet. I think it needs to be said though. It's going to come when I discuss the results of last night. And those who I've talked to in the 24 hours or happen to live in Rockingham County will know exactly what I'm talking about.

Okay, off for now. Time to watch Lost with Lisa (this is the last new episode until February so it better be pretty fraggin' good :-).

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ELECTION - THE DAY AFTER: 2:34 PM EST

I'm just now catching up on everything else that happened in the elections yesterday. When I took Michael home his dad told me that the Republicans had lost both the House and Senate. That was the first and last time that I even thought about the national elections until the last little while.

It doesn't matter to me anymore which party is in control of Congress, or the White House even for that matter. It took me long enough but I've come to realize that both of the major parties... actually, just about any party for that matter... are preoccupied with only one thing: acquiring power. They keep telling us that if we only give them more power, that they will earnestly work to make things better. So we give them power, only to watch them abuse it time after time. I don't know if I could even trust the "third-party" groups, like the Constitution and Libertarian parties as much as I would like, because they are founded on the same basic principle: "please just give us a little bit of power".

I took a peek at a couple of the big political sites (I'm not going to name which ones: they're both all too well known for which party they shill for). It didn't take much to predict what their reactions would be to yesterday's election, and it was just as I was expecting: there is jubilation on one, and outrage on the other. One is deeply saddened that their party has lost power, while the other one is basking in euphoria.

And while I'm giving it this cursory glance I can't help but wonder: "What difference does it make?" I saw this same thing happen twelve years ago when the Republicans toppled the Democrats from power in Congress. Now the tables have turned... and for the life of me I can't understand how this is going to really change things at all. The Republicans have had both houses of Congress and the White House for six years now. They've had more than enough opportunity to make a long-lasting impression for the better on the American landscape. Instead I've watched them over the past twelve years as they've progressed from sweeping victory to utter stagnation. This Congress has been little more than a rubber-stamp on everything that President Bush has presented before them: No Child Left Behind, the PATRIOT Act, "campaign finance reform"... you name it, they've done it for him. The only thing that I can see happening any different is that the change in power in Congress will make it a little harder for Bush to get anything passed that he wants... but since so many things of his ideology matches those of many of the Democrats, I don't really expect him to be hampered all that much. One way or another, we are going to get amnesty for illegals rammed down our throats, no matter who's in power in Washington: it just got a little easier after last night, is all.

Other than these observations, the whole Congress situation doesn't really figure on my radar. There really isn't much more than I can say about it.

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