So many things change in our world. That field that used to be behind your house now has a 16-screen movie theater. Your old high school puts FieldTurf on its football field. The high school you graduated from in the 90s had 600 students. Now, it has 1200. Your hometown gets a performing arts center with touring Broadway shows. So many things change. But, in the Fox Cities, some things remain the same. In the local paper, religion comes up fairly frequently. Now, the Fox Cities are fairly conservative, and pretty heavily Catholic. So, when the Pope came to the US, a lot of people there consider it to be a big deal. Then, at his lonely post representing atheism, is Robert Nordlander. It's a lonely existence to be atheist in the Valley. Especially considering it's small enough that everyone who pays attention knows you are an atheist, despite most of them never having met you. But, he keeps plugging away with letters to the editor, the occasional call to It's Your Call (highly recommended reading for hilarity, with the linked example being about the hot topic of raw milk), and now this. Scroll down a bit to get to Mr. Nordlander's question. I wonder if he actually would ask Pope Benedict XVI the questions he posted.
Now, I don't come to bash Mr. Nordlander's beliefs...he is entitled to them. Frankly, I had a stretch where I was at least agnostic. I just take comfort knowing that in an ever-changing world, I can set my watch to Bob's lonely fight against the forces of religion in the Post-Crescent. Thank you Bob, and may you never change.
Coming soon: Odes to Merv Farmer and Florence Courtney (people in the Valley know of whom I speak)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
C'mon, good sir, bash Nordlander. He wants you to, because it feeds his martyrdom complex. I know, atheist martyr doesn't make a lot of sense, but neither does Nordlander.
And I'll bite - who are the other two people you've mentioned? I guess I've been gone from the Valley for a long time, because I can't place either name.
Merv and Florence are frequent contributors to the P-C's "It's Your Call" feature. I'll be damned if I remember what they rant about, but the rants themselves are pretty entertaining. I am not sure, but I think the paper imposed a limit of calls that would be published in a month because these two called darn near every day.
I have to ask, Mark...was Nordlander on his crusade, so to speak, back when you still lived in the Valley?
Post a Comment