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The Miami Herald reports on the Traditional Latin Lass If the Tridentine Mass is bringing in newer, younger Catholics, shouldn't we be celebrating that?

There are several Protestant churches which advertised themselves as King James Only, arguing that “the KJV needs no further improvements because it is the greatest English translation of the Bible which was ever published, and they also believe that all other English translations of the Bible which were published after the KJV was published are corrupt.” They have their reasons, which I will not argue here, and which you can read if you follow the link.

But, regardless of their arguments, one thing is certain: the Elizabethan English used in the King James Version is lofty in a way that modern English simply is not, and I have to wonder: does the grandeur of the language itself inspire some English-speaking people?

I will admit it: I didn’t expect to find a story like this in the Miami Herald, a McClatchy newspaper. 1,038 words, on the Tridentine, or Traditional Latin Mass?

Latin Mass not just for older Catholics — what’s driving Miami’s newer, younger members?

By Lauren Costantino[1]This report was created with philanthropic support from Christian, Muslim and Jewish funders in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editorial control of all work. | Monday, August 28, 2023 | 5:00 AM EDT

It’s the kind of Catholic Mass your grandparents might remember: The liturgy is spoken in Latin, the choir sings Gregorian chants and women wear chapel veils, or “mantillas.” But, this Traditional Latin Mass isn’t full of elderly parishioners.

At Our Lady of Belen Chapel in West Miami, roughly 350 people — young and old — show up weekly for services, an old-style Catholic Mass that had been celebrated for centuries before the Second Vatican Council reformed the Catholic Church in the 1960s. One look around the picturesque Belen chapel and it’s clear that this Mass, though grounded in tradition and conducted mostly in Latin, is not just for older Catholics. Amid the sacred chanting and echoing organs, babies fuss and parents distract their toddlers with toys and coloring books.

There is no designated childcare room, but parents of crying babies are never shamed, said Eleonora Cacchione, a mother of four and Latin Mass regular. Cacchione is a lifelong Catholic, but says she did not fully understand what was happening during Mass until she started attending Traditional Latin Mass.

Attendance at Mass has fallen since the panicdemic — and yes, I spelled it that way deliberately, because that’s how I see the reaction to it — and has not returned to pre-COVID-19 levels. People who were used to getting out of bed on Sunday mornings found that sleeping in isn’t all that bad. Attending Mass is a habit, just as sleeping in can be a habit, and we have lost parishioners due to the forcible closing of churches.

“People wearing their Sunday best, seeing the priest facing the altar rather than the congregation, the solemnity and reverence of the liturgy — including the way people receive Jesus in the Eucharist — reminds one that something special, something supernatural and beyond human explanation is taking place,” Cacchione said in a text message.

Traditional Latin Mass, also called the extraordinary form of the Roman rite, or the Tridentine Mass, has been celebrated in the Archdiocese of Miami for the past 40 years, beginning under former Archbishop Edward McCarthy. In recent years, Miami’s community has steadily grown, relocating to five different chapels in the past 10 years to accommodate the growth.

This is the most powerful paragraph of all: a secular newspaper, reporting what some of us already knew, that the Tridentine Mass is attracting more and more people to attend Mass. And really, isn’t that something that any Catholic, lay or priest, bishop or pope, should want, more Catholics in the pews?

But, the most recent move to the Belen chapel — which is aligned with the Jesuits, and not an Archdiocese of Miami church — was made after Pope Francis restricted where groups can celebrate Latin Mass. He also required priests who wanted to celebrate the Mass to get permission from their bishops, and for bishops to get approval from the Vatican. The pope was concerned the Church was going backward, rather than looking forward.

Or, perhaps, His Holiness the Pope was concerned that too many people were taking seriously what Jesus said, in Matthew 5:17-20, as he has been allowing what would previously have been seen as prohibited.

Miami’s Latin Mass community has more than doubled in the past five years — up from an average of 112 congregants in 2017 to 320 in 2023 — according to records taken by Frank Andollo, who’s been going to the services for 10 years. People drive from as far north as Palm Beach County and as far south as the Florida Keys to make it to Latin Mass at Belen on Sundays.

Why the growth?

“It’s bound to attract people because I believe they are attracted to authenticity,” said Jose Ballon, the choir director. “They don’t want something watered down or compromised.”

Ballon, 28, was referring to the traditions that are honored during Latin Mass, compared to the new order of Mass, or Novus ordo, the the religious service most Catholics are familiar with today.

As our regular readers know — both of them! — I am significantly hearing impaired. A Tridentine Mass, with the priest ad orientem, with his back to the people, would be extremely difficult for me. My pew is in the front row, directly in front of the ambo, and I can still miss things. I can just imagine the difficulties I would have with the priest having his back to me.

There’s a lot more at the original, and it’s not controversial at all. Lauren Costantino, the author, is basically describing the feelings of the worshipers she interviewed, and almost everything is positive.

The Tridentine Mass does not take away from the Novus ordo; Catholics who have both available to them — for me, the closest one is in Georgetown, about 70 miles away — will choose to go to one or the other, or, sadly, choose neither at all, and sleep in on a Sunday morning.

And that last is a huge problem: too many Catholics, following the ‘break’ for the panicdemic, have chosen to just stay in bed. If a more available Tridentine Mass was to bring some of them back, how would that be anything but a good thing?

My parish is an old parish; while there are a couple of families with kids, most of us are around retirement age, and eventually we will be going to our eternal rewards. If the Tridentine Mass is bringing in new Catholics, new parishioners, younger parishioners, that is something we should be touting, honoring, and celebrating.

References

References
↑1 This report was created with philanthropic support from Christian, Muslim and Jewish funders in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners. The Miami Herald retains editorial control of all work.
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Philly public schools will not have a #MaskMandate . . . for now But beware: there are panicked people out there who want to reinstate a panicdemic!

Panicdemic was how I have been spelling it for a while now, because panic has been the greatest problem from COVID-19.

Philadelphia was among the worst of the cities in this country when it came to forced masking, vaccine mandates, and throwing people out of work who did not comply. The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers threw up constant roadblocks as the School District was trying to reopen the public schools. That history is what makes this story interesting:

COVID hospitalizations are rising. Philly schools still won’t require masks – mostly.

Students who test positive must stay home for at least five calendar days, and will be expected to participate in virtual learning. The district has also dropped its vaccine requirement for employees.

by Kristen A Graham | Wednesday, August 30, 2023 | 5:00 AM EDT

The Philadelphia School District announced its updated COVID-19 policies Tuesday, and the school system is keeping masks optional — mostly.

The news comes as COVID hospitalizations are up nationally, but the risk of contracting the coronavirus locally remains low, according to the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.

Students and staff in the district’s 216 schools can wear masks at any time, but will not be required to do so unless the city health department deems it necessary amid a COVID-19 outbreak in a classroom, school, office or department, according to the guidance.

Cheryl Bettigole, from BillyPenn.

That would mean that the decision would be taken by Commissioner of Health Cheryl Bettigole, who loves her some mask mandates, trying to keep them even after CDC eased their recommendations, but was forced to back down due to political pressure. You can be certain of one thing: Dr Bettigole will be just champing at the bit if she sees any possible excuse to reimpose mask mandates!

People will also be required to wear masks if they test positive for COVID-19 after returning from five-day isolation, and are “highly recommended” to mask for 10 days after their last date of COVID exposure.

Students who test positive must stay home for at least five calendar days, and will be expected to participate in virtual learning. Parents are obligated to notify the school nurse or principal if a student tests positive, and those who show COVID symptoms during the school day must be picked up by a family member, and will be provided with a free COVID test.

Who will administer the test? If the student is simply sent home with a test, all that his parents or he has to do is say that it was just a cold, and that he tested negative. If the test is administered by the school, that means that school officials would have to touch the student, something which cannot be done without consent, or it constitutes an assault.

The district has also dropped its COVID vaccine mandate for new employees.

I’m sure that Mayor Jim Kenney, who strongly enforced a vaccine mandate on city employees, and had months-long efforts to fire employees who did not consent, would be appalled by that, but, then again, he’s been practically on strike for a year now.

I had hoped that I wouldn’t be writing about mask or vaccine mandates again, but there has been a not-so-quiet push for mask mandates and vaccine mandates from some of our friends on the left, including President Biden:

Biden plans to ask Congress for funding to develop new COVID vaccine, may recommend shot for all

The announcement comes near a year after Biden declared the pandemic was ‘over’

by Greg Wehner | Published August 26, 2023 8:35pm EDT | Updated August 27, 2023 3:26pm EDT

President Biden said Friday he plans to request additional funding from Congress for the development of a new COVID-19 vaccine, adding he may require everyone to take it whether they previously received a vaccine or not.

President Biden had declared the ‘pandemic’ to be over. Maybe it is and maybe it isn’t, but for the vast majority of people, the panicdemic is long gone.

Biden, who is vacationing in the Lake Tahoe area, was asked by a reporter on Friday if he could say anything about the uptick of COVID cases and a new variant.

“Yes, I can,” the president said. “I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to Congress a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works.”

He added, “Tentatively it is recommended that it will likely be recommended everybody get it no matter whether they’ve gotten it before or not.”

Can you figure out the grammar in that last sentence? 🙂

At least right now, the government is recommending that people wait on getting a COVID-19 vaccine booster shot, until the newest vaccine is approved, supposedly in mid-September. That strikes me as odd: if the vaccine has not yet been approved, they are still operating on the assumption it will be approved. That’s almost certainly a political decision, because a new version of the vaccine, supposedly more effective against a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, can’t have much testing, and certainly no testing at all when it comes to long-term effects, all against a virus which is producing, for most people known to contract it, something like the flu, perhaps not fun, but survived by well over 90% of the people who contract it.

Of course, COVID-19 has been so mild that a lot of people have contracted it without any noticeable symptoms. With at-home tests, and people who see no reason to test, we really have no idea how many people have contracted it.

If the President wants to recommend that people get the new vaccine, that is within his freedom of speech; anybody can ask any other person to do, or not do, something. Where I strongly object is the idea that the President, or anyone else, can order people to take the vaccine. Even the Philadelphia School District realized that, because they understood that some people will refuse, and that the city has lost some good people to previous vaccine mandates.

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Killadelphia: It’s official: (Alleged) Kingsessing mass murderer is Just Plain Nuts

We have previously reported on Kimbrady Carriker, the fine gentleman from Philadelphia accused of a murder rampage which left five people in the Kingsessing neighborhood dead.

As soon as the name of Kimbrady Carriker was released, his social media were investigated, and photos of Mr Carriker in female dress led to immediate speculation that he was, like Audrey Hale in Nashville, yet another transgender killer. Well, that led to Philly officials quickly denying it:

While he acknowledged the social media images that appear to show Carriker wearing women’s clothing and jewelry, Asa Khalif, a member of the LGBTQ advisory committee for the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office, condemned the “violent” language coming from the “conservative press” about Carriker’s gender identity and shared what the district attorney’s office knows firsthand about Carriker’s gender identity.

“Appear to show”? No, there’s no “appear to show” here, but actually show. Why would Mr Khalif, who supports the homosexual and transgender community, and must surely not be offended by, or see anything wrong, with cross-dressing, want to mealy-mouth things?

“The suspect has not identified themselves as trans. They have only identified themselves as male,” Khalif said at Wednesday’s news conference. “But the language spewed out by the conservative press is violent and is dangerous, and it’s targeting trans women of color. It’s rallying the community to be violent, and we’re better than that.”

I saw a video of Mr Khalif’s statement, and while he stated that Mr Carriker had not identified as transgender or anything other than male, I also noticed that he went out of his way to use “they/them” pronouns to refer to the suspect. Did Mr Carriker express a preference for such to be used? If so, it hasn’t made the credentialed press, but speaking with the District Attorney at his side, he might have been clued into something the DA’s office knew but hasn’t been made public.

Well, now it’s official: Mr Carriker is cookoo for Cocoa Puffs mentally incompetent to stand trial:

The accused gunman in the Kingsessing mass shooting has been found incompetent to stand trial, pausing his criminal case

Kimbrady Carriker, charged with killing five people during a multi-day shooting rampage, will receive inpatient mental health treatment before his court case can proceed.

by Chris Palmer | Tuesday, August 29, 2023

The man accused of killing five people during a multi-day shooting rampage in Kingsessing earlier this summer has been ordered to receive inpatient mental health treatment before his court case can proceed.

A court-appointed psychiatrist found Kimbrady Carriker incompetent to stand trial, his public defender said in court Tuesday. Carriker, 40, will be sent to a state-run psychiatric facility to receive treatment while his criminal case — which is awaiting a preliminary hearing — is put on indefinite hold.

Carriker is accused of fatally shooting five people and wounding several others during a shooting spree in early July around 56th Street and Chester and Springfield Avenues. He faces a host of charges, including first-degree murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault, and illegal gun possession, and is being held without bail.

I noticed that Chris Palmer, the Philadelphia Inquirer reporter who wrote the story, did not use the “they/them” pronouns the way Mr Khalif did, but the masculine ones. And the Inky, which normally does not publish mugshots, did include Mr Carrikers, a not-particularly-flattering one, but one which nevertheless didn’t show him in drag. No, Mr Palmer did not include the Far Side cartoon I added, but at some point, don’t we have to admit that all mass murderers are Just Plain Nuts?

A number of aspects of the case remained unclear Tuesday, including a potential motive, and no new details were revealed during the hearing before Municipal Court Judge Wendy L. Pew. Attorneys did not provide specifics on Carriker’s mental health assessment, and he was not present for the proceeding.

It’s a common theme: everybody wants to know why he (allegedly) did it, everybody wants to try to understand the crime. But if he is legitimately nuts, perhaps there is no motive of which anyone can make any sense.

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Do only those blacks killed by whites really matter?

When I heard that a deranged white man male, who hated black Americans, murdered three black people in a Dollar General store in Jacksonville, Florida, I pretty much expected the editorial response.

Progress exists, but Dr. King’s dream remains deferred | Editorial

America still has a ways to go to live up to the self-evident ideals of equality etched in the Declaration of Independence and invoked 60 years ago by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

by The Editorial Board | Monday, January 28, 2023

Sixty years ago this week, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic speech in Washington, D.C., in which he dreamed that one day his four children would “not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character.”

While much progress has been made in realizing King’s dream, America still has a ways to go to live up to the self-evident ideals etched in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal.” This was made painfully clear this weekend when a white man gunned down three Black people at a Dollar General store in Florida.

The Jacksonville sheriff, who reviewed the gunman’s racist writings, said the 21-year-old shooter “hated Black people.”

The killings join a long list of mass murders fueled by racist hate, including a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store in 2022, a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, in 2019, and a Charleston, S.C., church in 2015, where the white man who slaughtered nine people in a Bible study group said the massacre was “worth it.”

It was hardly just The Philadelphia Inquirer. President Biden condemned ‘white supremacy’ in the aftermath of the killings, and The New York Times, The Washington Post, and plenty of others told us how horrible it was.

Yet, when I looked at the Philadelphia Shooting Victims Database, I saw that 19 people had been shot in the City of Brotherly Love over the Friday-Saturday-Sunday weekend. That is 19 attempted murders, of which three were successful, with 15 of the victims, and two of the deceased victims, being black, and two more victims, including one deceased, being Hispanic. In the Inquirer’s terms, 17 “black and brown” victims, with three killed.

And I had to wonder: were the three black people, two men and a woman, somehow more dead than the three Philadelphians sent untimely to their eternal rewards?

According to the St Louis Police Department, there had been 105 homicides in the Gateway City as of Monday, August 28th. Of those 105 people murdered, 93, or 88.57%, were black, in a city in which 44.8% of the population are black, with another 4.0% being listed as biracial.

More, 79 out of 83 identified suspects, 95.18%, are also black.

No one wants to talk about that, of course, but someone should: why are the three black Floridians killed by a white guy, who was “once involuntarily committed to a mental hospital for examination“, so very worthy of editorial and presidential note, while the vast majority of black victims are mostly ignored, barely worth a mention in many newspapers.

As we have previously documented, unless the inclusion of race is useful for the newspaper’s political position, as the Tyre Nichols case has been,and at whict race becomes totally relevant, the Inquirer deliberately scrubs race from crime reports. Yet, in the editorial quoted above, the Editorial Board were quick to note the race of the killer and his victims, all for political gain.

According to Broad + Liberty’s Philadelphia Homicide Tracker, last updated on Friday, August 25th, out of 226 homicides in which the race of the victim could be identified from their sources — normally Philadelphia Police Department emails — there had been 4 Asians, 11 whites, 42 Hispanics, and 169 blacks murdered in Philly. The Philly Police do not provide a database in the same fashion as the St Louis Police, but it appears that 74.78% of murder victims in Philly have been black, and another 18.58% Hispanic. The editors of the Inky don’t want readers to have those numbers, for whatever reasons they have.

But all of these people are just as dead as the three in Jacksonville!

Perhaps the editors of these great newspapers see, as President Biden claimed, ‘white supremacy’ as “the most dangerous terrorist threat” to America, but at least in the number of people killed, it sure doesn’t seem that way.

All of those black murder victims, the vast majority of whom were not killed by whites? As far as I can see from politicians and the credentialed media, they just don’t count.

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The Lexington Herald-Leader gets a new executive editor

We have noted, many times, that the Lexington Herald-Leader has been significantly out-of-touch with the views of the people in the central-and-eastern Kentucky counties it (supposedly) serves. So, when Executive Editor Peter Baniak was promoted by McClatchy to become its vice president of news for small and medium markets, why what better place to go than Santa Rosa, California, and The Press Democrat for a new Executive Editor! Sonoma County, where Santa Rosa is located, gave 199,938 (74.52%) of its votes to Joe Biden in 2020, to just 61,825 (23.04%) for President Trump, an even higher percentage than Mr Biden’s 63.48% to 34.32% advantage statewide.

Herald-Leader names award winning former Kentucky journalist as new executive editor

by John Cheves | Monday, August 28, 2023 | 4:15 PM EDT | Updated: 4:40 PM EDT

The Lexington Herald-Leader on Monday named as its new executive editor Richard Green, the former editor of The Courier Journal in Louisville who led that newspaper to a 2020 Pulitzer Prize and two 2021 Pulitzer finalists.

Green is currently executive editor at The Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif., north of San Francisco. He will start work in Lexington on Sept. 25.

“I am so honored and incredibly excited to be returning to Kentucky and for the opportunity to work with the talented Herald-Leader newsroom. I have admired that staff for decades, and I cannot wait to roll up my sleeves and join it,” Green said.

There follows a long section detailing Mr Green’s curriculum vitae, which I shall not reproduce here. Rather, I shall drop down to the closing two paragraphs: Continue reading →

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Once again, the Lexington Herald-Leader endangers citizens by refusing to publish a mugshot

The Eighth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifies:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

And thus we come to the case of George Aldridge:

Man charged in 3 Lexington sexual assaults has been tied to another case, police say

By Christopher Leach | Monday, August 28, 2023 | 9:17 AM EDT | Updated: 10:01 AM EDT

George Aldridge, photo by Fayette County Detention Center, and is a public record.

A Kentucky man previously charged in three Lexington sexual assault cases is now facing charges in another sexual assault due to a breakthrough discovery by a Kentucky State Police investigative team, officials announced Monday.

George Aldridge, 53, was indicted last month on a charge of first-degree rape in Jefferson County, according to court records. KSP said the incident happened in 2005 and investigators solved it nearly two decades later thanks to DNA evidence.

The new indictment adds to several other offenses Aldridge has been accused of: he was indicted on two counts of first-degree rape, two counts of first-degree sexual abuse, two counts of first-degree sodomy, three counts of kidnapping and one count of first-degree wanton endangerment in April, according to court records.

Those charges stem from three abductions and sexual assaults between 2009 and 2016 in Fayette County, Lexington police previously said.

No, of course, following the McClatchy Mugshot Policy, the Lexington Herald-Leader did not include the suspect’s mugshot; I had to get it from the Fayette County Detention Center records.

But this 5’9″ tall, 285 pound man is clearly a danger to any woman he encounters, and he does have a bail amount set. Shouldn’t the women in Fayette County knows what this fine gentleman looks like, so they can be on alert should they happen to see him? Continue reading →

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Killadelphia: The area “was littered with shell casings.”

If bullets fly in Kensington, is it really news?

700 block of East Madison Street. Photo via Google Maps, August 2019. Click to enlarge.

Kensington and Independence Mall-area shootings leave two dead, three wounded

The Kensington shootings occurred in an area long burdened by gun violence.

by Anthony R Wood | Saturday, August 26, 2023 | 11:07 PM EDT

A 39-year-old man was shot to death and two others were critically wounded late Saturday afternoon in a triple shooting in Kensington, police said.Several hours later, police said, a double shooting occurred in the Independence Mall area, leaving one man dead and another wounded.

The first shooting occurred just before 5 p.m. in the 700 block of East Madison Street, not far from the intersection of Kensington and Allegheny Avenues, in an area that has been more burdened by gun violence than any other in the city.

The 700 block of East Madison is a racially-integrated, semi-dilapidated rowhouse street, with several homes in which the owners have literally put themselves in jail, adding security bars to keep people off of their front porches. Extremely narrow, cars are shown parked entirely on the sidewalk on the left-hand side of the street, as the one-way traffic flows, and partially on the sidewalk on the right-hand side.

A check of the real estate site Zillow shows that 711 East Madison is for sale, for a list price of $59,900, a 750 ft² home built in 1920, and being sold “as is.” No photos of the inside are available. Zillow’s map shows virtually every home in the neighborhood that is listed for sale is listed for under six digits. Continue reading →

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You in a heap o’ trouble, boy!

How could this have happened? After all, this was illegal! Surely, surely! gun control laws should have prevented it!

Well, it’s Montgomery County, not Philadelphia, so the George Soros-sponsored, police-hating, ‘progressive’ District Attorney, Let ’em loose Larry Krasner, won’t have anything to do with it.

Abington-Cheltenham football game suspended after student found with a gun

The Cheltenham High School student was arrested on felony weapons offenses, including possession of a firearm, police said. Players were safely dismissed to the Abington High School locker rooms.

by Diane Mastrull | Saturday, August 26, 2023

Friday night’s football game between Montgomery County rivals Abington and Cheltenham High Schools was suspended at halftime when a parent noticed a student with a gun in the stadium, police said.

When police found the student at Abington High School’s stadium shortly before 8:30 p.m., a handgun with an extended magazine was protruding from his waist area and the youth was in possession of a second, loaded magazine, police said in a statement posted on Facebook. Continue reading →

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They tried that in a small town

Linda Blackford, the longtime columnist for what my best friend used to call the Lexington Herald-Liberal hasn’t written about Jason Aldean’s hit “Try That In a Small Town,” but she is aghast that someone tried something stupid in a small town and it didn’t work out well:

‘Deeply traumatized.’ Arts retreat at Pine Mountain ends after confrontation. What’s next?

by Linda Blackford | Wednesday, August 23, 2023 | 10:58 AM EDT | Updated: 2:47 PM EDT

For 110 years, a small swathe of mighty Pine Mountain has been a shelter, a school, and a gathering place in Harlan County. But this past weekend, Pine Mountain Settlement School instead became the latest flashpoint in our culture wars.

The Waymakers Collective, a group of Appalachian artists, was holding its annual meeting at Pine Mountain Settlement School. It included performances, artist workshops, film screenings and art activities. Participants stayed in the cottages and dorms around the compound.

They also had permission to use the chapel, and set it up as a “healing space” with pillows, mats, a table of aromatic oils and an “om” symbol, which symbolizes the universe in the Hindu religion. They were not allowed to move the pews, but Pine Mountain staff set up tables.

On Saturday, someone took a picture of the chapel and posted it on social media, which was soon shared around the Harlan County community of Bledsoe, where Pine Mountain is located. According to a statement from the Pine Mountain board, community members called the interim director and board chair about the chapel. Pine Mountain officials asked the Waymakers to move the “healing space” to another location, and the Waymakers agreed, according to the statement.

But before they could do so, a group of men and women in trucks and on ATVs, entered the Pine Mountain campus, blocked the exit, and then made their way to the chapel. According to the Waymakers’ statement, “the people who entered the chapel demanded that we leave. Our group was told they did not belong there, were desecrating a Christian space, and needed to leave right away. We were shocked by this as we had rented out the entire campus of PMSS for our event and were treating the entire property with respect and in the manner we had communicated to PMSS prior to our event.”

But the Waymakers, who are dedicated to the art of the marginalized, including indigenous people, people of color and LGBTQ folks, were terrified. They decided to end the retreat early, and according to their statement, left in a large convoy, so no one would be driving through Harlan County alone.

There’s more at the original.

The Waymakers Collective legitimately rented the grounds on which they were holding their gathering, and should have been allowed to use it as they chose. And the Pine Mountain Settlement School should have been fully aware as to whom and for what the Waymakers were renting their facilities.

But there’s more to it than that: the Pine Mountain Settlement School should also have been aware of the culture in Harlan County, and that the people there might not have been quite as receptive to those “dedicated to the art of the marginalized, including indigenous people, people of color and LGBTQ folks.” Surely the Settlement School folks had heard of Senate Bill 150, to protect normal kids from the homosexual and transgender lobbies, and been aware that both of the county’s state Representatives, Adam Bowling (R-District 87) and Jacob Justice (R-District 94), and state Senator Johnnie Turner (R-District 29), all voted for the bill. They should have known that the voters of Harlan County vote strongly conservative Republican, giving 85.38% of their votes to Donald Trump in 2020, as well as huge margins to Senators Mitch McConnell in 2020 and Rand Paul in 2022.

Translation: renting space to Waymakers would not have gone over well in Harlan County, if the populace in general knew about it.

Mrs Blackford was, of course, highly upset about the whole thing, about how Harlan Countians might be less than eagerly receptive to a group touting, among other things, homosexual and transgender acceptance. Of course, Mrs Blackford’s newspaper has a solid record of endorsing politicians who really don’t line up with the voters in the Bluegrass State:

And yes, every one of them lost. In 2022, when no serious Democrat chose to run in the Sixth District, and a perennial kook candidate won the primary, a guy so bad that even the state Democratic Party wouldn’t support him, the Herald-Leader couldn’t bring itself to endorse the incumbent Republican, Representative Andy Barr, but chose to make no endorsement at all. That’s how much they hate conservatives and Republicans.

This is where Mr Aldean’s song arises: as much as the urban left hate it, it reflects an obvious truth, that the culture of the rural areas, and most certainly in the rural areas of the Bluegrass State, is simply not the culture of the larger cities, and attempting to force urban culture on rural counties simply hasn’t worked out very well.

Back to Mrs Blackford:

Harlan Judge Executive Dan Mosley, who was married at the chapel, said he understood the feelings of people like (Tate) Napier.

“One way to coexist is respect,” he said. “Respect for different people’s culture and ideology. Someone may not agree with my religious beliefs but they could respect them by not disrespecting where I worship, and I could respect their religious beliefs, too.”

Mrs Blackford, and the majority of commenters on her column, apparently do not see hosting homosexual and transgender-positive meetings in a Christian church as “disrespecting where (Harlan Countians) worship,” but it’s pretty obvious that some in the county did.

‘Read the room‘ is defined as “to be or become aware of the opinions and attitudes of a group of people that you are talking to”. In choosing Harlan County for their gathering, the Waymakers just didn’t read the room very well.

More, it seems that the only real objection came when the Waymakers started using the chapel for part of their meeting; that put them in direct conflict with a conservative, Protestant Christian community. At a time in which there’s a great deal of conservative pushback against the forcing of homosexual and transgender ideologies on people who want no part of it, there’s really no surprise that the Waymakers encountered resistance.

If the homosexual and transgender activists had simply kept to the apparently-very-outdated maxim, “What we do in our bedrooms is nobody else’s business,” rather than today’s, “We’re here, we’re queer, and you damned well better approve of, use our pronouns, and fête us,” there’d have been no legislation such as Senate bill 150, and it’s highly unlikely that the mostly leave-us-alone people of eastern Kentucky would have bothered the Waymakers. Then again, the Waymakers would have probably been actually displaying their art, rather than going on to point out that particular artists were in some fashion different from normal people.
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