Nov 24 2006

As I was browsing the podcast "store" in ITunes the other day I came upon Open Source with Christopher Lydon. One of the titles caught my eye, Bigotry 101: A Night in November. This podcast is an interview with Marty McGuire, the actor who portrays 26 different characters in a Marie Jones play from 1994 regarding protestant and catholic bigotry in Northern Ireland. I'm always interested in finding out more about Ireland, but was quite taken aback by how the protestant/catholic battles in Northern Ireland can mirror various religious, cultural, and racial struggles throughout the world today. Who knows, maybe it struck a larger nerve due to all the news reports of escalating sectarian violence in the hellhole that we created in Iraq.

It reminded me somewhat of my journey to Glasgow a few years back. My friend was quite worried, he had grown up in Glasgow as a wee lad and remembered constantly being told by his mother, aunts, and uncles to stay away from the "protty bastards". He was worried two Irish Catholic boys (no matter how far we had both fallen) and a Roman Catholic girl might be in trouble if we ran in to the wrong part of town. I was given strict instructions on what I could and couldn't wear. No orange, no blue, and no green. Best to be safe and just wear black and white. This was all quite a foreign concept to me, and in hindsight complete overkill on his part. But it struck a nerve none the less.

So, as I was listening to the podcast (which is quite marvelous and if the play ever comes back to the west coast, it currently is playing in Boston, I will be the first in line) I thought back to a photo that I found quite amusing from a trip to New Orleans. New Orleans is a very catholic city (with a touch of voodoo thrown in for good measure) and the cemeteries are a fascinating place. In the back of St. Louis Cemetery #1 I found this sign (view large), apparently the Protestant Section of the cemetery way in the back. As I reread the sign it kind of struck home that this battle amongst the various belief systems exists pretty much everywhere. I knew this already of course, but it kind of struck a chord. I also find it interesting that when they reconfigured the cemetery due to development it was the protestant section and "bodies" that were removed.

I don't really have a point to all of this, I'm not going to call out for a great display of peace and tolerance (would be nice though), greater minds than mine have tried that and failed miserably so a webpost or flickr photo viewed 20 or so times probably won't change the course of history. Just thought it was a terribly thought provoking piece and wanted to share.

Black and White conversion from scanned film negative

New Orleans, Louisiana
December 2003