Here in Middle Tennessee we have someone we refer to as the Philosopher of Franklin, one Bill Peach.
Always smartly dressed in suit and tie, Mr. Peach had a men's clothing store which he ran with his wife, The Pigg and Peach, on the town square (famous for tourists and antique shops) for decades.
He is Chair Emeritus of CWW (Council for the Written Word), a non profit recognizing and promoting the art of writing in Williamson County.
A writer (The South Side of Boston, Random Thoughts Left & Right and a 3 act play, To Think As a Pawn), speaker, holder of informal salons on philosophy and ethics, and school board member, Mr. Peach is part of our community's "glue" and is currently working on another book.
As a member of the Church of Christ, Mr. Peach tends to confuse the conservative, right-wing religious establishment here in mid-state.
He has given talks at area churches about the importance of separation of church and state - for the church as well as the state.
In 2004, he wrote a marvelous letter to our (insert gack here) Representative, Marsha Blackburn, about the Patriot Act and his assurances that Williamson County was not harboring terrorists. He almost redefines snark.
Marsha,
Pursuant to the successful defeat of the Sanders-Otter amendment I will continue to keep you informed on my reading and video rental habits.
[This was a bipartisan amendment to the House of Representatives bill that funds the Justice Department. It would have barred the Justice Department from using federal funds to search bookstore and library records under the USA PATRIOT Act. In a fairly tough power play, the Republican leadership of the House kept the voting open until they could press enough of their party members to change their votes, staving off a legislative defeat for the President.]
Earlier this week, I watched a DVD of Bowling for Columbine. This might elude detection by Blockbuster since it was checked out by one of my daughters and would not show up in their records in my name.
I don't know if there is a provision within the Patriot Act for information relevant to movies seen in a theater. Last week, I went to Thoroughbred 20 and saw Fahrenheit 9/11. I attended a 4:30 showing (during daylight hours) and was seen by Senator Jim Bryson who was attending another movie. He told me he was going to see "something funny" which I assumed would not be Fahrenheit 9/11, though it did have elements of comedic dialogue.
I don't know if I need to share this information with Tim Chavez, Phil Valentine, and Steve Gil. Locally, I have reported this to my friend Hugh Dupree, Chairman of the Williamson County Republican Party.
I still have the three library books that I previously mentioned to you, including the one on the history of the ACLU and the ones on liberalism and civil liberties. These are due back on July 14 at which time I will choose other books. I will send you a list of those titles. I may include one conservative title just for diversity. Library records reflect only physical possession of books and do not verify actual reading of the printed material.
I did recently purchase one book from Franklin Booksellers. I attended the book signing by Scott Roley and purchased an autographed copy of God's Neighborhood. This book, as the title suggests, has religious overtones. However, the religious references seem to be bipartisan, including both Republican and Democratic images of Christianity.
I realize that all this information is obtainable through Homeland Security, but I do feel an obligation to keep you apprised of potential subversive thought within Williamson County. This seems to be a philosophical upheaval, not just the quadrennial insurrection of proletarians and infidels. Williamson County seems to have a growing presence of intellectuals, artistic types, radical students, secularists, middle-income Episcopalians, liberals, African-Americans, Jews, Hispanics, and some folks who are just not our kind of people. I don't think any of these are potentially subversive or even unpatriotic, but I frequently do hear utterances of dissent. We try to be tolerant of dissenters as long as they retain their allegiance to the First Amendment. But, we are keeping a list; and we know who they are; and we know where they live--even by precinct.
Bill Peach
Franklin, TN
Being on Bill's email list is truly one of the highlights of my inbox. Sometimes I agree with him and sometimes I don't, being a liberal Jew in a den of conservative Christians, but one of the things I like most about Bill is he loves to be disagreed with.
His eyes light up like a kid in a candy store for a chance at anything resembling Socratic dialectic and having his mind changed through reasoned argument is viewed more as a prettily wrapped gift than, as is too often the case today, a perfidy.
The latest to hit my email was this story about his granddaughter and the obvious strength of Baptist prayer.
Never underestimate the influence of Baptists and the power of prayer.
The Bad News:
A few days ago, my eight-year-old granddaughter spent some time at a sleep-over with other seven- and eight-year old girls. During a discussion about the election, one of the girls announced that if Senator Obama was elected President he would kill all new-born babies. I don’t know to what extent eight-year-olds watch Fox News. However, I did learn that the young girl was the daughter of an associate minister of a local Baptist. This story may be included in an interview with Mitch Kline in the Williamson AM. McCain carried the county with approximately 70% of the vote.
The Good News:
On Tuesday night during the Republican election night watch, according to a story in the Tennessean, supporters paused to gather together and prayed for a miracle. The following is a prayer offered by Steve Pippin, a Marsha Blackburn supporter and deacon at Brentwood Baptist Church: "We humble ourselves and ask for a miracle, that you’ll put a man in office who will lead us with real values, who will fight for us, and go to bat for us."
Will they realize their prayers were, indeed, answered? Only time will tell.
Mr. Peach's writings reprinted with permission from the author.