Spiritual Sucker Punch

Pioneer Day, that day when the Mormons rolled into this valley back on July 24^th 1847; coming the East and through Emigration Canyon. Man what a disappointment that must have been to those expecting “milk and honey” and an incredibly hot desert which seemed to go on westward as far as the eye could see. And to make matter worse there was an immense body of water which was worthless-Salt water! Unbelievable!! But now this date is a state holiday and since I am a state employee I am off, just hanging round enjoying the day which feels like a holiday but still being able to get mail. There will be fireworks and other displays of tempered celebration—after all this is Utah and tomorrow IS a working day.

The worst thing about state holidays is that your state is the only state celebrating the holiday. Its weird to watch the Today Show or Good Morning America and the hosts are treating the like another morning. This of course true with NPR—these guys even deviate a little of their broadcast for even minor holidays like Halloween, valentine’s day St. Patty’s day to mention a few but never a mention for Pioneer Day. We are fortunate to have a number of Education affiliated radio stations in our listening area. KUER AND KBYU. KUER is University of Utah and KBYU is the American Public Radio affiliate. I usually listen to KUER in the mornings and through out the day when available. KUER is basically “news radio”. KBYU, on the other hand is education radio station for Brigham Young University, a very conservative university for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In the old days maybe ten or fifteen years ago KUER’s format was classical music during the day and jazz after 7:00 pm. I do not even remember KBYU back then. I quite enjoyed KUER then they changed formats going to NPR talk/news with just a little bit of jazz before going BBC all night and you know what that means.

When KBYU did eventually come on the scene they did so as the area classical music station. Now I mean really, classical music stations are elitist enough just being classical musical stations let alone coating the channel with a theological varnish. So now on those days when I do want to listen to classical—on the radio—I must also bare religious indoctrination at the same time. I can do this to a point, since I have been dealing with the indoctrination all my life. It just gets old: listening to a great set of J.S. Bach to be blasted with the spiritual of journalizing or be forced to listen to Music and the Spoken Word. I know I could just get up and change the channel to JACK FM or something but that is way too much energy. I could go to WQXR which is survivable and this works only of I am at my computer. What listening to KBYU really is setting you self up to get spiritually sucker punched. Music is not religious just because the music is old. But if you’re in the desert brackish water is better then no water at all. HAPPY PIONEER DAY TO ALL AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT