A while back I was teaching guitar in Ann Arbor Michigan at a friend's place called Herb David Guitar Studio. This is an internationally known, highly respected shop that was an old converted house. My teaching room was a bedroom upstairs with a view of downtown and a large federal building (post office) across the street. One day I noticed a very large crowd (several hundreds at least) gathered in the streets below and a line of cops in riot gear lining the post office property, poised and at alert. I could hear a manic voice on a bull horn but couldn't make out the words with my window closed.

I soon learned that this was the annual Nazi rally that many had tried to close down but could not because a court had deemed it legal, based on free speech. I was completely appalled and could gauge by the crowd that most of their feelings were mutual based on the angry shouts and expressions. I had to do something, something big, some magnanimous finger flipping gesture to show my disdain and disapproval of the event and what it stood for. Suddenly, it hit me that I had a second floor window with a table next to it and a VERY LOUD amp I could place right up in the window.

Now came the decision as to what would be the most effective and appropriate song to play. I knew that hatred feeds on hatred and that the small minded Nazi's where getting off on stirring up the crowds rage. Then it came to me, the Mickey Mouse Club Theme Song was the perfect statement to make, "Who's the leader of the pack of present company, M-I-C-K-E-Y-M-O-U-S-E..." This would serve to help in diffusing the crowd's anger and would completely humiliate the Nazi's power trip and emotionally bring them down to size.

I threw the window open wide, causing the line of police to tighten their nervous alertness even more. I thrust the amp up on the table and ran my hands across the dials, raising them all to 10! Nobody but the cops noticed what was happening so far with disgust seething through the crowd. I began to blast out the well known melody as the entire crowd turned away from the Nazi's and toward my upstairs window. The cops began laughing and people began cheering, whistling and laughing. I played on as the whole mood shifted. The very small stature and insanely frustrated Nazi spokesperson began screaming, "SHUT UP! SHUT UP!," reminding me of Henry Gibbson in the Blues Brothers movie looking hilariously pathetic. This caused the crowd to laugh even more at the smallness and pointlessness of the Nazi's and their absurd attempt to stir up hatred. After a couple of rounds of the song, a police officer began shouting to turn it off (apparently, I was infringing on their right to freedom of speech). Acting respectful, I complied knowing that I had changed the course of the mood of the day and had diffused the Nazi's goal of spreading anger and hatred through the streets of the city. A few minutes later, Herb came into my room in tears and hugged and thanked me.

Over the next few days, people, most of them strangers, began approaching me in the store and on the street hugging and thanking me. One guy, beaming with delight stated that he had heard the song eight blocks away and ran over to see if he could find out what was going on. He suggested that we encourage the crowd every year to sing the song as loud as possible as a much more effective way of taking away the Nazi's reason for being there rather than shouting angry slogans and throwing batteries and rocks (which was the normal way the crowd had dealt with it in the past).

So, I'm encouraging people everywhere to handle hate rallies in their communities in this way as well, to use humor and humiliation instead of hatred. With time, hateful organizations such as the Nazi's or the Klan or whom ever will have no fuel to burn, nothing to sink their hurtful, hateful teeth into.


Thanks,
Jeffrey Bayless