A CLARIFICATION, AND AN APOLOGY

GOOD MORNING.

AS PER my corrected post re: Mike Daisey's show, the Boston Globe is reporting that the people who walked out on Mike Daisey's performance of INVINCIBLE SUMMER last Thursday in Cambridge consisted of "87 students and staff visiting Thursday from Norco High School in Southern California, [who] objected to Daisey's dirty language."

SINCE AS FAR AS I CAN TELL, Norco High School is a public, non-religious high school, and as of this writing, I have no way of knowing the particular religious leanings of each individual in the group (or lack thereof), I've decided to strike my reference to "so-called Christians" in my previous post.

I APOLOGIZE for identifying the group this way. I had been under the impression that the group had actually proclaimed itself as "Christian," and this was part of the motive for their actions. Otherwise, I would never have mentioned of their religion, as it is irrelevant and insulting to the observant Christians I happen to know, who would never act in this manner, and indeed whose faith, I believe, would compel them not to.

I DON'T AND WILL LIKELY NEVER KNOW the individual motives of any one of the "students and staff" who walked out on Mike (which is their right); but you don't need a religious motive to pour water over a performer's set and notes (which is nobody's right): you simply need to be a loathesome ass.

I ALSO APOLOGIZE to the commenters in that original post. In a commentof my own, I scolded them for what I took to be their skepticism of the story, and that was wrong. There are 1,000 sides to every story, and there is nothing wrong with wanting to know more.

THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE when the story itself is largely so clear, so plain, and so videotaped. Whatever else was going on in the darkened corners of the theater and the audience's hearts that the camera couldn't catch, the single act of the one man (and it does seem to be a man, not a teenager) confronting Mike on stage and willfully vandalizing his work right in front of him is right there in the bright lights: undeniable and auto-damning.

WHILE THAT FELLOW, AT LEAST, owes Mike an apology (and I might argue the school does as well, if he is an employee), I hesitate to call for him to explain his actions. In that one moment of vicious smallness, he explained himself perfectly to youtube and the world.

But otherwise, let me say: CHRISTIANS AND COMMENTERS, I am sorry.

AND MIKE: break your leg tonight, friend.

That is all.