Fresh Air and Exorcise

My co-worker Brenda forwarded me an interesting link from the website I Heart Chaos the other day. Knowing that I am equally interested in history and in strange things, she thought I would enjoy the story of how, 44 years ago today, an attempt was made to exorcise the Pentagon. You can read the full story here.

On October 21st, 1967, I was a high-school junior in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, worried about all the things a shy young man of 16 worries about (i.e., all those cute, unattainable girls who attended my school). In Washington, DC, however, great events were taking place. Seventy-thousand people were gathered on the National Mall to protest the Vietnam War. Many sang or waved signs, others chanted peacefully or smoked questionable substances, and some tried to take a more active stance against the war. One of these was a man named Ed Sanders, who had developed a special mystical incantation which would exorcise the evil spirits infesting the Pentagon, and make it rise high into the air. These are the notes for his exorcism ritual (you can see a larger-sized, easier-to-read version at the I Heart Chaos article linked above):

In case you aren't able to read the small print, the climax (so to speak) comes at step 9, which is "The EXORGASM," featuring "banishment of the evil spirit, singing & shrieking."

Oddly enough, it didn't seem to work. It was probably a lot of fun, though.

Equally oddly, nobody seemed to realize that the correct place to exorcise might instead have been the Capitol and the White House, where the actual decisions on prosecution of the war were taking place.

Moving forward 44 years, one wonders if an exorcism might drive out the evil spirits currently infesting the Senate and the House of Representatives ... but somehow, I don't think it would do much good. The powers of stupidity have grown mighty.

We'll have to wait until next November to try to do our exorcising. I hope we can hold out that long.

Have a good day. Chase away those monsters and evil spirits. And come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday.

Bilbo