22 October 2007 RINGSIDE, 1925: VIEWS FROM THE SCOPES TRIAL by Jen Bryant, Knopf, February 2008, ISBN: 0-375-84074-8; LIBR ISBN: 0-375-94047-2

 

"I sat speechless...a ringside observer at my own trial, until the end of the circus."

--John T. Scopes, defendant

 

"Tennessee, Tennessee,

There ain't no place I'd rather be."

-- Robert Hunter/Jerry Garcia

 

PETER SYKES

 

"...Our state lawmakers passed the Butler Act

 

because they think science will poison our minds.

Well, I don't feel poisoned. I still believe in the divine.

Why should a bigger mind need a smaller god?

 

It's still a miracle how everything works,

how everything has a purpose. Even the buzzards

are beautiful in their own way. I watch them

 

steer from one invisible layer to another --

wings wide, using their tails as rudders --

searching for something my human eyes

 

can't find. When I flatten my back

against the rock and look up, a flock

of dark crosses blesses the Tennessee sky."

 

Now, I consider myself to be a person who is exceptionally tolerant of anyone's personal religious beliefs -- as long as they don't try to lay them on me or impact my personal life with them.

 

I truly don't know how I would feel if I were a woman and suddenly had to make an emotional decision regarding an unwanted pregnancy, but I can tell you that it absolutely drives me up a wall to see a safe and routine medical procedure become the subject of vicious political campaigns that are grounded in intolerant religious dogma.

 

It also breaks my heart that so many of my beloved friends cannot live their lives to the fullest because prejudice and religious views mixed with politics have kept them from gaining the right to contractually and spiritually share everything under the law with the one person whom they love so dearly, just as all married hetero couples do. What real meaning, if not in such circumstances, does the phrase "the pursuit of happiness" hold?

 

"How is it we are here on this path we walk

In this world of pointless fear filled with empty talk

Descended from the apes as scientist-priests all think

Will they save us in the end, we're trembling on the brink."

-- Mike Pinder

 

But, even worse, it scares the hell out of me that there can be numerous Presidential candidates who -- in 2007 no less! -- reject the "theory" of evolution. While I consider myself relatively bright, I certainly don't consider myself anywhere near smart enough to be President of the United States. I want someone far more intelligent then me in that place where instant decisions can profoundly affect life in our country and on this planet forever and ever.

 

From my decades as a reader and an exemplary student I know that evolution is no more of a theory than is tectonic plate "theory" and -- in my part of the country -- you'd better be up to speed on the consequences of tectonic plate "theory" or you can one day suddenly end up as flat as an extinct one-celled fossil. To even make anyone who doesn't understand or "believe in" scientific fact a Twenty-first century school board member -- no less President of the United States -- would be truly insane.

 

Unfortunately, this country has a long storied tradition of such insanity.

 

JIMMY LEE DAVIS

 

"Tarnation! Poor Mr. Scopes!

He didn't know why

Mr. White came

to fetch him from

his tennis game

& bring him into Robinson's.

Me & Pete sipped

our sodas & listened

as he confessed

that back in the spring

when we were still in school,

he assigned us

the chapter on evolution,

which explained how

all the animals on earth

had started as simpler creatures

millions of years ago,

& how, over time,

they changed & developed

into the insects, birds,

fish & mammals

we see today,

& how, even now,

they were still changing.

(I try not to think of

fish as my ancestors

when I'm cleaning them.)

 

Mr. Robinson held up a copy

of Hunter's Civic Biology,

which is the book we used

in school, which is also

one of the books he sells

in his store, & asked:

'Did you use this in class?'

Calm as Conner's Pond,

Mr. Scopes said: 'Sure I did, Fred.

You can't teach science

at Rhea County High

without using that book!'

 

Mr. Robinson smiled

wide as a catfish unhooked.

'Well, John, the American

Civil Liberties Union will pay

to defend the first person

who challenges the new law

against teaching evolution

in Tennessee. So we were

wondering if you'd mind

being arrested, to get

the whole business

right out on the table,

right here in Dayton.'

 

Lordy! My ears

were burnin' & Pete near

choked to death

on his root beer.

Mr. Scopes saw us eaves-

dropping. He winked &

tipped his cap. 'Sure, I guess

that'd be all right --

long as I can finish

my tennis match.'

The men took turns

patting him on the back,

thanking him, telling him

not to worry; they'd send

someone down to

arrest him

later that afternoon."

 

What makes Jen Bryant's RINGSIDE, 1925 such a fun and great read is rooted in the collection of adolescent narrators who tell much of the story. They frame the news of the trial within the context of their daily lives which are altered by the upheaval, notoriety, and economic benefits that come to their town, thanks to the widely-publicized trial. The interactions amongst young friends and the sweetness of who is crushing on whom or the tension of best friends being sore at one another are the sort of touches that allow today's readers to fully relate to these teen characters from eighty years ago. At the same time, the author has neatly fitted in subtle details of life in the Twenties that provide a taste of how thoroughly technology and culture has rocked the world since those days of silent movies and Gatsby and the first commercial music recordings. And, most importantly, the author adds in a good dose of levity.

 

"I don't feel safe in this world no more

I don't want to die in a nuclear war

I want to sail away to a distant shore

And make like an apeman."

-- The Kinks

 

WILLY AMOS

 

"...Yesterday I was not

Willy Amos, peddler of fruit and tobacco;

I was Willy Amos, lawyer for the defense

fightin' against a big-city factory

forcin' its workers

to make twice as many gadgets

in half the time, payin' them

half the wages they should be makin',

and firin' them

if they made trouble..."

 

I'm betting that there'll definitely be a segment of this book's young readership who will immediately go out looking for a biography of Clarence Darrow, the historical character in the book whose portrayal makes him a likable hero worth knowing and emulating. Heck, I sure want to know more about him now.

 

RINGSIDE, 1925 is a teriffic read that is going to make a great, high interest readers theater piece in eighth grade history and language arts classes and will serve as a great springboard for debates and some really evolved higher thinking exercises.

 

Richie Partington, MLIS

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