The Devil Won't Go Down To Georgia

It seems like high school bands are in the news today, and since it's a subject close to my family's heart, here's another story for you:

In preparation for a guest appearance at the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, the marching band at C.D. Hylton High School had a logical and seemingly innocuous idea: play a Georgia-themed song. They decided on "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," by the Charlie Daniels Band.

But early this month, a local newspaper, the Potomac News, published a letter by a Woodbridge resident who, after having seen the C.D. Hylton Bulldawg Marching Band perform the country-western hit at a football game, wondered how a song about the devil could be played at school events, because of the separation of church and state.

Fearing bad public reaction, Hylton's longtime band director, Dennis Brown, pulled the song from the playlist. "I was just being protective of my students. I didn't want any negative publicity for C.D. Hylton High School," he said.

The guy that wrote the complaint letter is an idiot, but the band director is a wimp for surrendering so easily. Unfortunately today all it takes is one letter from one moron to send school administrators running for cover. The director should have simply said "Dear Sir; You are an idiot and therefore your opinions are meaningless", and gone on with his scheduled program.

Charlie Daniels, the song's author, seems to feel the same as I do. Says Daniels:

"I am a Christian, and I don't write pro-devil songs. Most people seem to get it. It's a fun little song," Daniels said Friday in a telephone interview from Mokena, Ill., where he was scheduled to perform a concert. "I think it's a shame that the [marching band director] would yield to one piece of mail. If people find out that he can be manipulated that easily, he's going to have a hard way to go."

I'd love to get this letter writer at my kid's high school. They go to Mission Viejo High School where the mascot is the Diablos. At every game we have Pablo Diablo (a kid in a devil costume) roaming the sidelines. Somehow we manage to do that without having separation of church and state issues.

Go Devils!