have eaten more Cadbury's Mini Eggs than my jeans can handle. This morning when I put on a freshly laundered pair, I swear I heard the denim creaking and groaning as I shimmied and snaked into them. I'm sure my button fly could become a WMD if I eat just a few more. But the bag ain't empty yet, so this girth spurt shall continue.
I love Easter. While growing up, my family celebrated both the Christian Easter, and the Greek Orthodox one. They normally fall on distinct dates, so most of us Greeks are eating quite well this time of year. Just writing about it now, I can smell the lamb and potatoes, the heady aroma of my sister's spanakopita, and the funky fumes that waft off the tray of feta.
As little kids, we received two Easter baskets. On the years when Orthodox Easter fell after the Christian one, you would not believe the mountains of sweets we'd find. Of course, it was only because the stores wanted to clear their shelves of all the leftover Easter candy, so my mom was buying everything two-for-one at the local Jewels. Yes, I say Jewels. I'm from Chicago. Sue me.
Food stories aside, Easter represents my annual connection with religion. I'm not a guy who goes to church every week. I go once a year, on Greek Easter. I do consider myself a spiritual person, and some of the most powerfully mystical places I've ever been have been associated with one religion or another. But I hardly ever go to church.
On the radio show I did with Amy Matheny on April 9th, we talked to Reverened J. Bennet Guess of the United Church of Christ. UCC is known for having controversial television commercials, and their latest, called 'The Ejector Seat,' is no exception.
It presents several people from 'fringe' communities: a single African-American mother with child, a Gay couple, a homeless woman, an elderly person with a walker. Each, in turn, is 'ejected' via an ejector seat from the church. The words 'God doesn't reject people. Neither do we.' then flash across the screen.
Many of the major networks have rejected the ad, just as they did UCC's earlier one. But our friends at Viacom, who run Logo, decided they were going to reject the ad too. Yes, you read that right, Logo REJECTED the UCC ad.
For a network which claims to have 'Programming that reflects our lives" and 'Programming that tells our stories,' they are certainly not practicing what they preach. You can be sure that I will not, even for a moment, be turning my dial to Logo any time soon.
I encourage all of you to watch the commercial at stillspeaking.com and support the UCC if you can. And if nothing else, tell a friend how Logo, the network that claims to be reflecting our lives and telling our stories, isn't.
With you in 4/4,
Peter Mavrik
peter@windycitymediagroup.com
radiopeter.com