----- Original Message -----
From: Thom Saffold
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ;
Politics of Meaning ; Michigan Peace Team ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; July 30 in Philly ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
; Church of the Incarnation ; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Saturday, July 15, 2000 4:32 PM
Subject: [July30] Death Row at the Arcade
July 30 in Philly - www.unity2000.com
First, the bad news, then a sane comment on the bad news. Both of these are
from the Washington Post.
Death Row at the Arcade
By Rowan Philp
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday , July 6, 2000 ; C01
Some treated their families to apple pie picnics in the park over the Fourth
of July weekend. Others offered home-movie reruns of a favorite uncle
returning from the war. And a few hundred watched their loved ones fry in
the electric chair.
Parents stood with uneasy grins as their children, gripping steel
"electrodes," howled and jiggled on Ol' Sparky, the sound of electricity
crackling in their ears and smoke rising over their heads.
Wives zapped their husbands with zeal; teenagers shouted, "But I didn't do
it!" from the chair while their friends said "I know" in Hannibal Lecter
voices before giving them the juice.
The "Original Shocker"--an amusement ride modeled with staggering look-alike
accuracy on the electric chair--has been one of the favored attractions this
week at Dave & Buster's games arcade at White Flint Mall in Rockville. The
arcade, which has had the ride since 1996, estimates that 2,000 people rode
it over the long weekend.
Apparently, the only thing better than experiencing fireworks in the capital
on the Fourth is experiencing capital fireworks.
The Shocker comes complete with oversize oak throne, leather limb restraints
and a numbing vibration system that seeks to simulate the "13,200 volts"
threatened on the side. Admission is about $1.
What next? A vet video game where the object is to see who can put the most
dogs down?
The Shocker was built by a company called Nova in England--the same nation
that's made a killing guiding American tourists through the Tower of London.
("I'm telling you, Lionel, the Yanks will go for this like tiny tots to a
matchbox--look at the sport they got out of a double-murder trial with that
Simpson chap.")
Anyway, they've exported others to places like Ocean City, Md., Atlanta and,
of course, Dallas, and they really went the extra Green Mile on the design
to simulate a real execution. (Both Maryland and Virginia execute people for
real by lethal injection, but we can rest assured that even the English will
be stumped trying to get a laugh out of an IV ride.)
Brett Faircloth, 10, of Prince George's County, approaches the chair
reverently while his friend fusses over the preparations, such as making
sure every one of Brett's fingers are in contact with the twin steel
"electrodes" on the armrests.
Brett punches the "High Power" button, giggles excitedly and listens to the
loud clang of a heavy steel door being closed and bolted. A heartbeat is
broadcast beneath the sound of an electric generator winding up.
His mother, Deborah Faircloth, winces slightly as his feet suddenly jerk and
shake to the sound of shrieking static.
A gathering of eight people--some lining up, others witnessing--watch the
boy's mouth turn into a harmonica and the cords stand out of his neck with
the effort of holding on. Then--unbelievably--a thick curl of smoke rises,
seemingly from Brett's hair, after about 15 seconds, followed by a flat line
on his "heartbeat monitor."
"It's weird, but it's cool--he loves this ride," Faircloth says.
"It's great!" Brett shouts, having been revived by others queuing for the
chair. "It shocks--I held on till fzzzt."
If you can't take the vibrations, you can release the "electrodes" but lose
the rest of the ride, so the idea is to see who is man enough to be
successfully electrocuted.
And there's the nut: The larger goal of this game is not only to die, but to
die as the bad guy. For the British, of course, this is no big sacrifice:
They would, after all, rather die than be embarrassed. But for good-guy-wins
Americans, it strips away every traditional value except courage, and that
just might make this the ultimate Independence Day activity.
One spectator, Bob Koran of Silver Spring, observes: "It borders on bad
taste--especially the smoke--but that's Americans for you: Europeans tour
torture museums; Americans participate. Look at them."
Indeed. An entire family--Nathaniel, Lorna and Jamal McKnight, 11, of
Baltimore--is having a whale of a time on the Shocker. And this despite the
fact that it is surrounded by high-tech, good-guy-wins games, such as
Daytona.
Says father McKnight: "The first time I saw it, I was shocked. It is weird,
and that's what makes it cool."
Even stranger, the Shocker--with its black and yellow chevrons and "high
voltage" warning signs--stands out here like a Corvair in a parking lot of
BMWs. It's not retro, it's primitive.
Says arcade game tech Lij Malithu, 17: "It's amazing that people love this
thing--says something about people, I guess. I don't think any other country
in the world would have a game like this."
In fact, Dave & Buster's has its own death row in the form of "L.A.
MachineGuns," "The House of the Dead 2" and the Shocker, all in a row.
Brett Faircloth returns for a second death ride.
His mother says: "You know, there is a lesson to be learned from this
machine--they know if they get into trouble, they might just face the real
thing."
Hang on--the Shocker an educational tool?
Why not? Imagine police officers lugging the Shocker into the school
auditorium along with the handcuffs and the CPR dummy.
"I am a police officer, and it sounds good to me," says Officer Jerry
Hampton of the Hyattsville police--maybe joking, maybe not--as he watches
his daughter, Heather, 15, get fried. "The electric chair is a symbol of law
enforcement. Heather loves this kind of thing, but all teenagers are
innately twisted."
Says Dave Joy, general manager of the Rockville Dave & Buster's: "We've had
no complaints--everyone loves the Shocker. People are surprised that so many
women like it--ladies have their pictures taken on it for bachelorette
parties. But, no, we wouldn't offer a last meal to go with the ride--that
might bother people for real."
This Isn't a Game
Wednesday, July 12, 2000 ; A22
Forget that the United States probably has executed innocent people. Forget
that the electric chair is considered cruel and unusual punishment in many
states. Forget that although most Americans support the death penalty, a
significant minority opposes it.
The real shocker is that businesses such as Dave & Buster's and Nova are
making money off one of America's most soul-wrenching ethical issues by
treating it as a game.
The makers of the Original Shocker--a crude amusement ride designed to
resemble the electric chair [Style, July 6]--defend their product by noting
that European torture museums are not considered sick or gauche. But these
instruments of torture were used hundreds of years ago in other places and
are now comfortably removed from our social conscience.
Would anyone dare design a roller coaster based on slavery? An arcade game
that requires the players to gas Holocaust victims?
I was planning to take my parents to Dave & Buster's in Atlanta next month.
Forget about that too.
MARY CARMICHAEL
Spring Hill, Fla.
Rev. Thom Saffold
Ann Arbor, MI
734-668-1549
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
END THE SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAQ! NOW! UNCONDITIONALLY!
Make your voice heard. Sign up at: http://www.ProgressiveSecretary.Org
BUSH/GORE 2000
"Partnership for a Democracy-Free America"
"The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great
political importance:
the growth of democracy;
the growth of corporate power;
and the growth of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate
power against democracy."--Alex Carey, Australian social scientist who
pioneered the investigation of corporate propaganda, in Taking the Risk Out
Of Democracy, Univ of New South Wales, 1995)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
To unsubscribe, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Start Your Own FREE Email List at http://www.listbot.com/links/joinlb
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds�is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
