The Pro-Life Handbook Wins Regions, Goes to State

Thursday, February 1, 3:40 p.m. -- that's our next showtime. The Montrose cast and crew claimed the Region championship yesterday, winning unanimous first-place rankings from all three judges and earning its sixth straight trip to the State One-Act Festival (general festival info at the South Dakota High School Activities Association Speech website and South Dakota Public Broadcasting).

This play is why I haven't been blogging the legislative session much this month: the play carries the most important messages my cast and I have for South Dakota. It really is blogging on stage. We'd like everyone who can make to come down to Brandon next week and see what we have to say. This is the most important and immediately relevant play the Montrose HS Theater Company and Valley Road Productions have staged, and we're eager to share it with everyone we can.

If you can't make the show in Brandon (or even if you can but would like a preview), you can view the script online at my school website. Read it, see it, review it -- we are glad to participate in the conversation about life in South Dakota.

The Pro-Life Handbook -- Reviews!

The first review of "The Pro-Life Handbook," Montrose High School's one-act play, has arrived! Rani posted it as a comment to my initial PLHB post, but I wanted to spotlight her comments and use them to launch this separate post for all reviewers:

Rani said...

It was intriguing and I found myself encompassing many emotions as I watched. At times I became defensive, other times I found myself giggling at the hypocrisy. I was saddened and moved by a couple of realizations that I had never made before. In the end it was entertaining as usual and this year I felt like I learned a thing or two [emphasis mine].

"learned a thing or two" -- exactly the playwright's intent. I just hope the hypocrisy Rani giggled at wasn't our own! See Rani's complete comments on the play (and other valuable comments on life in Montrose) at her own blog, Mommyville.

We perform again Thursday morning, 9:35, at the Brandon Valley Performing Arts Center.
***Update We won Regions and have qualified for State! Our next performance is Thursday, February 1, 3:40 p.m., at the Brandon Valley Performing Arts Center. Come see what you can learn, and post your reviews here!

The Pro-Life Handbook -- Blogging Hits the Stage!

Come one, come all! See some of the issues discussed here turned into funky high school theater! The Montrose High School Theater Company will present "The Pro-Life Handbook," written and directed by yours truly, on the following dates:

• --Sunday, January 21, 3:00 p.m., Montrose HS (world premiere!)


• --Monday, January 22, 2:45 p.m., Montrose HS (school performance)


• --Thursday, Janaury 25, 9:35 a.m., Brandon Valley Performing Arts Center (Region I-B One-Act Contest... in Rep. Roger Hunt's hometown!)

All performances are free and open to the public. The show lasts just 40 minutes, so make the short drive to Montrose or Brandon and see what our young people can do with some of the serious issues facing South Dakota. Spread the word! Bring your friends! It will be worth it.

Leslee Unruh -- Blogvergence

Posted 2007.01.04 on Leslee Unruh's Abstinence Clearinghouse blog by Sherri Page:

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. It is insane to say that more money needs to be spent on family planning.

Posted 2007.01.05 on Clean Cut Kid by Chad, quoting a report in the Yankton Press & Dakotan:

Leslee Unruh, the former manager of the Vote Yes for Life campaign which advocated the ban during the 2006 election, said legislators should expect to see the issue come before them.

"We promised the people of South Dakota we would not stop. I haven't changed my plans," she said. "I expect it to be an issue at every legislative session until abortion is banned in South Dakota."

Argus Peddles More Smut!

The leading Sioux Falls newspaper (which would remain nameless if I weren't trying to reach the search engines) must be seeking synergy with one of its major online sponsors, Annabelle's Adult Superstore (i.e., the porn shop). While my wife was scrolling through an Argus Leader online forum on a letter to the editor about transportation for drunk bar patrons, she found an offensive avatar next to one of the posts. (See the forum thread here, but click at your own peril.) The avatar consists of a bare-breasted Betty Boop. We thought maybe some wise-acre hacker had found a way to sneak some porn onto South Dakota's flagship newspaper. But as we read through the post (from an individual of apparently good sense maintaining that people should be responsible enough to get themselves home from the bar in one piece without getting drunk and expecting our tax dollars to provide them with a way home), we found the following postscript:

Do you like my avatar, kids? I found it in the Argus Leader forum gallery. Don't you think my bare breasts are sexy and appropriate for the readers of these forums?? Way to go, Argus!!

Sure enough, when readers register to participate in the forum, the Argus offers a gallery of avatar images, including the Betty Boop and a few other cartoon images of women ill-dressed for South Dakota's winter.

Now I thought my earlier post on the Argus peddling smut might be considered a bit of an exaggeration. The Argus was advertising a porn shop, but at least doing so semi-discreetly. But now here's the Argus posting pornographic images on its own website and encouraging its forum members to use them next to their discussions of the great issues of the day. Now I'm really ready for a boycott. Nobody offers as much South Dakota news as the Argus, but I just don't want pornography coming uninvited into my house (and I won't be issuing any invitations). I don't dare recommend that my fellow teachers or students in my classroom look up articles online in the Argus. I go the Argus for education, not titillation. If the Argus is going to push the latter, I'll have to seek the former somewhere else.