Point of View
School's name plays the devil's advocate
By Carl Heintze
Some folks in Contra Costa County are upset because a school district there wants to name a new school Diablo Vista.
The school has a view of Mount Diablo. Those who are upset are religious conservatives who think it unwise to name anything after the devil They don't seem to be bothered that the biggest mountain around is named Mount Diablo. They just don't want a school, with a view of the mountain, named for the devil. Even in Spanish.
I suppose we've reached the point where the commonplace takes on added meaning because it's a symbol of something.
Take, for example, flying the Confederate flag over the South Carolina state capitol building. African Americans see it as a symbol of oppression (the Civil War was fought over slavery). Some white South Carolinians see it as a symbol for the sacrifices of the Confederate dead. Even though the Civil War (or, depending on your persuasion, the War Between the States) has been over for more than a hundred years, its wounds still aren't healed.
There is Procter and Gamble, which changed its company logo because religious conservatives saw something sinister, even diabolic, in it. It was never very clear what the sinister symbol was (nonreligious conservatives couldn't seem to see it) , but Procter and Gamble tired of denying they paid lip service to the devil (who is, after all, a symbol) and decided to get a new company logo.
Or, what about Elian (and don't ask, Elian who?). Sure, Elian is a child, a Cuban child, but he's also a symbol of the hatred Cuban exiles have for Fidel Castro. Those who are upset about Elian in Miami see more than we see when we look at Elian. They probably always will.
I'm not quite sure why symbols are so important in our daily lives. Television surely is one reason. Television deals repeatedly in images. Television news likes stories which are visual, don't need a lot of explanation (there's never enough time) and are easy to understand, as easily as the difference between good and evil.
In many ways it's a throwback to the morality plays once staged in front of the cathedral during the Middle Ages. They were meant to be simple so the peasants could understand them.
But there's an even more recent example: the American Western.
Westerns, whether in books or movies, have a simple basic plot. There are the good guys (they wear white hats so you can be sure) and the bad guys (they wear black hats to distinguish them from the white hats).
The good guys are represented by the virginal daughter of a downtrodden rancher who is besieged by the guy or guys in the black hats.
Usually, besides the hero there's a sidekick who is funny, quaint and not very bright. These two good guys have as their archetypes Don Quixote and his faithful squire, Sancho Panza.
The good guys always win, the bad guys always lose, the virginal daughter of the downtrodden but honest rancher may or may not fall into the arms of the hero. The ranch, the town, the dam or the cattle herd are always saved.
Would that real life were like that. Alas, it sometimes happens that the bad guys, the devil--no matter what his or her shape--comes out on top. I don't think that means we have to favor the devil, if he exists, but it does seem that we should be a little less certain that white is white, black is black and there are no shades of gray.
To be truthful, I don't how Mount Diablo got its name, but I don't think it had much to do with devil worship, and having a view of the mountain (when the smog from nearby refineries isn't in the way) is not hazardous to one's faith.
Perhaps we all ought to read Don Quixote. The masterpiece is really a satire on the extent that chivalry in Spain had declined in the days of author Cervantes. And Don Quixote really doesn't win, he dies. But, it seems to me, he gains our lasting respect and love in doing so. He honors the ideal of chivalry. He does the right thing.
I also think he realized goodness may exist, but that it doesn't always win.
Would he object to naming a school after a view of a mountain apparently named after the devil? I don't know. But I don't think so. He might even find it amusing.
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Saratoga, California Since 1955
