A Knotty Halloween Problem

When I turned 11 years old and joined the Boy Scouts, first thing, they taught me how to tie a square knot; The second knot they taught me how to tie was a hangman’s noose.

The sheepshank, clove hitch, sheet bend, timber hitch and diagonal lashing came later.

To this day, I can tie a bowland knot around my waist with one hand.

I’m a bit rusty with knots. I still have trouble keeping straight how, “The rabbit comes out of the hole, runs around the tree, and goes back down into the hole”.

But I can still tie a hangman’s noose. That’s the sort of practical thing a boy does not forget. It’s not like fractions and declensions and 1066, the useless stuff they try to teach you in school.

Every once in a while in Scouts some guy would tie a hangman’s noose and drape it on some other guy’s tent. When the victim found it, he’d unravel it and use the rope to snap ass with like a wet towel in a locker room. There’d be a big game of chase, lots of laughs, and we’d all pile into the spring for a swim.

Just kid stuff.

I’m remembering these knots this morning for two reasons: our annual Halloween display and the book I am writing on the history of firefighting in Jacksonville.

Since we moved into this house 12 years ago, Ginny and I have set up essentially the same Halloween display every year. We use it as an evangelism tool to illustrate that phrase from Psalm 23, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou, Lord, art with me”.

For photos of our display and explanations of what we do, please chick on October, 2005 or October 2006 in my blog archives.

Among the kids in our neighborhood, a visit to the Cowarts on Halloween is a big event and each year they will ask me well in advance if we will be giving out treats again this year. We try to give them the best packet of treats they will get anywhere.

Apart from this chance to spread the Gospel in a low-key, non-threatening manner to people who come to our door asking, we would not bother with Halloween at all. It’s just not a holiday we care anything about.

A new factor this year means we may not put up a display at all …

This bring me to my fire history book.

The main thrust of my book involves the bravery, sacrifice and heroic deeds of Jacksonville firefighters. Yet, to be historically accurate, I’m obligated to at least mention some of the less noble events related to our fire department.

Recently some guy draped two hangman’s nooses on the equipment of two firefighters. Instead of unraveling the rope, snapping ass, chasing the culprits and all going out for a glass of Kool-Aid, there came an internal investigation, calling in of the FBI, lawsuits, recriminations, name calling, and all sorts of ill-will.

I wish these guys would grow up like Boy Scouts.

But, they haven’t.

Shame.

Anyhow, in recent days a certain segment of the community has taken to putting hangman’s nooses around where other segments of the community would find them.

To some people the hangman’s noose has become a racial symbol.

And other people get up in arms taking offence.

Doesn’t anybody ever grow up?

Criminals were being hung long before the Civil War, long before there was a United States. This form of execution dates back to Bible times.

In the book of Esther, the king hung Haman, the bad guy, and his ten sons from a gallows scaffold fifty cubits high (that’s about 75 feet tall).

I used to wonder why they built the gallows 75 feet tall, then I realized that this was a public hanging and they wanted the stage high enough so that all the crowd could get a good view. Then I read somewhere that while the gallows was 75 feet tall, the rope was only say 60 feet long.

That way, when they shoved Haman off the platform and he hit the end of his rope… his head would pop off.

Hey, they didn’t have cable in those days.

But, what a show!

Scouts would love it!

In parts of England, public hangings took a slightly different from. They would tie the criminal’s hands behind his back then place the noose around his (or her) neck, then the executioner would tighten the rope till the criminal rose up on tip-toe barely touching the platform. That way as long as he could “dance on the end of his rope” for the amusement of the crowd, he would stay alive dancing until his legs gave out and he strangled.

If someone in the crowd really cared about the hanging man (or woman) that person would run up on the gallows to the hoots and cat-calls of the crowd, and grab the criminal’s legs pulling down with added weight to tighten the noose quicker and end the dance faster.

That was an act of love….

Anyhow, with all the racial tensions floating around, Ginny and I decided that in order not to potentially offend anyone in our racially mixed neighborhood, we’d come up with some other idea for a Halloween display…

But we can’t think of anything appropriate.

I wish people would just grow up and move on.

But Halloween is not the only night evil is loosed on the world.

This is about more than our cute traditional Halloween display

The Apostle Paul said, “Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as in you is, live peaceably with all men”.

Sometimes, folks make that hard to do.