Plato under the Boardwalk; music banned
By Bill Kelly
Ocean City High School teacher Bill Hamilton was a bit of a rebel who was popular with the students, but not so much with the administration. He taught English and coached soccer when nobody considered it a talent threat to the football, baseball or basketball teams.
Hamilton owned the Rock Garden record shop on Asbury Avenue just off Ninth Street, and hired some of his students to run it. He also taught one summer school class in classic literature which Katie, one of the mayor’s daughters, attended twice a week.
This was the next to last class, and it being such a nice day, instead of having the class in a classroom at the high school at Sixth Street, Hamilton had all six of his students meet him under the Boardwalk at the Music Pier, where they moved under Shriver’s Pavilion as the tide came in.
For this particular class, Hamilton had his students read Aristotle, Socrates, and Plato, especially Plato’s “Republic.”
As they sat around in a circle under the Boardwalk, where it was in the shade and cooler, Hamilton had Katie read a portion of the book which she found most interesting. She opened it to where she had it marked and began reading: “….Any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole State, and ought to be prohibited. When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them.”
Continuing to read from Plato she said: “This is the point to which, above all, the attention of our rules should be directed – that music and gymnastics be preserved in their original form, and no innovation made. They must do their utmost to maintain them intact. And when anyone says that mankind must regard the newest song which the singers have, they will be afraid that he may be praising, not new songs, but a new kind of song; and this ought not to be praised, or conceived to be the meaning of the poet; for any musical innovation is full of danger to the whole State, and ought to be prohibited. When modes of music change, the fundamental laws of the State always change with them. Then I said our guardians must lay the foundations of their fortress in music…”
After a pause she began again: “Our youth should be trained from the first in a stricter system, for if amusements become lawless, the youth themselves become lawless, and they never grow up into well-conducted and virtuous citizens.”
Hamilton then noted as Peter Pan said, “This has all happened before and it will all happen again,” or as Yogi Berra put it, “It’s Déjà vu all over again.”
After a fervent and vibrant discussion and debate, the hour was up. The students kept looking at their wrist watches, and looking around at all the people lying in the sun and having fun. Some of the students wore their bathing suits and were just going to join the fun.
“For next week, the last assignment for this class,” Hamilton said, “I want you to read Constantine Cavafy’s, ‘Awaiting the Barbarians’.” of ancient times, and discuss its relevance today; class dismissed.”
Hamilton then walked down to the beach to Silvio, the Italian law student kicking the soccer ball about, and talked to him for a while, asking him if he would give a demonstration to the co-ed soccer team they had put together. Because they didn’t have enough to field a team of either gender, they had a co-ed team, and Hamilton wanted Silvio to show them a few of his tricks.
That evening at the Ocean City Commission meeting, the chambers were crowded, but they refused to let the KYW news team in to film the proceedings.
The mayor opened the floor to any citizen who had something to say, and there were quite a few comments before they got down to business. One of the commissioners who had introduced a resolution banning live music on the beach and Boardwalk a few months ago, now called for its final reading and a vote on the matter.
The last citizen to make a comment was Kate, who read the paragraphs from Plato’s “Republic” on the threat new music posed to the State and how it should be banned, but instead of the reaction she expected, one of the commissioners said that Plato was right and that the music was bad for everybody, including those who played it.
After the resolution was brought to a vote, the mayor spoke first, saying that he thought the measure went too far and was an infringement on free speech.
“This isn’t about free speech,” one of the commissioners barked back. “It’s about noise, and the noise pollution these kids are bringing into our lives.”
After a vibrant debate, the city attorney was asked to rule on the matter. Mr. Bell, an elderly gentleman who had to be shaken awake because he had dozed off, said it wasn’t a matter of music, but the level of the noise that should be restricted.
And so the resolution was amended to ban the level of music by the decibel level. The level was set so low that almost any type of music or noise would be considered illegal.
A $50 fine was approved and a few hundred dollars was appropriated from the budget to purchase a dozen handheld decibel meters, which were to be distributed to all of the policemen who patrolled the Boardwalk, with the law taking effect the following Friday at noon.
Next Up: A Slice In Time
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