Beth Bingham's October 17th Courier advertisement in the school board race carried the tag line, "Schools where every child matters and somebody knows their name." She seems to have settled on this as the theme for her campaign. It appears on her website as well.
It has kind of a nice ring--pretty friendly and inclusive--but we couldn't shake the feeling that we'd heard it somewhere before. You know how that is?--You're trying to remember something but you just can't get it back? Don't you just hate when that happens?
Then it hit us. Cheers. It's the theme song from Cheers.
Now it's not direct appropriation. We weren't even sure there was any conscious connection until we read the Rev. Dr. Bingham's April 28, 2007 sermon at Pilgrim Congregational Church. Her inspiration came from the sermon's first page:
...Not being known by a name erases us.
It was the theme song of a television show that pointed out the other side of all that, the beautiful side of all that: Many of you remember the lyrics, and the endearing, if hilarious [sic] friendships that developed at Cheers:'Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got.
Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot.
Wouldn't you like to get away?
Sometimes you want to go
Where every body knows your name...'
We want to go where everybody knows your name, when they're awfully glad you came. You wanna go where everybody knows your name [sic, paraphrasing these and subsequent lines].
He knows your name. Jesus always knows our name and calls us by name and how precious is that?...
Bingham took her campaign theme from the lyrics of a television show jingle. We can only imagine the meeting where the theme was decided:
"Schools where everybody knows their name." No, that's kind of ambiguous; wouldn't everybody know their own name?
"Schools where children matter and everybody knows their name." Better in one sense; just as bad in the other. The reference isn't clear
"Schools where some child matters and everybody knows their name." That's no good. Why don't you switch "some" and "every"?
"Schools where every child matters and somebody knows their name." Kind of a low bar on the name recognition, but we'll go with it.
It's lucky she didn't take her inspiration from CSI. That's another television program that is mentioned more than once in her sermons. The mind boggles. Well, we've had our fun with that. No more beating that halt, lame, or possibly dead horse.
In the aforementioned sermon, Bingham proceeds to weave the passage in John 10 about the good shepherd with the 23rd Psalm. You ought to read the entire sermon if you have the time.
She doesn't mention John 10:16, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."
Which is why Beth Bingham makes such a great trustee of a private college with strong church connections. But the same thought gives us pause when considering her for a public school board. In 2005, such concerns bothered her as well.
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