Godfellas

If you have not heard of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, or even if you have heard of the San Francisco Mime Troupe, you may be thinking of the Marcel Marceau type of "pretending to be in an invisible box" silent acting. No. That's pantomime. "Mime" really means to "mimic" or to satirize. And that's what the SFMT does with a new show every year, since 1959. This year's show, witnessed front-row center today, is a freethinking masterpiece called "Godfellas."

The 90 minute show, punctuated with catchy songs and a live band providing the soundtrack, tells the story of the Jesus Christ Loves U Ministry (The JCLU - a front group for the mafioso Ecumenical Syndicate), which tries to take the nation's "faith-based funding" to its logical extreme: the abolishment of that pesky Establishment Clause and creating a new Constitutional Amendment to establish a national mandatory day of prayer. Only a Thomas Paine-loving and quoting schoolteacher can stop this rightward national drift to theocracy, especially after her secular study hall is commandeered by the syndicate's "Academy of Christian Citizenship and Abstinence Studies." She starts the "Citizens for a God-Free America," and a catch phrase, "God can kiss my black heinie!" Even white folks can't resist adopting this slogan.

However, the schoolteacher soon succumbs to the dark side, tempted by the easy money (filthy lucre?) of "faith-based funding." Only after a dream sequence, with Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Paine, does she realize her wrong turn. Reminded that societies thrive with critical thinking and die under blind faith, she gets back on track and saves America from the military-industrial God complex.

This is one rollicking civics lesson, especially in George W. Bush's America. As Thomas Paine once said, "These are the times that try men's souls." And as Thomas Jefferson once said, "All tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent." Both would be very proud of the San Francisco Mime Troupe.