Past and present Blue Devils were out in force Tuesday night, attending the Ellenville Public School Board's biweekly meeting at the High School Media Center. On the night's agenda was Jim Graham's proposal to change the Elementary School mascot from, in his words, "a pudgy little man in a blue suit" to the sainted boy with a leaky boot. In a sea of Blue Devil Pride t-shirts, Mr. Graham and his small group of supporters stood like true believers, seemingly unaffected by the unpopularity of their views. He spoke haltingly to the board, making his case once again to a highly skeptical but polite audience.

In contrast to Mr. Graham's nostalgic appeals to history, supporters of the Devil presented facts, petitions and surveys, all with dauntingly high margins of support. 700 signatures, 90% approval; simply put, the Devil is welcome in the Town of Wawarsing, with few losing sleep over the satanic implications raised by Mr. Graham and his committee.

No vote was taken, and it appeared towards the end of the meeting that the board did not even know how to approach the issue. Like so much that appears "official," the fact that the Blue Devil is the current school mascot is not reflected in any formal policy, it's just been that way for as long as anyone can remember. Organizations will be consulted for guidance, and some sort of action will be taken, but clearly the board was reluctant to do anything at odds with the apparent will of the people.

Hot button issues of little consequence seem to captivate us, perhaps because the larger, more difficult issues like budgets, taxes and educational policy have no easy answers, just barely adequate compromises. Ellenville is not unusual in this regard. Nevertheless it was encouraging, even inspiring, to see a community unite around its perceived identity, and speak with one voice and one purpose. A local school board is accountable to the students and residents it serves, both to those in the majority and to those voicing unpopular opinions. In the Media Center Tuesday night we saw how precious and powerful true democracy really is.

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