An accident at a fair in Indiana has killed five people. But the big news is that God saved a couple of country western singers from the duo Sugarland from risk!
Whatever it was, members of Sugarland can thank stage manager Hellen Rollens for saving their lives by making a spur-of-the-moment decision to hold a prayer circle just before the stage collapsed last Saturday at the Indiana State Fair.
Looks like God was listening. Here’s what happened.
Sugarland’s manager, Gail Gellman, credited Rollens with keeping the country pop duo from walking down the ramp at the last second, just as a 70 mph gust of wind from an approaching storm caused the stage to topple over onto the crowd, killing five fans and injuring dozens of others.
“Everybody was standing in a prayer circle getting ready to go onstage, and [as Rollens] was walking down the ramp, the stage fell. So her decision to hold them for literally a minute saved every band member and crew’s life,” Gellman told the Associated Press.
Actually, don’t you suspect that this Rollens character frequently asks the band to waste time in prayer circles, so this was nothing exceptional? Wouldn’t it have been more impressive if God had spoken in warning to Hellen Rollens, so that she’d run out to warn everyone else and tell them to get away from danger, so that 5 people wouldn’t be dead?
Since this God is clearly an evil bastard who cares nothing for human life, and since the members of Sugarland must be agents of an evil, monstrous being who casually swats down their fans, I hope you’ll all join me in boycotting the insensitive wicked minions of this cruel god. Boycott Sugarland!*
*This is admittedly no sacrifice on my part since I’ve never heard of these dull-witted wankers before, and just the phrase “country pop duo” sends me fleeing.
It never ceases to amaze me that these people don’t stop to think that the other side of “God saved a couple of country western singers from the duo Sugarland from risk!” is that “God let 5 people die and many others get seriously injured!” Nor do they stop to think that it implies this duo deserved to be saved while those other poor people deserved to be victims and that implication is just wrong.
Like Almighty God couldn’t be bothered to, you know, save everyone? “Almighty” – I do not think it means what they say it means.
Pint, you’ve got it all wrong. Those five people were killed to test our faith. They were sacrifices to the humpty wondresness of the Lawd and He just wants us to know that “we could be next” so get you sh*t together and pray!
Or something.
Ugh, miracle survivors. I despise those “Woohoo! God decided to kill someone else because I’m special” assholes.
If I was gonna worship a god, it’d be the god that told some engineer – a couple weeks early – that the stand was unsafe if there was gusty winds. You know, the kind of god that averts trouble completely? The boring kind that hardly seems to be there at all.
Why do all these people worship the FAILgod?
Also, for dying at a Xian country pop duo concert, those 5 go directly to heaven and get their 72 virgins without having to pass go.
But PZ, didn’t you read the article? They’re praying for their fans, so five dead are really nothing to be concerned about. I’m sure the five will come back alive as soon as God gets to their prayers in the queue. No way they’re just showing off piety to stay endeared to a dull, superstitious fanbase.
“I thank God for every person who lifted a truss, who pushed against that metal to get it off someone; for every person who used a chair as a stretcher. I thank God for every fan and emergency responder, for everyone who ran to the trouble instead of away from it. The courage of those men and women will forever be with me.”
See, thousands would have died if God hadn’t made the people be there. Because, uh, then there would have been nobody to get injured, so nobody could have been saved, and uh, God wouldn’t look as good as he does now. Or something.
Something very similar to this happened to me this morning. I got in my car and started my commute to work without praying, as is typical. When I was on the interstate a car swerved into my lane about a half mile behind me had I take 30 seconds to pray I would have been right there and gotten hit.
Since Rollens was the stage manager, she may have also had the stage crew waste time in prayer that could have been spent make sure the stage was properly built.
PZ – You got this one wrong. The band never mentioned God saved them, nor did they mention that their prayed circle saved them. It reads very straight-forward that their stage manager saved them by having them pray beforehand.
I’m not saying the band doesn’t believe God saved them, but the quotes in the article are cut and dry: They are thanking their stage manager, not God.
So, the prayer thingie went something like:
God: “Aww, y’all stopped to have a prayer before ya went on stage. That’s nice. Say, I’m about to kill a buncha folks here. Why doncha just hold up for a minute.”
Mr. D’s story reminds me of this Woody Allen routine.
What complete monsters! No guilt or shame or responsibility for putting their fans in such a dangerous situation? Godless me would feel horribly responsible, and incidentally would think twice before crowing about the wonder of my survival in the face of the catastrophe. Maybe that’s why I’m not rich and famous. Not ghoulish enough.
Yes, it’s always “God Saves Mother, Child in Horrific Air Crash.” It’s never “Mother, Child Escape Petty Divine Tantrum, Others Not So Lucky.”
I’ve been waiting for the “miracle” part of this story since Saturday night. I’m surprised it took this long to surface. And it’s every bit as Jesus-praising and smarmy as I had expected.
“Looks like God was listening.” Fuck. You. Josh. Grossberg.
That would make the journalist one of the assholes I despise, not the musicians. Other than that, notice the bolded part.
I think this is what I’ve heard called the Argument From Incomplete Devastation.
The idea that there is no pattern to momentous events, that often shit just happens, is too much for some people to cope with. We all want some sense of control over our fates, and if we can’t have it (which we often can’t), then it seems more comforting if fate is, at least, in the hands of a benevolent (in the long term) Master Planner.
I saw them at Lilith Fair and quite enjoyed them despite not being familiar with their work. That, however, is not colouring what I’m about to say…
It doesn’t sound like they are thanking their insane god directly for this (though they do thank him later for all the people who helped those he apparently couldn’t bother to protect from the wind in the first place). The thanks appear to be going to an actual human being for once. A human being who may have been concerned about the weather but instead of saying “It doesn’t look good out there” suggested what would normally be time-wasting prayer circle that actually helped for once by wasting time.
And you know what, even if it wasn’t a case of OMG miracle survival!!!111!, those musicians are still assholes who said:
Yeah, God is the one who should be thanked. The stage he didn’t prevent from collapsing will conveniently be forgotten.
“Also, for dying at a Xian country pop duo concert, those 5 go directly to heaven and get their 72 virgins without having to pass go.”
Except the lesbian who was killed, of course.
Also, boycott Sugarland? No problem. Turns out I’ve doing it all along. Country fried rubes.
If Teh God really cared he would have made the stage not collapse.
Or maybe this is a sign that they shouldn’t have been praying. After all, a stage collapsing at an atheist rally would be interpreted by Teh Faithful as a sign of Teh God’s displeasure.
The Pint: The answer is usually some variant of “Gaaawwwrd has his reasons, which man is too puny and lowly to perceive.”
I only am exposed to Sugarland because they did a Gabba DanceyDance, here, scroll down to episode 14.
i’m an indiana native and was troubled by the responses from sugarland fans (see their facebook) praising the fact that the band wasn’t injured – whilst condolences were rarely mentioned for the deceased and their families. the whole situation has perplexed me (forgone inspections, the band reportedly had too much equipment for the stage, why wasn’t the friggin’ show postponed after they explicitly stated somethin’ nasty was a-brewin’). since friends/family of friends died from this disaster, i didn’t want to post my thought about it in the small social circle i’m a part of but, i’m glad you did.
i also wonder why this catastrophe isn’t interpreted as “god hates country pop music” as so many other cultures are held responsible for disasters.
I’m not privy to any details beyond what’s been in the news, but the story I read (and commented on this morning over in TET) suggested that it was something exceptional: that Rollens held the band back for an extra prayer specifically because the conditions onstage seemed dangerous.
My question is (and it’s a rhetorical question, because I, sadly, know the answer): If they suspected conditions were dangerous, why didn’t they move people away from the stage instead of wasting time praying?
Maybe they should have considered holding a make-sure-the-rigging-has-been-inspected-for-safety circle, or even a check-the-weather-app-on-my-smart-phone circle.
Last I heard, the event organizers still had not confirmed that the rigging had been properly inspected.
If this had been a death metal concert, no doubt some nitwit would be ranting this very day about the wrath of God’s judgment.
Listen not to country music, for it maketh a plague upon the land.
In addition to the stage manager wastig the crew’s time so they may not have been able to thoroughly check stage and stage manager not being fully aware of weather conditions to be able to assess safety, has anyone considered that the weight of the band members on stage may have been enough to keep the stage in place in the wind thus avoiding the catastrophe. The prayer circle delay may have caused the whole thing.
Randomfactor @19:
I’ve been wondering when the xtian fundies would blame Christina Santiago for the tragedy. “God punished that lesbian community organizer from Chicago. (And don’t you pay no nevermind to the collateral damage of four dead and forty-five injured. That’s just the price of doing Gawd’s Work.)”
I was expecting a different story. One of the victims, Christina Santiago, was a lesbian activist so I was expecting some gobshite to say it was gawd´s punishment. Her partner Alisha Brennon was seriously injured as well, so I expect the other victims would be collateral damage.
“All is for the best
Believe in what we’re told
Blind men in the market
Buying what we’re sold
Believe in what we’re told
Until our goblogtainment.com final breath
While our loving Watchmaker
Loves us all to death”
~ Neil Peart
Bummer. Copy & paste fail
I think the miracle survival stories that made the most bile rise in my gullet were the ones from the Indian Ocean earthquake. “Gawd saved me. Praise Jebus!” Meanwhile, close to a quarter of a million people died in what was literally one of the worst natural disasters in all of recorded human history. Where was he for all those people?
I know the article adds the obligatory “looks like God was listening”, but it gives all the credit to Rollens.
When she asked the drummer to join in the prayer circle, he said, “Nahhhh, I’m an atheist” and walked out on stage alone.
True story, and he is one of the deaded now.
Odd then there is no mention at all of his being killed.
The idea that a prayer circle saved them is akin to saying those who died did something wrong and deserved death. But who the hell listens to Suckaland, anyway?
Citation seriously fucking needed.
I have done some Googling. The drummer for Sugarland is a Travis McNabb. There are no reports he is dead.
I’m and Indiana native as well (and have been to plenty of concerts at the good ‘ol Indiana State Fair).
What I’m confused about is the fact that the show wasn’t cancelled (LOOK at that FUCKING SKY! Sometimes you don’t need a meteorologist to know that it is, indeed, raining.) From what I heard, people weren’t being evacuated from the infield in a timely manner, so it’s even more likely that security/staff are more to blame than the people that rigged the set in the first place.
Either way…miracles? Fuck that noise. And the noise you make, stupidly-named “Sugarland”.
Dandhino @ 34:
I don’t think that word [true] means what you think it means.
The story is true, but only for novel values of true.
Ditto.
But…but God works in mysterious ways.
That also explains why entities with no detectable design principles–organisms–are nonetheless designed.
Glen Davidson
God didn’t do shit. If God had been involved, he could have prevented the wind from blowing down the rigging in the first place. How about thanking the people who helped directly?
In this case, does novel = xtian?
You mean, he’s writing fiction?
Except that all of the stories say that there was no one on the stage at the time.
(unless the use of the term “deaded” was the indication of Poe, in which case yeah, I’m sure that would pop up as an addendum to the story sooner or later)
I landed at KIND about 45 mins before that front went through the Indianapolis area. We had to bob and weave ( ie. divert around ) numerous thunderstorm cells on the way in from the west. This was a large system that was approaching from the west, moving fast, and headed right towards the city.
The question I have is… who at the event was looking at the weather…? It’s a summer time event and it’s outdoors. There are thunder storms in the forecast. The NWS has issued an alert. There is lighting all over the place as the front approaches. And these folks are outside???
Criminal. IMNSHO.
I’m with #9 &15. The journalist and stage manager are the ones making stupid insensitive statements here, not the band members.
Matthew 6:6. Why don’t those fuckers ever pay attention to the book they supposedly believe in?
Sorry. Foul mood. Have to attend a memorial service for an atheist friend later that will almost certainly contain prayer. He died of cancer while in his early 40s, leaving two of his children to suffer in the hands of his psychotic ex, a fact that bothered him a great deal more than his impending death. I know all the prayer talk will be an attempt to comfort the living, but it just infuriates me. If you believe that God exists, how can you worship him? How can you?
Aaarrrggghhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay. Better. Maybe I can get through this without causing a scene.
My best friend has worked with Sugarland at some concerts. The prayer circle is not an usual thing for them. He’s very familiar with their rigging and security would have been told to clear the area near the stage in that kind of weather.
@34
Bullshit. But Xians everywhere would wet their pants with glee if it were true. This is how urban legneds get started.
Criminal. IMNSHO.
Ah, but it was an act of gahd…
dandhino, you fucking lackwit, only musicians get to pick on drummers. Now go back to AOL where you belong.
It’s true for certain values of true.
As true as the bible, xianity, and Bush’s weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
As much as I dislike the Jeebus stuff, and boycotting Sugarland wouldn’t bother me since I have never heard of them, it’s a bit unfair to predict a tragedy after it has happened.
I have done hundreds of outdoor shows in FL, CA and the Midwest. Before, during and after storms.
We were always worried about lightning strikes, not micro-bursts ahead of the storms. The Wx service said 40% chance of T-storms that day. Strong winds and hail were *possible*. They always say that.
It was obvious a front was going to move thru, what wasn’t obvious is whether it would be violent where you were.
It became obvious and the fairgrounds folks were moving to the stage area when the intense downdraft happened AT THAT STAGE. A micro-burst.
From reports, no one was injured by, or even saw hail. Sustained 70 mph winds would have blown people around, and the whole fairgrounds was crowded. No flying people = no sustained winds.
And it’s not like any facility of that size has tornado bunkers or could get them to safety in time. So where are you going to direct the crowd to go? And how many of them are going to run into worse conditions?
On a related note, this story from one of the survivors has absolutely infuriated me:
http://unicornbooty.com/2011/08/indiana-coroner-refuses-to-release-lesbians-body-to-her-partner/
A lesbian woman whose partner was killed at the concert has been refused custody of her body by the coroner of that county. real christian of ya, coroner
A true country music legend, like say George Jones, would have gotten drunk and missed the entire gig, thus saving his life.
Are you people utterly tone-deaf or something?
Dandhino. Is. A. Poe.
OY!
Apparently, God also likes New Brunswick horse-breeders:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/08/17/nb-indiana-stage-collapse-fredericton-man.html
And ain’t it just a miracle he happened to be hungry, so went to eat rather than to the Sugarland set?
@The Sailor
Most of the buildings on the grounds are very, very solid. If I remember correctly (forgive my memory, it’s been years since I’ve been to the fairgrounds), there are multiple buildings within a few hundred feet of the stadium.
Yes, there could have been injuries sustained by the crowd due to high winds, etc, from the storm, but we’re dealing with a particularly susceptible, TEMPORARY structure that was not meant to withstand high winds. The surrounding buildings, to my knowledge, suffered no damage.
I, for one, would much rather be inside with the cows, surrounded by concrete, than squashed by tons of rigging.
THAT’S why the event personnel are at fault. You can even see how nasty the storm looks in the crappy video – I would have taken one look at those clouds and sought shelter.
Oh, I forgot to mention – this is a temporary, mobile setup that they use for bands. It’s actually situated on the inside dirt track where they also hold tractor pulls and so on and so forth; they let people into the “infield” (actually on the track) to be closer to the stage. If the people had even been evacuated to the stadium seating area, they wouldn’t have been in danger of the stage blowing over.
Outdoor music festivals are vulnerable to these catastrophes — a stage in Ottawa blew down in a downburst last month (three injuries),and there was a similar case in Alberta two years ago (one death, many injuries). The problem is endemic to these structures: they’re temporary, thus lighter and flimsier than a permanent building (even assuming the erection crew tightened all the bolts and hammered in all the pegs), and present huge flat surfaces to the wind. Moreover, summer storms move in (and out) quickly and unpredictably. Presumably stages can be engineered and erected to withstand whatever, but obviously are not, consistently.
I had always assumed they were named after Sugar Land, TX (near which I grew up)… but apparently not.
Lessa:
I gather that story about the authorities refusing to release the body has been debunked: There was a married lesbian among the killed, and her aunt is assisting her spouse in getting the body released, but that’s apparently because the spouse, who was among the injured, was still in the hospital, and not because anyone refused to release the body to her.
I picked up that story on Facebook yesterday (from Blag Hag via Susie Bright) and instantly shared it, along with my own little portion of outrage… only to be clued in almost instantly, in the comments (and by a Phellow Pharynguloid, to boot), that Jen’s original post had been updated to note the new information.
About a dozen years ago I was on a business trip to Verona in Italy. We were there for three days but had one day free, so we did the tourist routine.
That day Verona’s amphitheatre was being set up for an opera concert (Aida, I’d guess) and a stage was being built there from scaffolding and assorted polystyrene Egyptian-temple bits. A storm came in, which apparently is common at that time of year, with the storm front being concentrated down the valley and thus moving rapidly. The wind was strong enough to blow over the half-complete stage set, with scaffolding sent flying everywhere, and lightning hit part of the metal amphitheatre buttressing (I was close enough to it that my hair stood on end from the discharge).
No-one was hurt. No-one blamed God; no-one thanked God. People simply had the sense to get the fuck away from the stage as the wind rose and the skies darkened.
Rich Woods:
We in Indiana don’t have that sense. We have… um… er…
I’ll bet back to you on that.
Clearly Glob is a fan of country pop and the 5 dead were evil demognomes in disguise working for Santa.???
The Panic Man’s probably right, and if so,
I’m the dunce that “proves the Poe”…
and appy-polly-wallow-gies to dan d hino!
Those darn brown M&Ms getcha every time.
Best to play it safe and avoid all country music entirely. No end to boycott ever necessary.
If it hasn’t already I’d love to point to the bravery of the fellow audience members who after backing off from the collapse ran straight back in to help their fellow people out of the rubble. That’s the better story here. They knew god wasn’t going to do it for them.
I have boycotted Country/Western music all my life.
I boycott all drivel.
Can’t do it, PZ. Jennifer Nettles is awesome. I seldom listen to country music, but I make an exception for her.
There’s plenty of great country music. Much of it is god-soaked, of course, and there’s a bunch of crap out there, but the same can be said about a lot of musical genres.
Speaking of invocations of God….
http://www.out-at-home.com/archives/2220
I was on a quality control boycott of them anyway
Duth Olec @#66:
What’s this “we” shit? I certainly have it.
It is obvious to me that Sugarland’s god demands human sacrifices and their prayer was merely exhortation to the heavens to claim them. So we should all bow down before this all conquering vengeful god. Oh and stay away from Sugarland concerts in case they decide to offer up any more of their followers for sacrifice.
I’ve not heard anything remotely like this from either Jennifer Nettles or Kristian Bush (ie. Sugarland) except that they’re devastated by the loss of life. They posted a letter on their Facebook page. Yes, I follow them on Facebook.
I saw them in New Jersey on the day of the alleged “end of the world” and they ripped the absolute piss out of the idea that the apocalypse was coming. In fact, they ended their show with a cover of REM’s “It’s the End of the World”. They put on a seriously good show with ZERO mention of “god”.
This isn’t coming from the band.
Another one.
I think I’ll skip the Ottawa Folk Festival this year, or at least be sure to sit well back from the stage :-(.
(Actually, I have to miss most of it anyway — it coincides with Pride Festival, and CFI Ottawa has a bunch of events planned — eg. Nate Phelps coming to speak).
@ Miss Daisy Cutter #22
Yeah… I got that asinine explanation as a reason for why my mom was sick/both my parents died before I hit puberty. I wasn’t impressed by it then, either.
Wouldn’t their prayer vigil have been on their schedule, and therefore, even if they hadn’t prayed, they wouldn’t have been there yet?
I said that temporary stage collapses aren’t unexpected, when a storm rolls in you should move people away from them.
Of course my spouse pointed out we’re on our way to Burning Man, where hundred-foot temporary structures will be hit by 60 mph winds, and nothing big is ever allowed to collapse there (because it would be embarrassing and dangerous, defeating the point of putting it up).
I didn’t really have an answer to her. Certainly they can be resistant to those storms, so in a way I was wrong, but I still think if it’s expected we can just move people away from the structure during temporary storms, it isn’t unreasonable to make them unresistant to them.
@Crissa #82 – You’re going to Burning Man? I’m envious – so many of my burner friends are in the midst of panicked last minute packing and checking of supplies. I’m continually amazed by the ingenuity of people who build such things at Burning Man and impressed with how committed the people I’ve talked to out there are about safety. Have a safe journey to Black Rock City. I’m so sad that I’m not going this year. :( When you’re at Conclave, watch for the Chicago Fire Tribe – my friends have put together an amazing routine for the Great Burn.
Wait a minute – does this mean if nothing blows over or burns down in Black Rock City that God must love hippies? Is God a dubstep fan??
The real reason they’re so quick to interpret “God’s actions” is so they can cut off anyone who would make the more obvious interpretation: God didn’t want the concert to continue.