arrivederci to monaghan

I guess some of his ave marias are being answered, or something.

Tom Monaghan, founder of Dominos Pizza and former Detroit Tigers owner, is creating a new town in Florida named Ave Maria. Accoring to that Times article:

Abortions, pornography and contraceptives will be banned in the new Florida town of Ave Maria, which has begun to take shape on former vegetable farms 90 miles northwest of Miami.

Tom Monaghan, the founder of the Domino’s Pizza chain, has stirred protests from civil rights activists by declaring that Ave Maria’s pharmacies will not be allowed to sell condoms or birth control pills. The town’s cable television network will carry no X-rated channels.

Sounds like it'll be an absolute appalling place to live, but he has the right to embark on such an endeavor. Likewise, the town's future inhabitants will voluntarily choose to live in such a Puritanical, hellacious environ. Different strokes for different folks, eh?

I applaud the effort to engage in building a new community with a particular vision in mind, even if that vision makes me ill. It reminds me of efforts made in the 19th century in America by anarchists to build communities that would be havens for freedom, except that Ave Maria's holy vision would be hell for practically any anarchist.

Part of his Florida plans also involve building the first new Catholic university in America in 40 years, also named Ave Maria. Prior to my recent move, I lived about a block away from his Ave Maria College in Ypsilanti. Heh... my only experience with using psilocybin took place in an apartment building (see picture) that is now owned by the college. I won't even mention how many times I've wizzed on their property while walking home from a party or bar. I will say that I didn't wizz alongside one of the two gorgeous 19th century houses that are also on their property.



I'm glad to see him leave Michigan. I remember hearing a few years ago about his plan to build the world's tallest crucifix near Ann Arbor. His right to build such a thing on his own property should not have been thwarted, but that thing would have been an eyesore of Biblical proportions that would have brought all sorts of undesirable tourism to the area.

To celebrate Monaghan's departure, I think I'll have me some Dominos good pizza.

p.s.: I'm hellbound, right?