Play That Funky Music, Christ Boy

Howard Lehrman, even after all these years, still considers himself an “anti-noise pollution activist,” battling “Audio Terrorism” and the “Boomheads.”

Boomheads are the guys who crank the bass in their cars, rattling windows and victimizing and booming to death – as Lehrman says – decent law-abiding citizens.

“People are getting more and more fed up with this nonsense all over the country, except Houston for some strange reason,” Lehrman tells Hair Balls.

Lehrman’s current Number One peeve involves Christ the Incarnate Word Catholic Church, about half a mile from his house. Each February, the mainly Vietnamese church puts on a festival, and the outdoor music that’s playing always includes, sure enough, thundering bass.

“My whole house is vibrating with all the doors and windows closed,” Lehrman says. “People don’t understand that heavy bass travels through walls, through foundations, through windows. You don’t just hear it, you feel it. That’s what I’m talking about.”

He continues, “The only reason I say there’s a relationship between the
people that are running that church and what I like to call the
‘gangsta mentality,’ is because they’re young and they want to cater to
that type of constituency. Unfortunately, they’re very tolerant of the
heavy bass, whether it’s rap music or whatever.”

The last several years, Lehrman drove to the church during the festival
and asked a church official to turn down the music, and he also calls
the police a whole lot. Neither gets him much of a result, and “unless
I want to be a vigilante and go in there and bust some heads,” there’s
not much else he can do.

Except bring in the diocese. Lehrman wrote a letter to 12 officials
from the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, laying out his problems with
Christ the Incarnate.

“There is NO good reason why anyone should have to tolerate this in the
first place; much less from a faith-based organization allegedly
preaching Love, Mercy and Compassion,” Lehrman wrote. “How about having
some Mercy on the church’s NEIGHBORS??”

Hair Balls spoke to Claudia Dechamps, a representative from the
archdiocese, and she’s checking on the situation. When she gets back to
us, we’ll update, as always.

Update: Dechamps says the archdiocese is conducting its own investigation into the matter, and that Lehrman’s is the only complaint they’ve received.