Red State/Blue State

“Lawrence of Arabia” starring Peter O’Toole, Alec Guinness and Omar Sharif, and directed by David Lean is one of my favorite films. Watching coverage of the continuing crises in the Middle East makes me realize that all we need to understand about the Middle East region can be found in this classic film. 1. About the ARAB SPRING: “THE TRICK IS NOT MINDING” You will be burnt! Playing with matches at the beginning of the film, an officer exclaims loudly that it really hurts when you are burnt by a match. “Of course it hurts. The trick is not minding” replies Lawrence. You are going to have to take some good solid licks when mucking around in the Middle East. Not in the same sense, hopefully, as described by George C. Scott, portraying a General in “Dr. Strangelove”, who exclaims in an animated tone when chastised for advocating nuclear war, “Well, of course I’m not saying we aren’t going to get our hair mussed a little bit!” We don’t want to go quite as far as the deranged General,

The point is this. The facts before us lead to the conclusion that the former Presidential Candidate and Congressman from Ohio , Dennis Kucinich may have been correct when he proposed a Ministry of Peace. Because as a whole, America is a war-weary nation.   One writer recently admonished us as a people for even using this term. After all, he argued, in World War II we sacrificed much to win a war. And in Vietnam , the draft polarized a nation. In this case, we have a volunteer army and most have not felt the pain and sacrifice of past war years.   But, on the other hand, we have lived through a huge economic downturn. And to give the American people credit, our society is a global village that is much more inter-connected so we have experienced many scenes that would not have been possible in past years. The internet and social media has changed our social conscience, for better or for worse.   So, the idea that we are not war-weary is not justified. If we had not

Without Irony: The Caveat being that the one requirement in writing this Affirmative Statement-George W. Bush's Greatest Legacy as President- is from the perspective of the left-leaning moderate. The rebuttal comes from a right- leaning moderate. Bush’s War:   In the PBS Frontline piece, we discovered that the lead-up to the war was carefully orchestrated by members of the Bush administration, akin to the role out of a new marketing strategy. They wanted to “sell” the American public on the idea of going to war. On the ground, the buzz on the streets was simply that Bush Jr. wanted to “finish the job” that his father had started, by going into Baghdad and taking down a despot.   Saddam Hussein was a thorn in the side of the Bush legacy, and W wanted to repair the damage. Indeed, the general consensus seemed to be that the powder keg that was the Middle East would become much less volatile if only Hussein could be driven out of power.     Even so, accepting t

Two phrases apply here. “Walk a mile in my shoes” and “There but for the Grace of God, go I”. If we simply adhere to these simple homilies that exist in our lexicon, we might go a long way to understanding how the other side feels on this issue.   In my view, I can definitely feel the anxiety and real fear that has been expressed in the black community. My point of view is seen through the eyes of one who has never owned a gun. I don’t like guns. I took a gun out to shoot one day at some property my Grandfather owned. Not only was I uneasy pulling the trigger, imagining what could happen if a stray bullet happened to hit an animal, my fears were instantly realized as a family came immediately into the vicinity and told us their children played in the woods all the time. They were not angry, as indeed we did have a right to be on the property, but it brought home to me some simple truths. If you don’t like guns, you don’t have to use them. If you would like to shoot guns, you

Harper Lee in 2007 “Atticus was right. One time he said that you never really know a man until you stand in his shoes and walk around in them. Just standing on the Radley porch was enough.”   In the ending paragraphs of “To Kill a Mockingbird”, Scout says to her father, “Atticus, he was real nice…” Atticus: “Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.”   The words are prescient in light of the George Zimmerman verdict on Saturday night. I’ve often thought that one of the hardest things to do, and one of the best remedies to our ongoing race relation quagmire, is to cultivate the ability to get inside other people’s heads and see things from their point of view. This is the beauty of the film, ‘To Kill a Mockingbird.” In it, we are able to see the world through the eyes of a child. Children understand things intuitively and can grasp emotional concepts much easier than adults.   In one scene early in the film, Scout innocently breaks up an ug

I have a problem with Tony Soprano. A big problem…with the way that I have seen the tributes pouring in about the character James Gandolfini portrayed in “The Sopranos.” A few weeks ago, I wrote a post asserting that the Great American Novel, “The Great Gatsby”, could never become the The Great American Film. That accolade belonged to “The Godfather”. For many reasons, the Godfather series of films touched a chord in the psyche of the American consciousness. Why do I believe the Godfather holds sway as the Great American Film? It is because we are a nation of immigrants. We believe in the power of tomorrow, in the ability of a man to work his way up from nothing and become somebody. The Godfather also touched another nerve in the American psyche. We are a violent people. The Godfather acknowledges this facet in our character and consciousness. We celebrate violence in some ways that is disturbing to the rest of the world. Another post from “6 Degrees of Film” is called Americana. T