TRY THIS
Maybe someone want s make GWTW a cult classic with more academy awards than any cult classic, and almost any other movie.
EVER.
Only the 10 Commandments, Ben Hur, and Titanic are in the same class.
But that’s not the reason this is now insane.
The
book and the movie are essentially SOAP OPERA mirrors of life from
antebellum Georgia to post civil war Georgia, complete with birth of the
KKK. The movie makes no political statement, makes no attempt to
glorify, ameliorate or re-invent slavery as an institution, If anything
it shows how it made the development of a slave culture in the south
made it VULNERABLE to being swept into …. A MOVIE, rather than survive
and grow.
And I can tell you as a YANKEE (literally) I had no
sympathy for those at that evening political meeting when I first saw
this movie as a child in the 5-8 year old range. Of course at that age
(~1955-58) I had grandparents and parent reminding me like clockwork
that whenever I saw ‘them’ going after the black people, I should
immediately connect and KNOW that I (the jews) was next.
But trying to be reasonable to a mob is impossible (unless the mob is small and you are Atticus Finch).
I
have been one of those who ALWAYS thought the PUBLIC (i,e, govt)
veneration of the confederate flag WRONG. Privately we all have the
right to be stupid, ass holes, or stubborn misanthropes. So fly it out
your door.
But now we are going too far.
How many people
thought Rush Limbaugh’s warning about the American flag yesterday a
ridiculous overshoot? Yet Farrakahn, a blatant racist with scant place
among the civilized made Limbaugh into a prophet in 6 hours.
RE
Lee was, devoid of the institution of slavery he FOUGHT FOR (whether he
saw it that way or not) one of the most honorable, gentle souls-maybe
until Norman Schwartzkopf, in US history, spent most of a career
building fortifications to protect us, became the chief at West Point
for years, and MAY BE the most brilliant tactical general who ever
lived. The evidence is he thought slavery a bad idea (though like many
at the time thought-it may not have been immoral) and he as a young man
was friends in a group of those dedicated to voluntary manumission and
return of the slaves to Africa.
So what? In the end he refused the command of Lincoln’s Army and went to war to kill those who wanted to kill slavery.
As did Thomas J Jackson. And Braxton Bragg. And AP Hill. Do we reward these men with PUBLIC honorifics?
I
have a problem with that. I’d vote against it. But I live in a place
where the statues are of Joshua Chamberlain, and the missing 35th Maine
is talked of as if real.
It’s not up to me. But I have a feeling
if the states in the south wanted to auction off for private display
those statues, they would do all right, and that might be a proper way
to end this. But it’s up to the people of the southern states to judge
and rule themselves.
Scarlett O’Hara had no part in the evil of the KKK deranged killer in South Carolina. It’s a stretch to even say RE Lee did.
And
we KNOW we’ve gone WAAAAAY too far when a truly ridiculous hyperbolic
warning from Rush Limbaugh becomes made a prophecy by the likes of
Farrakhan.
Everyone take a breath.
This is all about a SICK
individual who would have found provocation from anything. If not
Americans who happen to be black, then red, yellow, jewish (as he did),
or maybe he would see wiccans around.
Maybe we should be mad about why we have no objective means of identifying these kinds of people when they are 8 or 9?
I can promise you one thing, removing GWTW from public showings will not stop the next racist lunatic.
What madness is afoot!
ReplyDeleteDid not Abraham Lincoln say the words below in 1858?
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races, that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race."
If we must get rid of GWTW to curb racism, then shouldn't be also tear down the Lincoln Memorial and retire the Lincoln cent?
Where does this rooting out of racism end? WHERE?
What we are witnessing is the Democratic Party attempting to scrub its own history lest people start connecting the dots:
ReplyDeleteThomas Jefferson: 1st Democrat Party President.
Andrew Jackson: 1st modern Democrat Party President.
Party of Southern slave owners: Democratic.
Party of Secession: Democratic.
Party of the KKK: Democratic. (Please identify a single Republican Klansman if you can.)
Party of Jim Crow: Democratic.
Party of President who ordered the US military to segregate: Democratic (Wilson)
Party that continues to suppress minority achievement in America today: Democratic.
This is simple.
ReplyDeleteWe are NOT getting rid of racism.
WE can't.
Canada can't.
Britain can't.
France can't.
EARTH CAN'T.
That's why THIS exists
Human nature includes a group of people to whom there is no chance knowledge can ever overcome an inner compuslion to hate for non understandable reasons for the rest of us.
No decision on a flag, statue, movie, no law, no culture, no enlightment can change the innate makeup of these people.
That is HOW IT IS
I disagree with you on this Epa. Yes, hatred and racism will always exist like mental illness will also always exist. But the general population changes once education takes away the difference between groups, and only individual peculiarities remain.
ReplyDeleteI arrived in DC in 1967. I lived through the 1968 riots and burning. I also was looked at with hatred because I was white. Some of the most racist people in the Americas are the highly educated Caribbean blacks.
So yes, there is racism among ALL races and nationalities, but the US underwent a complete change in race relations, and at this point the only divider is education and the politics of dividing to conquer.
A black president was elected twice thanks to white votes. People believed him because being who he was he had to be honest and sincere.
Given time, people do change their views. But it takes a long time ... And experiences like the ones we are living with this administration do nothing but ruin the ground we had won. This president will NOT be looked at as a cold, hateful individual with a mission; a tool being used to implement policies rejected for more than 60 years. He will be remembered as the first black president. That will be his legacy: the failure he was to help raise the destiny of blacks in the US.
Trying to change history is definitely not the route to accomplish equality. Martin Luther King wanted to erase differences, not to make them more an issue of dispute.
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