Archive for January, 2005
Say No to Clinton
I’ve been hearing talk of Hillary 2008 lately and it’s got me a little ticked. What’s this allegiance Democrats have to the Clintons??? Doesn’t anyone understand that they’ve been the worst thing to happen to the Democratic party in a long time?
Okay, sure, ol’ Bill won the presidency twice. Sure, he was the only Democratic president to win re-election since FDR. Sure, he presided over unprecedented economic prosperity. But ask yourself this: what has Bill Clinton done for the Democrats? I mean, come on…can anyone tell me one thing he’s done that has benefited his party? He lost control of the House and Senate. The Lewinsky affair, which was a real coup for the Republicans, has irreparably stained his legacy and the credibility of fellow Democrats. And nearly no one that was associated with the Clinton administration has been able to win public office in their own right…take Erskine Bowles, who ran twice for the Senate in NC and lost twice. In fact, the only person that has been somehow able to benefit from her association to him is Hillary. But the White House? Come on!
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Norman Rockwell and the Red State
I was thinking today about how wonderful Norman Rockwell’s paintings were. If you’re not familiar with Normal Rockwell, be sure to check this out. Let’s just say I’m probably the only brown man in the country that admires Norman Rockwell, but that’s beside the point. I was thinking about their irony…yes, irony, for the images that he painted were quite simplistic. Some of them almost mundane. Yet they all seem to convey something extraordinary, something that really strikes a chord (with me, anyway) both as an American and as a human being.
His paintings almost have a certain intrinsic value system. They espouse a way at looking at life…rosy in some ways, starkly real in others…but all of them evoke an ideal. Some could say it is an American ideal. Now I’m not white, so aside from the “White people are so cute!” feelings they muster, I see within them an exuberance for life…something characterized by the American people…an unabashed willingness to reach out into new frontiers, to greet new challenges with a fresh face and an open palm, to cherish our paltry existence on this dear earth of ours with pride and dignity. These are traits I see as uniquely American.
After the election, many of my blue state friends began to wonder about the red states. What happened? Where’s the America I knew? How did America become so fundamentalist? I was wondering that myself. And of course, it’s caused this great rift in the nation…a nation that puts “E pluribus unum” (Out of many, one) on its coins. Yet here we are. It’s we versus them.
But it’s not. I keep hearing that the Democrats have lost touch with the American people, that religious fundamentalism is all the rage now. And perhaps too they will get someone like Pat Robertson or God knows who else on their bandwagon. But I look at the paintings of Norman Rockwell, and I see the real America. There’s a simple truth to them that the Democrats have lost sight of (and the Republicans exploit). They say all politics are local, and they’re right. When your life consists of saying grace at the dinner table, getting ready for the prom, getting the latest gossip from the neighbors, what do you care about healthcare and lockboxes?
I must admit I’m a blue stater in my own way, so I don’t think GW Bush necessarily speaks for these people. But for the love of God, there’s got to be someone out there that does!
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Hotel Rwanda
I went to see Hotel Rwanda today. Let me just say that I’ve read many a review of this film and am somewhat dismayed by of them. Just take a look at MetaCritic. If you look real closely…although the overall critics rating is about a 79, which is pretty good one could say, the average user rating was…9.8! I think this is very telling about the natural difference between critical and audience reactions to just about anything.
I for one try to be a man of the people, and in this case I feel that I very much am. I LOVED this film. Well, “love” is a strong word. I can’t say I loved this film really because it’s not exactly a film to be loved. It’s a film to be admired. It’s a film that reaches out to you and grabs you at a gut level.
To put it in a nutshell, it’s about the atrocities that occurred in Rwanda during the Hutu-Tutsi clashes in 1994. Over a million Tutsi were killed in the massacre and the world simply looked away. But it’s really about a particular individual who experienced it: Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager thrust into an unthinkable situation and who struggled to save all the people he could. And this is precisely where many of the critics find fault…that the movie itself looks away from the atrocities and rather focuses and the lives of few interesting individuals. But I beg to differ…sure, it doesn’t give an account in graphic detail of the slaughtering of thousands…it does gives the account through the eyes of Rusesabagina. And that precisely is what makes it so moving…because we can inject ourselves in our own small way into his situation. We can — through his eyes — see what went on. He puts us there in a much more real way than an impersonal camera lens.
I for one consider it a wise choice that the movie commits itself to telling this story in this way. I also admire Don Cheadle’s commitment to the character…a performance he deserves high honors for. It’s so in keeping with the movie itself…doing whatever one can to hold on, to struggle forth when the entire world is crashing down around you. In spite of sundry lackluster reviews, this movie WILL survive.
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