GROUND HOG DAY.. 2017
I wonder what really makes a classic movie.. or a classic person? Bill Murray's film. and lovely Andie MacDowell: easy to love! A classic to me.
We live in psychotic times. I have one friend whom I can rely on for reason. That helps. To get beyond the craziness will take time and effort. When we feel attacked, disoriented, betrayed, gaining our balance takes time.
I am
disinclined to join a march or sign an on line petition. I'm
not much for big crowds, though seeing the streets of DTLA filled with
folks was really cool!
I
think of patriots like Tom Paine and Patrick Henry with their speeches
full of fire. How they rose to become the historic guys they became was
by some design and desire. The Chicago Seven and the Berrigan
Brothers.. Angela Davis.. Tom Hayden? Those are the first names that
come to mind .. folks who rose to attention and sparked... at least a
bit.. outrage at the Vietnam War.
Wiring? Age? The Age of Aquarius? hah.. Harmony and Understanding..
Overcoming the
stress of seeing #45 ride roughshod with a smirk over the quality of life
that we have enjoyed with Obama and reasonable
administrators? It's a challenge.
Is
it our western ethic that shoots us in the foot? My attention to my TV
with the sound off just got interrupted by a car chase headed up the Golden State Freeway from downtown Los Angeles. Stolen car. Like silly dogs the cops chase this Honda
through moderate traffic at a high rate of speed. They endanger
hundreds of lives .. rabid and on the trail of this guy who stole a
friggin' car. They chase the guy into East LA, then into a residential
neighborhood where lots of cars or folks can be damaged. There's a cop with a spike strip waiting! How did he know? Finally, they make
him stop. You can see the adrenaline pumping as one cop searches the
guy and angrily throws something on the back of one of the cruisers.
To
me, backing off from the chase may make the car thief slow down; you
track him with a helicopter and maybe recover the car undamaged as well
as having saved life and property by not exacerbating the issue. The chase is dangerous! The thief should be caught, but not at the expense of the loss of one life. Not at the expense of damage to unsuspecting and innocent others. I think that the cops enjoy the chase, like we did on the playground in elementary school: the chase for the sake of the chase!
I
see this all the time: TV programming interrupted for a car chase.
BREAKING NEWS.. as though someone sitting at home watching The Price is
Right should be immediately informed! It's entertainment! We get off
on this crap. Maybe this circus with #45 is part of that? It was wild
rhetoric that got him elected, not reason. Pure manipulation. He just got into it with Schartzenegger, the new host of his TV show, blaming Arnold for the Celebrity Apprentice tanking in the ratings. Arnold shot back that they should trade jobs! (Arnold is not native born, so that can't happen.) Of course, the reason the show tanks is because people stop watching because to watch is to support #45. He may be making as much or more than $10K a week from being a producer on the show.
I
digress. Hopefully, our USA will survive. And, if nukes are employed, folks in the middle of the country may be safe! Or safer? as the gun nuts become Road
Warriors! Yikes.. Have you seen or read Cormac McCarthy's "The Road?"
The
best I am willing to do is make a few calls or send snailmail. I have
little faith that leaders listen, having seen a mini-version of this
attitude with my long time membership in the Screen Actors Guild. Our leaders in the union
have marginal regard for the ideas of the membership.
One old pal wants to shame us to political action. Tom Pain did that in The Crisis, too.. "Sunshine Patriots and Summer Soldiers.." My response is that knowing one's limits is something that we should examine carefully. Stepping up to be cannon fodder is a bad idea. Knowing how best to be of service is what we each must do. Lead? Follow? or just keep out of the way?
February 2, 2017..
Bunny, Bunny one day late.
michael sheehan
