anyone who knows
what America’s all about?
sure, I can tell you …
I have read that the single most influential movie ever made is The Wizard of Oz.
Much of the reasoning behind that statement comes from the thought that no other movie has been seen by some much of the population of THE WORLD and that the age that people saw the movie was an age where the movie made a real impact.
For myself, I would rather take on any evil movie entity from Independence Day to Dracula over wanting to mess with those Flying Monkeys.
But I digress.
Staying with the thought of influences brought about by what people have seen, I am reminded of the impact of the cartoon or animated special, known as Charlie Brown’s Christmas.
Increasingly frustrated by the holiday season, Charlie Brown finally yells, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?”
Quietly, his buddy Linus says, “Sure, Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about.”
And famously, Linus recites the Bible verses, in King James English, that tell the story of the birth of Jesus.
But why am I telling you this when you know this.
We all grew up seeing this show and hearing those words and in a way, come Judgement Day, the folks at the gate can, with justification say to anyone of my generation and thereabouts, “Whadyya mean you didn’t know? You saw Charlie Brown’s Christmas 63 times!“
A great holiday message but that’s not where I am going today.
I recently read the NYT Opinion piece, The Ivy League Flunks Out (Dec. 9, 2023) by Maureen Dowd.
Ms. Dowd is an Opinion columnist for the Times.
She won the 1999 Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary.
In this piece, she writes:
“I think this is still America.
But I don’t understand why I have to keep making the case on matters that should be self-evident.
Why should I have to make the case that a man who tried to overthrow the government should not be president again?
Why should I have to make the case that we can’t abandon Ukraine to the evil Vladimir Putin?”
I can hear her say, “Isn’t there anyone who knows what America is all about?”
And I want to say, “Sure, Maureen Dowd.
I can tell you what American is all about.”
And I want to say, “Lights Please.“
And the rooms would go dark and a single spotlight would shine on me and I would say this.
We hold these truths to be self-evident,
that all men are created equal,
that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,
that among these are Life,
Liberty
and the pursuit of Happiness.
And then I would say, “That’s what America is all about, Maureen Dowd.”
Linus reading the bare bones verses of the Bible leaves little wiggle room for what Christmas is all about.
Thomas Jefferson, a man who is now blown off when mentioned on News Talk shows as ‘oh that guy’, left little wiggle for what America is all about.
All are created equal.
Pretty simple.
Pretty easy.
All.
Now, so much time and effort is being put into just what that word, all, means.
Doesn’t all mean all?
There are those who will point to George Orwell’s Animal Farm and embrace the proclamation that “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”
I hope we can reject that.
There are those who will point to the history of America and ask ‘where is the equality?’
To answer that I turn to Barbara Jorden, Representative from Texas.
Back in 1974, Barbara Jorden, made this statement to the House Judiciary Committee regarding the impeachment of President Richard Nixon:
“Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States: “We, the people.”
It’s a very eloquent beginning.
But when that document was completed on the seventeenth of September in 1787, I was not included in that “We, the people.”
I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake.
But through the process of amendment, interpretation, and court decision, I have finally been included in “We, the people.”“
I hate to go to another movie to make a point, but the scene I have in mind works too well to ignore and since I started out this essay talking about movies and their influence on us all, I guess I am okay.
In the movie, Lincoln, Mr. Lincoln puzzles out the concept of equality in Euclid and in life.
Sitting in the War Department Telegraph Office, Mr. Lincoln says this.
“Things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other. That’s a rule of mathematical reasoning.
It’s true because it works; has done and always will do.
In his book, Euclid says this is “self-evident.
D’you see?
There it is, even in that two-thousand year old book of mechanical law: it is a self- evident truth that things which are equal to the same thing are equal to each other.
We begin with equality.
That’s the origin, isn’t it?
That balance …
that’s fairness …
that’s justice.”
That’s what America is all about, Maureen Dowd.
No Haiku For You 