#1 I went to the Alabama Theater in downtown Birmingham a couple of Sundays ago, where the matinee was "To Kill a Mockingbird." If you haven't been to the Alabama in the past few years, you have missed an easy treat. Check the link for more info including an event schedule. Harry Potter and the Wizard of Oz are coming up this weekend. If you could see any movie from the past in that incredible movie venue, what would it be? What other easy getaways would you recommend?
#2 Speaking of Atticus Finch (Gregory Peck), what literary character, movie or written fiction, would you like to see run for political office? Why?
#3 Monday last the One Day at a Time Staff posted about the plight of the poor in Alabama. On Tuesday the Mobile Press Register published a stinging editorial on the same topic. The New York Times also published an editorial on a similar national theme later Tuesday. Surely when three such highly revered and respected outlets raise the same issues in such a limited time, something is going on. Do you consider the plight of the poor an important issue? Is it a matter to be addressed by the government, by religious institutions, or is it just to be ignored, since the poor will always be with us?
#4 President Obama said the following in Roanoke, Virginia earlier this week:
"I’m always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody else. Let me tell you something, there are a whole bunch of hardworking people out there.
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help."
If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help."
"There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen. The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet."
"The point is, is that when we succeed, we succeed because of our individual initiative, but also because we do things together."Do you agree or disagree with this proposition?
#5 On facebook some of my friends post that Democrats and/or liberals are "stupid", "naive", "evil", and "anti-American," which concerns me a little because I make no secret that my views tend to go that way (Democrat or liberal, not stupid, naive, evil or anti-American.) How did we as Americans get to this place? Any suggestions? (other than de-friending, cause I personally think less dialogue is not the answer).
#6 One of the lesser, yet regrettable consequences of the sentiment in question 5 above is that it is harder to really enjoy the funny things that happen in politics. Let's face it, Obama looked like a goober this week eating an ice cream cone with a spoon. It is funny that the sport Romney is most known for is dressage, a fancy expensive dancing horse competition. It is healthy to share a national guffaw, but partisanship is getting in the way of even that. What has any candidate or public official done that has made you laugh or wish to poke a little fun? It's okay. Do it for the sake of national unity.
#7 What question of your own do you want answered this week?
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1) The first half of Gone With the Wind
ReplyDelete2) Alexander Portnoy
3) I always hear people say that action hurts the poor more than it helps. If that makes them feel better about their own inaction, then that's fine with me.
4) Of course individuals/corporations (although Mitt would say I am being a bit redundant)owe a great deal to the government. People like to take more credit for their own triumphs and place more blame for others' failures than is actually due. Of course people make businesses work, but the point is that most of these upstarts wouldn't even have a market had it not been for government or private investment. They didn't do it all by themselves.
5) It is amazing that a Tea Party Movement with such populist/anti-intellectual roots makes some pretty elitist arguments.
As to number four, Mitt Romney said yesterday at a speech in Ohio:
ReplyDelete"There are a lot of people in government who help us and allow us to have an economy that works and allow entrepreneurs and business leaders of various kinds to start businesses and create jobs. We all recognize that. That's an important thing.... I know that you recognize that a lot of people help you in a business. Perhaps the banks, the investors. There's no question your mom and dad. Your school teachers. The people that provide roads, the fire, and the police. A lot of people help."
I wonder if Mitt is paying Obama's speech writer's royalties?
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In response to No. 6, let me contribute the following photo Hal Yeager of the Birmingham News brought to my attention in a post by John Archibald:
ReplyDeletehttp://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/487314_10150964409443149_2062043345_n.jpg
An article related to a few of your questions: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/07/19/the-debate-we-should-be-having-over-you-didnt-build-that/
ReplyDelete#1 The Godfather, Part Two. Another easy getaway will be the Lyric Theatre across the street from the Alabama when they get that renovated.
ReplyDelete#2 Like to see the cartoon character Rango run again st Mitt. Given the choice between a cartoon gecko and Gordon Gekko, you'd have to go with the former.
#3 The plight of the poor is important because every day there are more of them. It is a public policy issue, because they are part of the public.
#4 Agree.
#5 We got here by way of ending the Fairness Doctrine, which ended broadcast dialogue in favor of broadcast monologue.
#6 Anything Michele Bachmann says or does is good for a laugh.