We both love movies. I’ve made a living as an actor for 45 years and am well aware of their power. Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated the 4th with MACHINE GUN PREACHER. (Not the absolute worst name for a movie but without doubt a contender.)Your columns on THE GREY suggested you are drawn to films celebrating the manly virtues and courageous leadership. How about throwing in redemption through faith and love, muscular Christianity, the practicality of exercising 2nd amendment rights and American exceptionalism? And yeah, another macho Brit, Gerard Butler, as the lead. (Well, Scot actually. As Neeson is actually Irish.) Sound interesting? It’s the MAGNIFICENT 7 MINUS 6. And the story is true. (Well…truer than DREAMS OF MY FATHER.)
The only downer is the realization that all those children ultimately are condemned to life in a continent where the savagery of tribalism is the basis of nearly all its “cultures”. And though tribalism is what is being promoted through the progressive agenda of dividing America into single interest ethnic/racial/political groups, (E unum pluribus), the fact that they have not entirely succeeded is worth celebrating. Even on July 5th.
Well I’ve been living in godforsaken Greece on and off (mostly on) for 23 years and this is the holiday I most miss. Thanksgiving comes in second. I find I can do Thanksgiving overseas, but the 4th? Forget it. Celebrating the glories of a country that I fell in love with belatedly as an ex-pat about 15 years ago is not a recipe for a good time in a land that is as anti-American as Greece (things were especially dicey during the Clinton bombing campaign of Serbia, and both GW Bush terms.)
Oh, the Greeks have cause to complain, I suppose: we did interfere with their internal affairs which helped trigger the Junta years (1967-74). But on the other hand Harry Truman saved millions of Greeks from starvation after WWII. What is not our fault is the selective memory of many Greeks which choose to remember the former and forget the latter. Plus we’ve given millions of Greeks the opportunity to improve their lives via immigration.
The bottom line is, the 4th is a bittersweet holiday for me. But God bless the greatest country in the world anyway. Most of us just don’t know. I think you said it yourself, K.O.T.C.: you have to live overseas to really appreciate the US.
Dear A,
We both love movies. I’ve made a living as an actor for 45 years and am well aware of their power. Yesterday, my wife and I celebrated the 4th with MACHINE GUN PREACHER. (Not the absolute worst name for a movie but without doubt a contender.)Your columns on THE GREY suggested you are drawn to films celebrating the manly virtues and courageous leadership. How about throwing in redemption through faith and love, muscular Christianity, the practicality of exercising 2nd amendment rights and American exceptionalism? And yeah, another macho Brit, Gerard Butler, as the lead. (Well, Scot actually. As Neeson is actually Irish.) Sound interesting? It’s the MAGNIFICENT 7 MINUS 6. And the story is true. (Well…truer than DREAMS OF MY FATHER.)
The only downer is the realization that all those children ultimately are condemned to life in a continent where the savagery of tribalism is the basis of nearly all its “cultures”. And though tribalism is what is being promoted through the progressive agenda of dividing America into single interest ethnic/racial/political groups, (E unum pluribus), the fact that they have not entirely succeeded is worth celebrating. Even on July 5th.
What movie or play is the posted picture from?
That is the Immortal Cagney in the timeless ‘YANKEE DOODLE DANDY’.
Well I’ve been living in godforsaken Greece on and off (mostly on) for 23 years and this is the holiday I most miss. Thanksgiving comes in second. I find I can do Thanksgiving overseas, but the 4th? Forget it. Celebrating the glories of a country that I fell in love with belatedly as an ex-pat about 15 years ago is not a recipe for a good time in a land that is as anti-American as Greece (things were especially dicey during the Clinton bombing campaign of Serbia, and both GW Bush terms.)
Oh, the Greeks have cause to complain, I suppose: we did interfere with their internal affairs which helped trigger the Junta years (1967-74). But on the other hand Harry Truman saved millions of Greeks from starvation after WWII. What is not our fault is the selective memory of many Greeks which choose to remember the former and forget the latter. Plus we’ve given millions of Greeks the opportunity to improve their lives via immigration.
The bottom line is, the 4th is a bittersweet holiday for me. But God bless the greatest country in the world anyway. Most of us just don’t know. I think you said it yourself, K.O.T.C.: you have to live overseas to really appreciate the US.