The real significant date of remembrance for the attack on our country in 2001 should be 9:10, not necessarily the proverbial day after. There is more to learn from 9:10.
Then, our country was a little town in the West. Our good leaders and good citizens were basically asleep in a complete dysfunctional array. Our townspeople were gratified with all that was easy, lazy, and free. Our new town leader carried a misshapen misspelled badge labeled “SHERAF”, and got a (net) two bucks a year for the job (when one considers the sanity of wanting the job in the first place). People laughed at him. And our reluctant farmer-rancher sheriff tended to the citizens in the usual way, promising good to all, with the heart of a peaceful shepherd.
Then the bad guys came to town.
The entire story of 9:10 was somehow captured beautifully in the 1968 movie Firecreek, starring Jimmy Stewart (a good guy) and Henry Fonda (a bad guy), best friends in real life who hated discussing politics together since they were staunch political opposites. Firecreek was an odd type of western that actually had a point, much like another 1968 masterpiece, 2001:A Space Odyssey, that also debuted in the same year. Gary Lockwood, the actor, appears in both films. Although completely different genres, each film had deeper themes, and used the film technique of slow paced timing to contrast the final 30 minutes of faster paced action and message.
Firecreek is a story about what happens when some bad guys come to a sleepy little town with a reluctant sheriff. It’s about good, yet flawed character types who have become isolated for the sake of peace and security, and can’t recognize bad guys or what to do with suspicious strangers. It is thematic of many of the political issues and political figures of today. Whether or not the Western genre is coming back, the Republicans should drop what they’re doing and try everything possible to get Firecreek back into the theaters, at least as a tribute to Jimmy Stewart, whose 100th birthday will be celebrated in 2008. I even think the Democrats would welcome back Henry Fonda.
To me, the Republicans today are basically singing off tune to their own choir. I know how I am going to vote, and don’t need convincing over and over again. I don’t yet think they have figured out a way to persuade the average Joe and Josephine. Al Gore came close by actually getting a rank propaganda film into nationwide theaters, yet the Republicans haven’t a clue about changing the minds of the muddled middle, democrats, and younger Americans.
So, how about Firecreek? They wouldn’t even need to re-make the big-screen movie, since no one could top the Stewart / Fonda duo. The contrasting thematic dialog in the film speaks to all ages, although the music track could be re-done. Let’s let Jimmy and Henry settle the matters of what to do with the bad guys who are busting up our general store. I think a nationwide theatrical re-release of Firecreek would be a great ploy for the Republicans. Or how about a special session of Congress for a screening? Could one imagine the debate?
The fact is that good guys, like us, even if we aren’t getting along, simply do not like to fight bad guy types, especially strangers. We would rather turn the other cheek in good form when it comes to other impressionable human beings. (Although the last I checked, turning the other cheek excludes wild animals). Good guys don’t want to fight. No, ever. But in this universe, the time comes when somebody else wants to force their ideas on us to straighten us out with their ideas. This is called evil. Some of us would like to get it over-with-quick and just let the enemy teach us a lesson. Others know better--that the enemy is really trying to kill us and take our land. So goes the story of Firecreek.
George Bush is the name of our rancher-turned-sheriff in our sleepy little American town, and the guys riding through have now killed many, many of our very own townspeople. They’ve done this before, but this time our new sheriff sprang into action, unlike his sad predecessor. We all peered through our wavy windows for a while, saw some of our young people go away, heard about some kind of ruckus on the next hilltop, and went back to our little hollows now safe and sleepy once again. We’re able to laugh at the SHERAF again, while the ruckus carries on in a distant time and place.
The little ruckus on the next hilltop was actually a brilliant military maneuver called diversionary action. Most of the townspeople don’t know it, but the action on the other hilltop is keeping the bad guys occupied, and they are actually falling for it. But if we bring our fighters home for lunch instead of dinner, as the nitpickers want to do, the picnic will soon be over for the whole town.
OK, we’re not all goody good here in this town, but we at least are having fun tapping our toes and figuring things out as a crazy democracy. The muddled among us need to have leaders to show them what is actually happening on the next hilltop. We do have some leaders who can see that far, but others are setting up the picnic table for the bad guys while snickering at the sheriff. Those who can actually see to the next hill need to get the message out. How about a movie about themselves?
Oh, it turns out that the hammered badge Bush is wearing, spelled SHERAF, turns out to have been a gift from the children of our town. It’s a good thing, and will be remembered by them.