While out of town on business, my husband and I recently found ourselves in a movie theater, where the only thing playing within a reasonable time frame was a superhero movie. As a result, we got to sit through trailer after trailer for upcoming superhero movies! Which got me ruminating on the currently insatiable appetite for these films. Could it be that, at this particular time and place in history, we feel helpless? Do we yearn to be saved by someone (preferably dashing), who can swoop in and, against all odds, turn the world right side up again?
I know I certainly feel sideswiped by my sudden lack of privacy. Between the Snowden revelations and the likes of Facebook, Google, Amazon, our smart phones, et al, the word “unknown” is about to get railroaded out of the dictionary. Going off the grid isn’t really an option; I run a business, I shop, I drive, I order movies from Netflix, I breathe! But every day brings more evidence of the surveillance state we now reside in. It’s very disturbing to me, and I don’t know what to do about it. I know I’m not alone.
And then there are the near-weekly mass shootings in our schools, movie theaters, places of worship and jobs. I know it isn’t only about too many guns out there, but the hard-to-ignore facts are that no other industrialized nation has as many violent gun incidents as the United States. And the brainsick NRA seems to have an otherworldly stranglehold on our legislators, all of them (Republican and Democrat) shaking in fear like frail, brittle leaves in the wind because nothing, no, nothing matters more than re-election to a politician. This is so sad and so wrong; but a solution remains frustratingly elusive.
While we’re on the subject of our legislators, I have been felled by the recent cringe-worthy and bile-producing display of utter contempt, scorn and even hatred heaped upon Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held in captivity for years by the Taliban. In a right-side-up world, this soldier would be a darling to conservatives. But because Barack Obama orchestrated his release, Bergdahl became the republicans’ favorite new dartboard. Notice I say, “became?” That’s because all formerly outraged republicans have grown strangely silent on the issue since the Washington Post June 11 article landed like a horsehead in their beds. It lays waste to any doubt that Bergdahl was a troubled young man with a history of psychological challenges.
Honestly, the full-of-shit factor in Washington was so pronounced on this issue that anytime I read or listened to the news I felt like I was being whacked on the side of the head by all that airborne crap. What if he was your son? It made my heart hurt.
This country is being held hostage by a group of monsters masquerading as members of congress and senators from the Republican Party. Nothing is too big to destroy if it is spearheaded by Barack Obama; and that goes double for America.
Where’s a superhero when you need one? This is a job for Superman.
http://youtu.be/I_cEoK1mXms