A Simple Theater Outing

Today, I went to see the amazing performance of Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln.  His likeness is uncanny and you almost forget that it's not him.  As Mary Todd, Sally Field turned on her angst-ridden performance as she often times does, whether for Norma Rae, M'Lynn in Steel Magnolias or Nora Walker in the short-lived Brothers and Sisters TV show, it delivered the crying fits that I so expected.  I'm sure it will garner awards this season, but more importantly than the performances was the message of the movie, which can be carried across any minority;  Everyone should be equal.  We all know the story... free the slaves and BANG, he gets shot.  What I liked about this telling was that it was centered more around the fight and circumstances of history in getting the 13th Amendment passed.  With all due respect to the slaves, we didn't see any plantations or Negros picking cotton or getting beaten and even the assassination was down-played, with not even a mention of John Wilkes Booth or his reason... this was centered completely upon how the Civil War played such an important part in getting it passed and the mechanics in the House and Senate.  It was confusing in the telling since back then, the Republicans were today's Democrats, and vice-versa.  Regardless, you sit there wondering how God-fearing humans could feel so poorly about other human beings regarding their rights.  The idea of pulling people from their homeland, stripping them of all rights and treating them like property is incomprehensible.  We've come a long way since then... or have we?

Gays, as a group, have endured a lot of prejudice over time based solely on who we love.  A difficult idea to wrap your head around when being straight comes without thought to straight people, it would seem that if we don't hold hands in public or tell anyone what we do in the bedroom, we should be able to escape the majority of the prejudice, less those gays that have fireworks and pansies shooting out of their asses; let's face it, they have it a little harder and always will.  I guess if we don't fight for our rights for equal treatment under the law, etc., we could just blend in and be tolerated, much like the slaves did, building their families and living the hand they were dealt, doing their 'jobs', but with no rights.  The same could be said about women, although less dramatic since, let's face it, whatever men think about how many rights women should have, at the end of the day, they still want to get laid, so it's a little more tricky.

The idea of people who have all the rights voting on those that do not's rights makes no sense to me.  Would there ever be any progress?  Why would there need to be?  It only threatens the rights of those who have already.  I guess you hope that there's a Lincoln in ever fight;  someone that puts their own life at risk for the lives of the down-trodden.  Eventually, ignorance will filter out and be replaced with human beings that care for other human beings.  The odd thing that we see is those religious, led by their love of a man who loved all, especially the down-trodden, are the last to ever come around.  How is a message at the heart of a mindset so lost in it's followers, even as they are spewing the Word?  And yet, time and time again, each of the minority groups are last-accepted by those who preach love for their fellow man under the guise of religion. 

"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".  Is it really self-evident?  I think the prejudice will be with us for a long time, if ever it would be over, especially in this country.  "Give us your tired, your huddled masses" are other words suggesting unity that, somehow, along with other sayings etched in granite or steel, that no more cement our actions than the written Word.  Neither by speech, law, decree or sacred word will change the black heart of the prejudice.