everything looked ugly to me. I wanted to go
back to Europe. My family and friends met
me at the airport in Orlando. I was happy to
see them. My brother said, “The 53rd hos-
tage is home.” I remember being terrifi ed that
Reagan was going to be be very hawkish. His
activity turned out to be mostly covert inter-
ventions. I wasn’t asked to return.
I never anticipated a time where there checks
and balances would be almost irrelevant.
Reagan was considered to be uninformed by
many educated people. Gil Scott-Heron wrote
the song “B Movie” about Reagan’s America.
Many of us feared being led by an actor. Many
of us remembered this avuncular-seeming guy
as the guy who sent the National Guard into
Berkeley to deal with student protestors by
any means necessary.
The bar is much lower now, and Reagan
seems like an intellectual compared to Trump.
He was also much more rational compared
to Trump. I just watched All the President’s
Men again: the fi lm starring Dustin Hoffman
and Robert Redford about the Washington
Post reporters who, through investigative
journalism, found enough evidence against
the Nixon administration to eventually end
his presidency and have several others ar-
rested. There might be several parallels today
with Trump’s administration, but the illogic
of today’s America makes me wonder if evi-
dence really means anything.
A few years ago I watched the critically ac-
claimed Carol Reed fi lm, . Many people who
know fi lm use the fi lm as the standard, or at
least consider it one of the best. I’ve always
been bothered by the Joseph Cotten charac-
ter. He was a cocky young American. He re-
photo by Johnson Babela
minded me of those
travelers that I met
along the way who
acted worldly, but
were incredibly naïve
about the world.
Cotten’s character
was the classic home-
spun, salt of the earth
type. To me, he was
a man who knew
nothing outside of
his own world and
didn’t seem understand that he wasn’t in
Kansas (or wherever he was from) anymore.
He was just a character in a fi lm, but I have
met plenty of these types during my travels.
He is one of those Americans who make me
cringe. Now, these people are in charge.
They can bomb Syria, Afghanistan, and who-
knows-where next.
I heard a pundit discussing how Trump is
running our country like a business, and
threatening countries that disagree with him,
or embarrass him. This is why I brought Jo-
seph Cotten’s character up: he was a brash,
know-nothing whose actions may have
threatened himself and others, but now we
have that type of character running our coun-
try. The character running our country is
much more maladjusted and dangerous. He
has been nurtured by a culture that rewards
bad behavior as long as that person has power
and money. He has been nurtured by a cul-
ture that considers a person who has made
a lot of money a success, and disregards any
substance. It is a culture that doesn’t seem to
have a collective understanding of what rep-
resents strength and what represents weak-
ness. It is a culture with so many positives,
photo by Ashley Inguanta
but we need to stop rewarding those who are
taking—I’m referring to the wealthy bullies.
There have been suggestions by politicians,
mostly Republicans, that any person who
receives government aid should have to be
tested for drugs. How about we start with
the politicians like Mitch McConnell who are
making around two-hundred grand a year,
not counting expense accounts? He’s free-
loading off of the government in a big way.
Test him. He appears to be working for the
NRA, Koch brothers and other groups who
are bringing humanity down. Meanwhile,
educators, scientists, and other educated
people who are working towards positive
change are not treated with respect. They
have been reduced to “elitists” by the worst
students. It’s not only idiotic, it’s also scary.
We are the only educated country where the
climate change discussion is controversial.
This is bullshit. We need to quit acquiescing
to dangerous ignorance. When I hear people
like Rick Scott discredit a liberal arts degree
or, when I hear that Trump, Scott, and oth-
ers want to take away funding from the arts,
science, and Planned Parenthood, we need to
fi ght them on their ignorance. It is not accept-
able. Maybe these people don’t want critical
thinkers, because critical thinkers are going to
question them.
I feel powerless in many ways, but I also
know that I can do something about some
of that. We need pester the hell out of these
people who are somehow in charge. We need
to vote and make noise everywhere. We need
to protest. We also really need a heavy dose
of introspection. Being self-critical is neces-
sary if it is constructive, and results in positive
changes, not just reactions. Being obsessed
with being “number one” does not show any
wisdom on our part. I hope we can fi gure this
out without too much damage to ourselves or
to anyone else.
Orlando Arts & Culture, v. 2.4
12