AN OPEN LETTER TO WILL FERRELL

Dear Mr. Ferrell,

I saw the news bulletin — as did everyone — that you intend to portray my father in the throes of Alzheimer’s for a comedy that you are also producing. Perhaps you have managed to retain some ignorance about Alzheimer’s and other versions of dementia. Perhaps if you knew more, you would not find the subject humorous.

Alzheimer’s doesn’t care if you are President of the United States or a dockworker. It steals what is most precious to a human being — memories, connections, the familiar landmarks of a lifetime that we all come to rely on to hold our place secure in this world and keep us linked to those we have come to know and love. I watched as fear invaded my father’s eyes — this man who was never afraid of anything. I heard his voice tremble as he stood in the living room and said, “I don’t know where I am.” I watched helplessly as he reached for memories, for words, that were suddenly out of reach and moving farther away. For ten long years he drifted — past the memories that marked his life, past all that was familiar…and mercifully, finally past the fear.

There was laughter in those years, but there was never humor.

Alzheimer’s is the ultimate pirate, pillaging a person’s life and leaving an empty landscape behind. It sweeps up entire families, forcing everyone to claw their way through overwhelming grief, confusion, helplessness, and anger. Perhaps for your comedy you would like to visit some dementia facilities. I have — I didn’t find anything comedic there, and my hope would be that if you’re a decent human being, you wouldn’t either.

Twice a week I run a support group called Beyond Alzheimer’s for caregivers and family members of those with Alzheimer’s and dementia. I look into haunted eyes that remind me of my own when my father was ill. I listen to stories of helplessness and loss and am continually moved by the bravery of those who wake up every morning not knowing who their loved one will be that day, or what will be lost. The only certainty with Alzheimer’s is that more will be lost and the disease will always win in the end.

Perhaps you would like to explain to them how this disease is suitable material for a comedy.

Movie Nights with The Reagans is a memoir authored by former special advisor and press secretary to President Ronald Reagan, Mark Weinberg.

I’ll be honest, I wouldn’t normally choose a biography of Ronald Reagan to put on my ever-growing queue of books to read. But the hook that got my interest was the clever way this book was put together. Each chapter is devoted to a movie that the author watched with the Reagans at Camp David during movie nights. We not only get to read what the Reagans thought of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but we get a glimpse into what was going on in the White House (and, in the world) the week prior to the weekend spent at Camp David. As a classic movie fan who came of age during the Reagan years, this was right up my alley.

Make no mistake, this is a sort of love letter to the Reagans by Mark. He makes it very clear early on how much he adores them, and loved working with them. You won’t find anything in this book other than feel-good memories, and you know what? This is a good thing. It’s wonderful to read a book written by someone who loves the people they are writing about, and spent a great deal of time with them, without making them into saints. Most importantly to Mark, though, was that Nancy Reagan approved of him writing this book. In a letter to him, she wrote that she was delighted that he was writing about Camp David, and “just thinking about those days brings back such happy memories.” 

Most of the movies screened in the Aspen Lodge at Camp David were new releases, some just out a week or two. However, the Reagans also screened Ronald Reagan’s movies, and a point which he made sure to make was “they [the invited staff] were the ones who asked for this!” I especially loved the chapter on Knute Rockne All American – I’m a big fan of Pat O’Brien, and thought Reagan was (as mostly everyone else did) really wonderful in the role of George Gipp, aka the Gipper (a nickname Reagan himself would be called for the remainder of his life). I do wish, though, that Kings Row would have been included in this book! It’s my favorite movie of Reagan’s, and I would have loved to have heard his thoughts on working with Robert Cummings, Claude Rains, Charles Coburn and Ann Sheridan.

There are no real surprises in this book, no big revelations. It’s simply a memoir of pleasant weekends spent eating popcorn and watching movies with his boss, who also happened to the be the leader of the free world. It’s a quick, enjoyable read and I loved getting to know the Reagans a little bit better through their movie nights at Camp David. 

drst:

squaredcirclebaby:

Don’t forget a whole lot of the people who worked for Reagan (who understood very little of any of his policies, between being not very bright and the dementia) also worked for both Bush White Houses.

Source:https://twitter.com/robsolonhamer/status/1358099856712208384/

drjdorr:

guerrillatech:

Wow, I knew Reagan did a lot of stuff that turned out bad, but I didn’t realize it was “you can clearly see on the charts when his presidency was” bad

As I’ve considered the real lesson of January 6, I’ve been prompted to rewatch a movie that provides a hint of an answer — Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which was released 75 years ago this month.

When I first saw the movie in the late 1960s, I thought it pure hokum. America was coming apart over Vietnam and the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and I remember thinking the movie could have been produced by some propaganda bureau of the government that had been told to create a white-washed (and white) version of the United States.

But in more recent years I’ve come around. As America has moved closer to being an oligarchy — with staggering inequalities of income, wealth, and power not seen in over a century — and closer to Trumpian neofascism (the two moves are connected), “It’s a Wonderful Life” speaks to what’s gone wrong and what must be done to make it right.

As you probably know (and if you don’t, this weekend would be a good time to watch it), the movie’s central conflict is between Mr. Potter (played by Lionel Barrymore) and George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart). Potter is a greedy and cruel banker. George is the generous and honorable head of Bedford Fall’s building-and-loan — the one entity standing in the way of Potter’s total domination of the town. When George accidentally loses some deposits that fall into the hands of Potter, Potter sees an opportunity to ruin George. This brings George to the bridge where he contemplates suicide, thinking his life has been worthless — before a guardian angel’s counsel turns him homeward.

It’s two radically opposed versions of America. In Potter’s social-Darwinist view, people compete with one another for resources. Those who succeed deserve to win because they’ve outrun everyone else in that competitive race. After the death of George’s father, who founded the building-and-loan, Potter moves to dissolve it — claiming George’s father “was not a businessman. He was a man of high ideals, so-called, but ideals without common sense can ruin a town.” For Potter, common sense is not coddling the “discontented rabble.”

In George’s view, Bedford Falls is a community whose members help each other. He tells Potter that the so-called “rabble … do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community.” His father helped them build homes on credit so they could afford a decent life. “People were human beings to him,” George tells Potter, “but to you, they’re cattle.”

When George contemplates ending it all, his guardian angel shows him how bleak Bedford Falls would be had George never lived — poor, fearful, and dependent on Potter. The movie ends when everyone George has helped (virtually the entire town) pitch in to bail out George and his building-and-loan.

It’s a cartoon, of course — but a cartoon that’s fast becoming a reality in America. Do we join together or let the Potters of America own and run everything?

Soon after “It’s a Wonderful Life” was released, the FBI considered it evidence of Communist Party infiltration of the film industry. The FBI’s Los Angeles field office — using a report by an ad-hoc group that included Fountainhead writer and future Trump pin-up girl Ayn Rand — warned that the movie represented “rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a ‘scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the picture.” The movie “deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters. This … is a common trick used by Communists.”

The FBI report compared “It’s a Wonderful Life” to a Soviet film, and alleged that Frank Capra was “associated with left-wing groups” and that screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett were “very close to known Communists.”

This was all rubbish, of course — and a prelude to the Red Scare led by Republican Senator Joe McCarthy of Wisconsin, who launched a series of highly publicized probes into alleged Communist penetration of Hollywood, the State Department, and even the US Army.

The movie was also prelude to modern Republican ideology. Since Ronald Reagan, Republicans have used Potter-like social Darwinism to justify everything tax cuts for the wealthy, union-busting, and cutbacks in social safety nets. Rand herself became a hero to many in the Trump administration.

Above all, Reagan Republicans, CEOs, and Trumpers have used the strategy of “divide-and-conquer” to generate division among Americans (a kind of political social-Darwinism). That way, Americans stay angry and suspicious of one another, and don’t look upward to see where all the money and power have gone. And won’t join together to claim it back.

What would Republicans say about “It’s a Wonderful Life” if it were released today? They’d probably call it socialist rather than communist, but it would make them squirm all the same — especially given the eery similarity between Lionel Barrymore’s Mr. Potter and you know who.

To celebrate the Queen turning 89 years old we have picked out a selection of images of HRH at Buckingham Palace that capture some landmark moments from years gone by.

National Anthem Day

“The Star-Spangled Banner” became the National Anthem of the United States of America on March 3, 1931, when President Herbert Hoover signed it into law. Today, we annually celebrate March 3rd as “National Anthem Day.” In recognition, we are sharing an image of President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan singing the National Anthem at the “Star Spangled Salute to America” held at the Jefferson Memorial, in Washington, DC, on July 3, 1987.

The 15-star flag, known as the Star-Spangled Banner, is now on display at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Here is the link where you can view this item: https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_463144

For more information about former President Ronald Reagan, please visit the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum website at https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/

Item: President Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan Singing The National Anthem at The Star Spangled Salute to America at The Jefferson Memorial, Washington, DC, 7/3/1987. Series: Reagan White House Photographs, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989. Collection RR-WHPO: White House Photographic Collection, 1/20/1981 - 1/20/1989. (National Archives Identifier 75855569). https://catalog.archives.gov/id/75855569

foreverrwinter:

2460onetruepairing:

the-quasar-hero:

Crazy to think that this is all Ronald Reagan’s fault