Writer’s obsession with all things JFK

Late last month, when I suggested to the Et Cetera’s editor, Liz Foster, about having the newspaper do an editorial and campus question on the 40th anniversary of the JFK assassination for the 11/26 issue, she immediately got excited.

The JFK assassination was a topic right up her alley, Foster said, telling me how she had books on the subject and at one point, even authored a twenty-page paper about the “great crime of the century.”

“I still cry every time I watch the funeral,” she told me.

I could understand where that fiery interest was coming from because I used to be interested in all things JFK and all things Kennedy years ago.

I owned hundreds of books on the subject that not only covered the assassination and biographies on JFK but numerous others about America’s First Family both hard and soft cover.

It wasn’t just books. Anything that had to do with Camelot I added to my growing library. If it were a recent newspaper article in The Dallas Morning News, I’d cut it out. If I saw any old issues of Life magazine at Half Price Books located on Northwest Highway in Dallas that featured the youthful president or his family on the front cover I’d buy it, no matter what the price was. It wasn’t just books or magazines.

I had a shelf reserved for movies like Oliver Stone’s conspiratorial 1991 opus “JFK”, “Ruby” (1992), and Executive Action (1973) with Burt Lancaster to documentaries to such made-for-tv movies as “Missiles of October” (1974) and the 1983 mini-series, “Kennedy”, with Martin Sheen.



Is it any coincidence that Sheen plays a democratic president on NBC’s “West Wing?”

It got to the point that every time Tom Kelley, friend of mine not to mention a die-hard Republican came over he would get upset and utter the same question he had said to me so many times before.

“What is your damn fascination with the Kennedys,” he’d ask.

I could never offer up a justifiable answer to his question.

Reasons

Looking back now, I can produce about a handful of answers. One I have always been fascinated with the Mafia and gangster movies. When it comes to the JFK assassination, there is no way anyone is going to convince me the events that happened in Dealey Plaza on Nov. 22, 1963 didn’t have the mob’s name written all over it.

It was a classic mafia hit. Pure and simple.

Another reason is because, like most of our parents, my dad told me about living through that tragic day, where he was and what he was doing and watching the funeral. For him, as for most people still alive today who remember 11/22/63, it was their generation’s rendition of Sept. 11, 2001. Nothing would ever be the same after Nov. 22. Just as nothing has ever been the same for our generation since Sept. 11.



One of the reasons I was interested in the Kennedy mystique was like all major icons of the 20th century, whether they’re presidents or entertainers whose star faded too soon, there is always going to be the lingering question of what if? JFK’s death is forever frozen in time.

Would he have followed through on his supposed campaign promise in ’64 to pull troops out of Vietnam as has been suggested by historians or conspiracy theorists over the years? There is no doubt that had he won in ’64, JFK would have likely paved the way for brother Robert to enter the White House, possibly followed by younger brother Teddy. Perhaps Vietnam would have never escalated like it did under Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency and Richard Nixon would have never been president. Perhaps the only thing we would have known about Watergate was that it was a hotel.

Perhaps JFK would not have lived through a second term anyway given the recent information about his medical condition that up until recently was never fully publicized.



Here we are now forty years later. Chances are that most, if not all the potential suspects who might have had something to do with the events in Dallas are likely dead. Jackie and JFK Jr. have passed on. The only one left to carry the family torch is daughter Caroline.

What hasn’t extinguished it seems is the public’s fascination.

Today

Hundreds of people visit the Sixth Floor Museum formerly known as the Texas Schoolbook Depository, more so around November than during other months. It’s a place as popular as the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, and the sites where the World Trade Center and the Murrah Federal Buildings once stood in New York’s Manhattan district and Oklahoma City. Many of the spectators who come are those who remember the horrible events of that day. Others bring their children while many more who weren’t even born at the time or old enough to remember visit the site.



What has faded, however, is my personal interest in Camelot. Years ago, I would have gladly shelled out $30 or $40 dollars for such newly published books as “Remembering Jack” which boasts never published photos by Kennedy photographer, Jacques Lowe. And “President Kennedy Has Been Shot” that features eyewitness broadcasts and interviews with journalists who covered the events in Dallas. The case has been talked to death (no pun intended).

Other than when the government finally releases the files on the JFK assassination in the next few years, what new information could possibly be dug up on Camelot that we haven’t heard or read about already?

The only book I might possibly get would be the compilation of news stories The New York Times wrote back then. But is their coverage any different from the republished issues I have of The Dallas Morning News and Dallas Times Herald that covered those days?

The library I had is gone now. Practically all the books have been sold off. All I have left on the shelf is “The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the White House during the Cuban Missile Crisis” (2002) that recounts the conversations JFK, and his advisers had during the Cuban Missile Crisis and Norman Mailer’s Oswald’s Tale: An American Tale” (1996), which I will read one of these days. The Life magazines I had all sit in a plastic bin at a storage facility. Gone are the video documentaries while some of the VHS movies have been replaced by DVDs. The only reason the custom framed “JFK” movie poster still hangs on my wall is because I haven’t found anything else to put up in its place. I am not sure though as to where those silver dollars are.

For many, interest in “the great crime of the century” continues but for this columnist, I have moved on. So has Mr. Kelley but should he ever come around one of these days, of all the questions he may have for me, the one thing he won’t be asking is anything having to do with President John F. Kennedy.

©11/26/03

Jessica Lynch – not a hero

How many of you have heard of Pvt. Michael J. Deutsch, a member of the 1st Squadron, 1st Calvary, 1st Armored Division from Dubuque, Iowa, who was killed his M113 Armored Personnel Carrier hit a landmine in Baghdad, Iraq July 31, 2003, according to CNN’s website.

How about Chief Warrant Officer Sharon T. Swartworth, a Judge Advocate General Office of the Headquarters Department of the Army and Pentagon from Virginia, who was killed when the UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter she was in was shot down in Tikrit, Iraq Nov. 7, 2003?

No? Perhaps you might have heard briefly of First Sgt. Robert Dowdy. He was a member of the507th Maintenance Company killed after his convoy was ambushed in Iraq March 23, 2003. Was that a maybe a “no, I still don’t know who you are talking about?”

Perhaps If I ask you if you have heard of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, every one of you is will say yes. Thanks in part to both the press and television news media, not to mention our own government who have made this brave woman into something she herself has said she is not, a hero.

Websters.com defines a hero in five ways. One of them is “a person noted for feats of courage and nobility of purpose, especially one who has risked or sacrificed his or her life.”

By that definition Jessica Lynch is not a hero.

The facts speak for themselves. The Humvee Lynch and other members of the 507th Maintenance Company made a wrong turn on March 23 when they were ambushed by Iraqi forces. Except for Lynch, everyone who was with her inside the Humvee was killed that day and she was unable to defend herself because her weapon had jammed.

Don’t get me wrong. The situation Lynch was in when captured by the Iraqis, possibly tortured and perhaps raped was horrific. Just knowing she lived through it makes her brave. But she isn’t the hero here.

It’s not her story Hollywood should have made a television film about. It’s the ones who died fighting when her Humvee was attacked that day and the servicemen who went into the Iraqi hospital to rescue Lynch.

“Don’t they know it was dad’s Humvee,” said daughter Kristy Dowdy in the Nov. 17, 2003 issue of Newsweek who reportedly tears up every time the media talks about Lynch. “Don’t they know it was Dad doing stuff?”

The same went for Sgt. Donald Walters, a 33-year-old cook and mechanic and member of the 507th who was also killed in the ambush and left a wife and three daughters. Newsweek quoted from a military report that suggests Walters fought bravely.

“I am angry,” said Arlene Walters, Donald’s mother who according to Newsweek wants the government to give her son a hero’s due. “It seems like after a soldier is dead, they’re forgotten.”

Lynch’s ordeal is nothing more than an embarrassing public relations ploy – a feel-good campaign, which the media happily got on board.

©11/26/03

The Curse of Flight 191

When it comes to supposed ghost stories in the Dallas area, I can tell you that a friend of mine and I ate at Snuffers restaurant located on Greenville Ave. one busy Friday night. I assure you I did not see or feel any cold presence of a spirit as opposed to what the local newspapers and websites about the supernatural have said over the years. I do not see how one could when the area of the restaurant we sat in was so loud and full of patrons.

I have also never encountered any strange occurrences while dining at the Trail Dust Steakhouse in Mesquite. Of course, I have only eaten on the first floor. I have never been on the second floor, which is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of John Brown; a construction worker who fell to his death while building a railing over the left side of the dance floor, according to www.theshadowlands.net/places/texas.htm.

The same can be said for the restless spirit that supposedly resides at Eastfield Community College in Mesquite. Legend has it that a spirit believed to be a member of the Motley family who are buried in a cemetery plot near the college, watches play rehearsals in the Performance Hall ever since the campus was built in the 1970s. Then again, I have never met anyone who has been in a play production who can verify that such events have happened.

There is one story I can tell you though that happened to me back on Halloween night in 1994. I wouldn’t exactly call it a ghost story, but it is an eerie coincidence nonetheless.

But for me to tell you the outcome, I’ll have to take you back to a sunny mid-Friday afternoon in what was the start of the holiday Memorial Day weekend in Chicago 24 years ago. The date was May 25, 1979.



Shortly after 3 p.m., an American Airlines DC-10, Flight 191, jet fuel spewing from its wounded left wing where an engine used to be, crashed into a trailer park and exploded minutes after takeoff from O’Hare Airport, killing all 271 passengers and crew and two more on the ground.

Six years later on Aug. 2, 1985, a Delta Airlines L-1011 crashed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport as it attempted to land in a heavy thunderstorm. The accident was the result of wind shear.

More than a handful of passengers, all of whom were sitting in the tail section survived, however, 137 perished including one on the ground.

In a rather ironic twist not connected to the American Airlines disaster, 13 years before the Delta crash, pilots aboard Eastern Airlines L-1011’s recalled one particular incident where the ghost of a dead pilot who worked for Eastern and perished in the company’s L-1011 crash in the Florida Everglades Dec. 29, 1972, appeared before a flight crew with the words, “There will never be another crash on an L-1011. We will not let that happen.”

The incident was reported in author John G. Fuller’s book, “The Ghost of Flight 401.” If such an event did occur and the spirits of the dead pilots were watching over the safety and maintenance of Eastern’s L-1011’s, was the ghostly promise meant for just that airline only?

Both American and Delta jets had the flight number “191.” Is it possible that when a flight number is given to a certain plane, if it happens to be one from a jetliner that crashed years before, does that mean the aircraft is cursed?



It wasn’t the crash at DFW Airport I was thinking about that Halloween weekend in October 1994, however. For some reason, my mind was on the tragic events in Chicago years before. The only reason, to this day as to why I couldn’t get the event out of my head was because one, my parents had flown to “The Windy City” that weekend to see relatives.

Two, I had this unsettling feeling something wrong was going to happen to a plane between the time my parents were away and the time they would be flying home which was Monday, Oct. 31. Yet at the same time, I didn’t think anything was going to happen to the aircraft my parents were on.

That night, when I came home on my break from work, my mom told me they learned while in Chicago that an American Eagle twin engine propeller Aerospatiale ATR-72, carrying 68 passengers and crew, went down in a field in Roselawn, Indiana killing all aboard.



The plane was in a holding pattern waiting for clearance to land at O’Hare when ice developed on its wings causing the aircraft to go into a spin.

My parents and I have flown to Chicago lots of times since ’94. This was the only time, though, that I had a feeling something ominous was going to happen. To this day, there have been no unexplained phenomena in the fields near DFW Airport and in Roselawn, Indiana where the Delta Airlines L-1011 and American Eagle planes crashed. Reports of ghostly apparitions appearing on various Eastern L-1011s ceased within a few years of the Dec. 29, 1972 crash and the airline ceased operations in 1991.

The same cannot be said for the trailer park near O’Hare Airport in what was one of the deadliest air disasters in United States history until the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Since the ’79 crash, residents have reported hearing moans and cries and seeing bobbing white lights while dogs bark uncontrollably for no apparent reason in the direction where the DC-10 went down according to the website, www.prairieghosts.com/flight.html.

Some have reportedly found apparitions standing at their doorsteps saying they “need to get their luggage” and “make a connection” only to disappear seconds later. A man walking his dog near the crash site ran into another person who smelled of jet fuel with smoke billowing from his clothes. The person told the resident he had to make an emergency phone call only to vanish.

The most repeated incident the website says continues to happen is near the departure gate at O’Hare Airport used by Flight 191. Travelers have reported seeing a man, whose business attire seems out of date, make a call from a telephone booth and then vanish into thin air.

The stories have gotten enough attention that ghosthunter Richard T. Crowe includes the crash site on his four-hour haunted bus route of the Windy City every year, which is profiled on the website at http://www.ghosttours.com/.

Believe it or not.

©10/29/03

My Personal Worst Films: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre «
R, 98m. 2003

Cast & Credits: Jessica Biel (Erin), Jonathan Tucker (Morgan), Erica Leerhsen (Pepper), Mike Vogel (Andy), Eric Balfour (Kemper), Andrew Bryniarski (Thomas Hewitt - Leatherface), R. Lee Ermey (Sheriff Hoyt). Screenplay by Scott Kosar based on the 1974 screenplay by Kim Henkel and Toby Hooper. Directed by Marcus Nispel.

The best advice studios should heed is to stop remaking the great movies and concentrate more on remaking the bad ones. What I liked most about director Gus Van Sant's remake of "Psycho" (1998), for example, was that in shooting the film exactly the way Alfred Hitchcock shot it, he proved that the classics should be best left alone.

The original "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre" (1974), directed by Tobe Hooper, who years later would go on to make the supernatural ghost story, "Poltergeist" (1982), was by no means a classic. I thought it was perverted garbage, but it was perverted garbage made on a cheap stylish independent level that could well be the stuff nightmares are made of. If the film was shocking when it came out, it was because like the foul mouthed, vomit-spewing obscenities uttered by the demon possessed Megan played by Linda Blair in "The Exorcist" (1973), no one had ever seen horror like this on the big screen before.

The most haunting shot in Hooper’s film, if I remember correctly as it's been years since I have seen it, is the way it ended showing the director’s certifiably psychotic creation, Leatherface, running around in a Texas field brandishing his buzzing chainsaw like a wild man. By comparison, the most frightening image in this remake is the last shot of Leatherface being captured on a grainy black and white crime film.

Movie remakes are, after all, curiosity pieces; a chance to see another filmmaker's take on what was already, if it wasn't one of the greatest movies of all time which "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is not, it was at least the most chilling. Curiosity is the only reason why this remake grossed close to $30 million opening weekend, other than a good marketing campaign.

I went into this updated version produced by director Michael Bay ("Pearl Harbor" - 2001) stupidly thinking this might be an even better improvement upon the original. It took less than 10 minutes to realize how wrong I was. If curiosity does indeed kill cats, then chances are I'm probably "already dead" like the grungy, wheelchair bound old man says to one of the victims who has trespassed on his grounds.

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remake is completely devoid of any scares, suspense or vivid horrific imagination. Like the original, the remake is a nightmare but it's a nightmare of our own choosing, paying to sit through this formulaic piece of celluloid trash. It's a joyless, slow moving, masochistically twisted geek show that might as well have been shot as a snuff film since all we are really watching for more than 90 minutes is seeing five young people terrorized. Four of whom are hacked to death by either the villain's chainsaw, machete or hung up on meat hooks in a slimy, wet underground dungeon filled with preserved body parts in jars. By the time the film was over, I felt like I needed a bath.

Jessica Biel is the fifth person, not to mention the heroine who does everything she can to keep from being sawed up by a demented, disfigured being called Leatherface whose visible trademark, other than the skin sewn face he wears from his victims, is wielding a chainsaw. Watching it, I almost wished the Biel character hadn't escaped. This way, we would have been spared the disturbing tale begun by the narrator (John Larroquette) who also narrated Hooper's original film telling us how the story we are about to see is true (but really isn't).

The picture has no shred of originality unless you count the scene where a hitchhiker, who Biel and her pot smoking entourage picked up, blows her brains out creating a blood-stained hole in the back window of their van. It's the way the scene is shot as the camera focuses on the shock of the five travelers and then moves backward taking the audience through the woman's bullet ridden skull that soon takes us outside the vehicle. I'll give the filmmakers this much. I have never seen a scene like that done before except when the characters on "CSI: Miami" (2002) conduct autopsies.

If there is any real difference between this new version and its predecessor, it is that this one was likely made on a larger budget. It features two known stars (Biel from television's "7th Heaven" - 1996) and R. Lee Ermey, best known as the sadistic drill sergeant from "Full Metal Jacket" (1987) as a deranged toothless Texas sheriff. For me to say that the best shots in the movie are of how ominous and isolated Leatherface's old run down, two-story farmhouse looks at night when surrounded by fog would be a waste of newsprint.

"The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is not a tribute to the original nor is it an improvement. It's as much a waste of a movie-goers time as it is a waste of my time in writing a review of it. I can think of no real rhyme or reason as to why anyone would recommend it except maybe they're as sick as the murderer is in this movie. The film was inspired supposedly by the true story of Ed Gein, a serial killer who back in the late 1950s butchered up several people including the mother of a deputy in Wisconsin. He was also the inspiration for Wild Bill; the vile transvestite cross-dressing villain Jodie Foster's novice FBI agent Clarice Starling went after in "Silence of the Lambs" (1991).

I can think of a better horror/suspense film to see that was loosely inspired by Gein’s murder spree which is "Psycho" (1960). It is the one black and white suspense thriller that to this day still spooks actress Janet Leigh every time she steps in the shower.

©10/20/03

Limbaugh’s supposed racist remarks blown out of proportion by liberal news media

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s controversial and alleged racist comments about Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Donovan McNabb on ESPN’s pre-game show, “Sunday NFL Countdown”, Sept. 28, served yet another reminder of how the liberal news media takes a celebrity’s off-the-wall comment and blows it out of proportion.

“I think what we’ve had here is a little social concern in the NFL,” Limbaugh said on the show. “The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well. There is little hope invested in McNabb, and he got a lot of credit for the performance of this team that he didn’t deserve. The defense carried this team.”

I see no racist undertones in that remark.

If Rush Limbaugh is a bigot, then actor/director Mel Gibson is truly anti-Semitic and blames the Jews for putting Christ to death and wants to prove this with his upcoming movie, “The Passion of the Christ” (2004).

If the volatile talk show host’s statement about McNabb was a race issue, why didn’t former Dallas Cowboys’ player Michael Irvin and Tom Jackson, both of whom are African American and were also panelists on the show, refute Limbaugh’s comments at once instead of talking about it days later?

“I’m not pointing at anyone, but someone should have said it,” McNabb was quoted saying according to an Oct. 1, 2003 article on SI.com (Sports Illustrated). “I wouldn’t have cared if it was the cameraman.”

I find it rather ironic that the only ones who did in fact make a big stink out of all this was only liberals eager to get their name in the news. Those include Democratic presidential candidates Wesley Clark, Howard Dean, and Al Sharpton as well as the NAACP who called Limbaugh’s remarks “bigoted and ignorant.”

The fact I heard no conservatives speak for or against what Limbaugh said, like President Bush, or such African Americans as Condoleeza Rice or Colin Powell to name a few, proves once again how much the liberal news media makes a big deal out of nothing.

“This thing is alive and kicking today because the Philadelphia sports media, the newspapers, decided to kick it up,” Limbaugh said on his website, www.rushlimbaugh.com on Oct. 1, 2003. “You know, this is such a mountain out of a molehill. There’s no racism here. There’s no racist intent, comment, whatsoever.”

Limbaugh said on his website that he was only giving his opinion from his standpoint as a football fan.

“I, as a fan, don’t think he’s (McNabb) as good as others have made him out to be. Not that he’s a bad quarterback, not that he shouldn’t be there, but that he’s just not as good as everybody says.”

What’s wrong with that?

To quote Limbaugh from his website, “Everybody disagrees everybody when it comes to opinions expressed about practically everything, including sports.”

The face is executives at ESPN knew full well about Limbaugh’s controversial nature prior to bringing him on the show. His comments have gained national attention before. Why should he change his ways just because he is now on cable television?

“I figured if I am going to this (“Sunday NFL Countdown”), I should be who I am,” Limbaugh said according to an Oct. 2, 2003 article by Jason Straziuso of the Associated Press.

I would not have expected anything less from Limbaugh.

I have absolutely zero interest in sports. If Limbaugh, however, had been chosen a few years ago by ABC to co-anchor “Monday Night Football,” I would have been in front of the television every week. Not to watch the game, mind you. But so, I can hear what he has to say about the plays that are called.

The guy is entertaining to listen to which is why I often tune in to his radio show during the week, even if I don’t always agree with him.

ESPN spokesman Dave Nagle said in an Oct. 1, 2003 article on SI.com that the ratings for “Sunday NFL Countdown” were up ten percent overall since Limbaugh joined the show.

The Sept. 28 broadcast drew its biggest audience since November 1996.

Just imagine what those numbers would have bene for this past Sunday’s program if Limbaugh did not, or if the Mickey Mouse owned sports network had not suggested, or should I say urged him to resign? I have no idea as to where that ten percent audience share is now.

What I will say is because of Limbaugh’s sudden and unexpectedly speedy departure from the show on Oct. 2, the folks at Sunday NFL Countdown have lost one prospective viewer who would have tuned in.

That person is me.

©10/15/03

Gibson's “Passion” whips up needless controversy

I doubt most of you have heard of the three-hour biblical epic, “The Gospel of John”, which as of this writing, opened in theaters in limited release Sept. 26.

Other than actor Christopher Plummer who narrates the film, “The Gospel of John” features no known Hollywood stars and covers the life of Christ from his birth to the resurrection, all based of course on one of the four gospels, which this film is named after.

“The Gospel of John” is not receiving any harsh criticism from Jewish groups who are concerned the independent production is going to spur anti-Semitism.

If only Academy Award winning actor/director Mel Gibson were so lucky.

I am willing to bet by now, some, if not all of you have heard of “The Passion of the Christ”, Gibson's upcoming movie about the Son of God. The picture is drawing as much negative criticism from groups like the Anti-Defamation League as it is getting endorsements from Vatican officials and even the president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

Like “The Gospel of John”, “The Passion of the Christ” features a cast of unknowns, except for two stars you may have heard of. Jim Caviezel, who starred in the World War II film, The Thin Red Line (1998), plays Jesus and Monica Bellucci, who was most recently seen in “The Matrix Reloaded” (2003), portrays Mary Magdelene.

Gibson's version, which has the characters speaking in Latin and Aramaic tongues, will cover the last 12 hours of Christ's life that include, now that the trailer is reportedly in theaters and on the Internet, graphic scenes of his crucifixion.



"This film is for everyone. For believers and nonbelievers, Jesus Christ is undoubtedly one of the most important historical figures of all time," Gibson is quoted saying on www.passion-movie.com, a website promoting the film. "Name one person who has had a greater impact on the course of history."

Those last 12 hours, however, are what has groups like Abraham Foxman, executive director for the Anti-Defamation League concerned about the picture's material, according to an Aug. 14, 2003 article on CNN.

"We were troubled ... that it portrayed the Jews, the Jewish community, in a manner that we have experienced historically," Foxman told CNN in the article. "Seeing passion plays used to incite not only a passion of love in terms of Christianity, but at the same time, to instill and incite a hatred of the Jews because of deicide"

"There's so much violence that was part of the script ... there was a fixation on the suffering, the torture, the brutality done to Jesus," said Sister Mary C. Boys of the Union Theological Seminary, according to the same column and yet another religious official opposed to the film.

"Mel abhors anti-Semitism.," said Paul Lauer, spokesman for Gibson's Icon Productions who is also quoted on www.passion-movie.com. "In no way does his faith endorse hatred or bigotry or anti-Semitism or blame the Jews for the death of Christ."

He isn't the only one who agrees.

"The contention that the film 'will spur anti-Semitic fervor' is nonsense," said Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America according to a Sept. 3, 2003 article on newsmax.com. "You can quote me - Mel Gibson's 'The Passion' is not anti-Semitic. I did not see any anti-Semitism in it."

The same goes for some Vatican officials.

"Anti-Semitism, like all forms of racism, distorts the truth by putting an entire race in a bad light," said Cardinal Dario Castrillon Hoyos who was quoted in a Sept. 19, 2003 article by the Associated Press. "This film does nothing of the kind."

According to the column, Hoyos, who saw an unfinished version of the film added he "felt moments of deep spiritual intimacy with Jesus Christ."

I will not dispute there are people out there who could spur anti-Semitic viewpoints, or any kind of negative stereotype for that matter towards one race. The aftermath immediately following the 9/11 attacks demonstrated that fully with the murders of convenience store clerks killed solely based on their nationality and reports of religious mosques being vandalized.

Those acts, however, were committed by sick twisted individuals who just wanted to use a national tragedy as a reason to strike back against those who had nothing to do with what happened, much less agree with the terrorists’ beliefs. Just because one or a few people act that way, doesn't mean an entire race endorses it.

Watching such biblical movies about the life of Christ like “Jesus of Nazareth” (1977), “The Greatest Story Ever Told” (1965) and “King of Kings: (1961) when I was a kid, I saw those films as educational entertainment. Not once did it enter my mind that it was the Jews who murdered Christ. The way I saw it, everyone was responsible, and it wasn't just one race.

The fact is, when it comes to thinking a movie will incite hatred against one group of people is downright ludicrous.

When “Schindler's List” (1993) came out years ago, did the Germans speak out about how director Steven Spielberg portrayed them in the film? If there was, I didn't hear about it.

Did anyone of Japanese descent speak out against Pearl Harbor when it came out the summer of 2001? Honestly when it comes to history, the only thing filmmakers Jerry Bruckheimer and Michael Bay got right was the vivid attack itself.

Spike Lee's “Malcolm X” (1992) opens with the infamous Rodney King video with the voice of the Muslim leader inciting war against the white race. Most of the people who sat in that audience when I saw it were African American and I assure you, when the film ended, no one got up and started chanting "Death to whites!"

In less than three months, “The Alamo” will be released in theaters. Most everyone familiar with Texas history knows how the story ends. I haven't heard any Hispanic groups voice concerns over how they will be depicted in the film.

“The Passion of the Christ” is not just a movie, but an artist's viewpoint of how events in the Bible occurred, the way Martin Scorsese's 1988 film, “The Last Temptation of Christ”, tackled the notion of Jesus as a flawed human being, even if it wasn't necessarily based on the Gospels.

I won't deny I would much rather see a film about Jesus Christ the way “The Gospel of John” was done, or for that matter, see liberal Hollywood make a $50 million plus production with a great number of highly paid stars attached to it.

I am not so sure where the entertainment value is when an entire movie is devoted to covering Jesus' last hours watching someone being horrifically tortured and executed on the cross when Gibson’s “Passion” opens in theaters next spring.

According to the Aug. 14, 2003 article on CNN, Gibson said his film is meant "to inspire, not offend" and wants "to create a lasting work of art and engender serious thought among audiences of diverse faith backgrounds (or none) who have varying familiarity with this story."

Perhaps a movie graphically showing what Christ went through for us will do some good. Maybe it will make people stop and think about how they've been living their lives.

The only time I hear of individuals making a life change is after they see something tragic on the news. Or if something bad happens to them and even then, that life changing attitude lasts half as long, if that much, as it takes to get over the death of a loved one.

©10/1/03

Two years after 9/11 Americans continue to go about their daily lives despite terror alerts

When terrorists first attacked the World Trade Center February 1993, Americans knew it was terrorism, but we never gave it so much as a thought it could happen again on our shores.

At least not in the way it happened the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 with the hijacking of four jetliners; two flying into and destroying the World Trade Center’s twin towers. The third flying into the Pentagon, while the fourth crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, thanks to the brave passengers aboard Flight 93 who attempted to stop the terrorists from destroying another American symbol.

Since 9/11, not a day, week, or month has gone by where the threat of terrorism either here or abroad isn’t mentioned on the news.

Last month, the FBI, in working with Russian Federal Secret Service, successfully arrested a Briton arms dealer of Indian descent, who attempted to sell a shoulder-fired missile to an informant posing as a terrorist, according to the Aug. 25, 2003 issue of Time.

Although the apprehension was a small victory in the war on terror, FAA officials and terrorism experts interviewed on such programs as Nightline said a great number of surface-to-air missiles could already be in the hands of terrorist groups. The fact the possibility exists that such weapons could be used to bring down a commercial jetliner, either in the U.S. or other countries in the coming years, isn’t a comforting thought to air travelers not to mention the already financially troubled airline industry.

Last week, the FBI issued a bulletin to all law enforcement agencies across the country to be on the lookout for four men believed to be involved in terrorist activities and who may pose a threat to Americans here and abroad, according to an Sept. 5, 2003 article on CNN.

On the eve of the second anniversary of 9/11, Al-Jazeera TV released a videotape of Osama bin Laden and his chief deputy walking throughout the rocky mountain regions of Afghanistan with the voice of the Al-Qaeda leader promising more terror attacks.

None of this, however, has deterred Americans from going about their daily lives.

We go to work, school and attend church. Nothing has stopped people from flying, vacationing, shopping, dining at restaurants, going to movies, sports events and attending concerts. Despite the events of two years ago, the last thing on anyone’s mind today whenever they wake up in the morning and walk out the front door is the thought they could be victims of a terrorist attack.

It’s a good bet that wasn’t what the victims were thinking about when they arrived to work at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and boarded those four planes that fateful morning.

They were doing exactly what we do every day. It is something we should do every year on this dark day, other than taking a moment to remember the fallen.

When asked how Americans should commemorate Sept. 11, talk show host Rush Limbaugh had this to say in the Sept. 24, 2001 issue of Time.

"We should resolve to make Sept. 11 as robust a day as we can. It should feature Americans behaving in their unique, extraordinary ways. Those whose lives were lost should be remembered as they died, in busy activity, never dreaming that that day would be their last on Earth. We will not need to shut down to remember."

©9/17/03

Mallard deserved prison time, but not fifty years

I am not going to dispute whether Chante Mallard, the woman sentenced June 27, 2003 to 50 years in prison for hitting a homeless man while driving home one night in October 2001 under the influence of drugs and alcohol, and leaving him to die in the windshield, deserved prison time.

The fact she deserves to go to prison came from Mallard herself during the punishment phase of her trial.

"I feel like I do need to be punished," Mallard told jurors, who also pleaded guilty earlier to tampering with evidence when she had the body dumped in a park with the help of a former boyfriend and his cousin, according to a front-page article in the June 27, 2003 article of The Dallas Morning News.

To quote a priest I had back in high school who taught a senior level religion course, "You do the crime, you do the time."

When it comes to murder, I have always believed the person convicted (provided he or she committed the crime) should either spend the rest of their lives in prison or get the next best thing, death.

I felt a little different though in the case of Chante Mallard. Yes, she committed a heinous crime. Did she deserve life in prison, which was one option the jury could have chosen? No.

Does she deserve to go to prison? Yes. But for 50 years? I am not so sure being on a jury that I would have handed down such a sentence.

If I were on that jury, I probably would have given her 25 years. Ok. An even 30. According to an article off CNN's website, under Texas law, a person must serve half their prison time before they can be eligible for parole. Giving her 25 years in prison, Mallard would have become eligible for parole in 12 or 13 years instead of 25 or 30.

And it would have given what the defense was hoping for Mallard; a chance to still make a life for herself.

"Now the jury's given her no chance,” defense attorney Jeffrey Kearney said. “The sentence from a legal standpoint is 10 years less than life. I certainly don't feel any victory."

Why do I feel this way? It stems from Mallard’s tearful testimony that was televised on the 5:00 news during the punishment phase of her trial.

I have seen Oscar winning performances like this before from convicts, who in a final attempt by his or her defense attorneys, could hopefully sway the jury from giving their client life in prison or the death penalty.

Mallard's actions on the stand were not the work of someone desperate to stay out of prison. Her words of sorrow to the family of Gregory Biggs were one of remorse as well as the pain and embarrassment she had brought upon her own family.

"I've ruined the lives of other people," she said. "I have put people through pain. I'm sorry."

Although Mallard's defense attorneys used one expert to prove that being under the influence of drugs and alcohol causes one to be unable to think straight, hence the reason she didn’t call for help that October night, Mallard admitted she was the one at fault.

Alcohol and ecstasy weren't to blame.

Of course, the ball rolls both ways.

Lead prosecutor Richard Alpert said in the DMN he doesn't doubt Mallard's remorse, but it is more likely she feels remorse for the consequences of her actions.

There is one thing neither the defense, the prosecutors, or the press for that matter brought up after I read a couple news stories about the case.

All this could have been avoided if Mallard had opted to stay at a friend's house after a night of partying, drinking, and taking drugs. She shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place.

If Mallard had done what she should have done that fateful October night after hitting Biggs, which was to call the police, would she still have gone to jail to be charged with not just involuntary manslaughter but driving under the influence of alcohol and controlled substances? Yes.

Would her jail time have been less than what she had received now? Yes. Would Gregory Biggs still be alive today had she gotten help? Yes. Would Mallard's former boyfriend, Clete Jackson and a cousin who helped her dispose of the body be sitting in prison today? No.

Would a jury of Mallard's peers perhaps accept her remorseful pleas and be far more lenient towards her when it came to sentencing simply because she did, in fact, call 911 immediately after the accident and tried to save Biggs' life? More than likely.

Mallard instead chose to go the other route. As a result, the jury saw it otherwise.

"Some crimes are just so outrageous that giving someone a chance to rehabilitate is just not going to occur to a jury," Alpert said according to the article on CNN’s website.

Chante Mallard is exactly as Jeff Kearney described her.

"A person who had a whole lot of good in her but did something really horrible," Kearney said. "The jury probably recognized it, but her conduct...was so compelling to the jury they just couldn't get over it."

There is a phrase I have heard or have been told repeatedly when coming to terms with the consequences of one's actions. And it's not just a phrase, but a lesson. It's called "live and learn."

In some cases, one learns the hard way.

Chante Mallard realized too late the consequences of what her actions wrought and as a result, she learned the hard way.

©7/16/03

Appreciation: Fred Rogers (1928-2003)

It's a sad day in the neighborhood.

On Feb. 27, 2003, Fred Rogers, the beloved host and creator of his educational and Emmy award winning children's television show, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" (1968-2001), passed away unexpectedly at the age of 74.

Upon hearing the grim news, I asked myself what Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood taught me when I watched it back in the very early 70s growing up.

As a young kid, I always saw the show as another form of rather embarrassing entertainment that was more than a dozen notches below the mindless Saturday morning cartoons.

I never watched the long running Public Broadcasting series to learn anything. The same went for "Sesame Street" (1969) and "The Electric Company" (1971-1977). My enjoyment in watching "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" was seeing that remote controlled red trolley come out of its dark little tunnel to the tune of silly piano music. In every episode, the musical host in his red or blue sweater (one of which hangs in the Smithsonian Institution), would take us on a ride into the land of "make-believe." There, we'd meet such wooden puppets as King Friday, Lady Elaine Fairchild and some talking owl who lived in a tree.

Seeing episodes of "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" last year in between watching the news and reruns of "Hawaii Five-O" (1968-1980) and "I Love Lucy" (1951-1957) at 6 a.m. Monday mornings, my reaction to the program was exactly the same as during my childhood days. I watched it for entertainment value. I was amused to see this tall, thin, impeccably dressed, rather nerdy looking fellow with the soft spoken, yet self-assuring voice, walk onto his set every morning always ready to share something new with his viewers from seashells to how a video cassette recorder (VCR) works.

I couldn't help but laugh at hearing the weird music every time Mr. McFeely eagerly dropped the mail off at Mr. Rogers' house. How many mailmen do you know are that excited to bring you the mail, much less stand and watch while you open up your letter or package?

Then there were those moments where if the mood or tone of the show seemed to fit with a certain subject, Mr. Rogers would burst into song saying, "how special" each one of us is. It's the kind of stuff comedian Eddie Murphy joked about years later in his rendition of the PBS series on "Saturday Night Live" (1975-Present) called "Mr. Robinson's Neighborhood," which Rogers reportedly found to be both "funny and affectionate" according to his obituary.

It was "make-believe" that a childhood friend of mine, Mark Depaulo, and I played whenever he came over.

Those two words ticked my dad off the most every time Mark and I got together. When it came to the world of "make-believe", Mark would start off saying "Let's pretend..." Just hearing the words "pretend" and "make-believe" was enough to send my dad off on a tirade telling us such words and phrases don't exist.

That's what the world of "make-believe" was all about on "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood" though. There was, however, much more to those wooden puppet shows, and it didn't hit me until after watching those few episodes that behind the world of "make-believe" was always some meaningful message the television host wanted to convey to the young ones.

I know for a fact all those times Mark and I "pretended" that not once did any of our little skits have any redeeming educational value. We didn't address such questions youngsters might have about assassinations, coping with the deaths of pets and loved ones, divorce, marriage and war in our stories. They were, however, topics Fred Rogers cleverly addressed in all his half-hour shows during its run from 1968 to 2000 (the last episode didn't air until August 2001).

I guess I could say it was Mr. Rogers who taught me how to dream up wild stories. Something that happened long before I was inspired to write my own outlandish epics after seeing science fiction reruns of "Lost in Space" (1965-1968), "Star Trek" (1966-1969), "Star Wars" (1977) and "Battlestar Galactica" (1978-1979). Looking back on the children's show today, it turns out Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood really is not as embarrassing a program as I might have thought.

I am not at all ashamed to say I know the opening words of "It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood." Or the song he often sang near the end of the program that started with the words, "It's such a good feeling, to know you're alive, it's such a happy feeling..."

For thirty plus years, it really was a beautiful day in the neighborhood.

When he taped his final episode in 2000, Fred Rogers promised his viewers he would be back. In a way, it is almost as if he never left.

Now that he's gone, the neighborhood will never be the same.

©3/5/03

Columbia disaster brings back memories of Challenger 17 years ago

Seeing the broken streaks of light of what remained of the space shuttle Columbia above the skies of Central Texas on network television the morning of Feb. 1, 2003 brought back memories of the Challenger disaster 17 years ago.

Everyone has an "I-remember-what-I-was-doing-when-so-so-happened-story.”

For some reason, I can still clearly recall the day I heard about the Challenger disaster as though it was yesterday.

I was a sophomore at Bishop Lynch High School in Dallas when it happened and learned about it during lunch from Kelly Reed, a friend of mine whom I still keep in touch with. Kelly heard about it from some upper classmen who watched the launch on TV during class and were talking about as they were waiting in the lunch line.

As I was talking with two other buddies of mine, Tom Kelley and Joel Matthews, Reed sat down and told us he heard from some people that the shuttle blew up.

The only thing I knew about Challenger at the time was it was the most widely publicized mission at the time since the crew included a civilian, Christa McAuliffe, a schoolteacher.

As more students around us talked about the disaster, Tom later remarked that he hoped the shuttle hadn't blown up as if knowing the obvious setbacks such a catastrophe would cause for America's space program; a comment today he claims he never said but I know otherwise.

Later that afternoon, the school's chaplain, Father Sean Martin, announced on the PA system asking the students, faculty and administration for a moment of silence shortly before classes ended that day.

When I got home, I turned the TV to CNN where as usual, the media demonstrated what they continue to do so well every time a major catastrophe happens; replaying the entire 73 seconds from the time the shuttle launched to the moment it exploded to its aftermath capturing spectator’s looks of disbelief.

What was most tragic about Challenger and is now repeated with the Columbia is how America didn't learn of the crew's names and how they lived their lives until after the disasters occurred.

It's a good bet had Feb. 1, 2003 been a day of homecomings, parties and debriefings instead of a day of somber press conferences from NASA officials trying to explain what happened, we would have never heard of Rick Husband, William McCool, Michael Anderson, Kalpana Chawla, David Brown, Laurel Clark or Ilan Ramon. Most of us probably wouldn’t have even known the crew included two people of different nationalities for the first time: an Indian and an Israeli.

If 9/11 begged the question, why does it take a major catastrophe for one to consider how mortal we all are, the Columbia disaster suggests how tragic it is to know the only time we ever learn about the private lives of these brave souls is after a fatal mishap occurs. It is then that we escalate them to the status of heroes.

The fact is the Columbia 7 were heroes the moment they chose to become astronauts. They were doing something they perhaps dreamed of doing since they were kids. How many people do you know who truly enjoy getting up every morning and going to work regardless of the paycheck, daily hassles, or the dangers that might come with the job, if any? I only know of one and he works for The Baltimore Sun.

I am not at all surprised that in the wake of this latest tragedy that some Americans, not to mention the press are once again questioning whether or not the space program should continue just as they did after Challenger.

The facts, however, speak for themselves. The demise of the Titanic didn't put an end to luxury liners. And while the destruction of the Hindenburg in 1936 put an end to flying zeppelins running on flammable hydrogen as an alternate means of travel, there are still those rare moments today where we see the Goodyear Blimp flying in the sky such as during the Super Bowl.

Aviation has had more than its share of countless air disasters since the Wright Brothers flew their plane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. Today, despite the troubled economy and the threat of terrorism, have airplane crashes kept people from flying?

In its 42-year history so far, NASA has lost only 17 people. The deaths of Lt. Col. Virgil I. "Gus" Grissom, USAF, Lt. Col. Edward H. White II, USAF, and Navy Lt. Roger B. Chaffe in a flash fire inside the Apollo 204 capsule on Jan. 27, 1967, didn’t stop NASA from achieving what President Kennedy wanted America to one day accomplish: to be the first to send a man to the moon. That happened on July 20, 1969.

The shuttle program continued after Challenger, albeit almost three years later with the Shuttle Discovery returning to space Sept. 29, 1988. It will continue after Columbia as well, whether it takes six months, a year or longer for NASA to find out what happened, we will return to space.

Not doing so would dishonor the memories of the men and women of the Columbia 7 and those who went before them. And that alone would be far worse than the tragedy itself.

©2/5/03