My thoughts while watching "American Sniper"

I’m going to be honest with you. I had no desire to see "American Sniper" (2014), Oscar winning director Clint Eastwood’s pro-war biography of the “legend” navy seal Chris Kyle whose confirmed number of kills while serving four tours in Iraq totaled 160 but could have been as high as 255.

My reason for not wanting to see it had nothing to do with the film’s recent box office earnings now on its way to surpassing the $200 million mark. Nor did the phrase, “Controversy sells” which was marked by the hate speech about American Sniper uttered by “Hollyweird” leftists Michael Moore, actor Seth Rogen and comedian Bill Maher among them give me more reason to see it.

I didn’t want to see "American Sniper" (warning: spoilers ahead) because I didn’t want to see a movie where I already knew how it would end which was tragically. I found it depressing enough to watch clips of Chris Kyle’s funeral service, which was held at Cowboys Stadium on Feb. 11, 2013. I didn’t want to relive seeing that again on the big screen, despite the fact the funeral procession from Midlothian, Texas to Austin showing hundreds of Texas residents paying their final respects was shown during the film’s end credits.

Against my better wishes, I saw "American Sniper" and exhibited a number of reactions watching the film. I clung to the sides of the chair I sat in, for example, as I watched Kyle, as played by Oscar nominated actor Bradley Cooper, as he sets his sights on an Iraqi mother who hands her son a roadside bomb to throw at American marine soldiers.

Fine! Call me a baby killer if you want (I’ve been called worse and still sleep well at night) but I sat there silently yelling at the big screen telling Kyle to “Get him!” regardless of the fact the kid may have been the age of my two nephews, six and twelve. I said the same thing when the Iraqi mother, who upon seeing her son shot and killed, grab the bomb and throw it at American forces on the ground. Kyle got her. American soldiers were saved.

That kind of scene would have been no different if police sharpshooters had their sights on mass murderers Eric Harris, 18, and Dylan Klebold, 17, and were able to take them out with one shot to each at Columbine High School during their shooting rampage back in April 1999. You don’t suddenly develop a conscience when you are a sniper. A sniper’s job is to take out the shooters to save lives.

I had other bouts of emotions as well. I shed a tear or two when Kyle’s son was born. Then there was that inevitable ending I knew was coming which felt like something was eating away at my insides. I again wanted to yell at the IMAX screen telling Kyle to stay home and play a computer game with his son instead of going off the morning of Feb. 2, 2013, to help 25-year-old U.S. Marine veteran Eddie Ray Routh who reportedly suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder at a gun range. Routh shot and killed Kyle and Kyle’s friend, Chad Littlefield. His trial is scheduled to begin in February.

What American Sniper accomplished was what “good” movies are supposed to do; make us cheer on the good guy, feel the pain the lead character is going through and, in some cases, make us shed a few tears.

I have often heard it said how America does not have enough heroes to look up to anymore. Chris Kyle was a hero whose sniper kills saved a number of lives.

To quote a former wounded soldier in one scene during the film, "Your dad (Chris Kyle), he’s a hero,” the soldier tells Kyle’s son. “He saved my life. He helped me get back to my little girl. A lot of guys wouldn’t be here without him.”

I am sure a number of military veterans who knew Chris Kyle can attest to that.

©1/28/15

When will we start talking about mental illness?

Mass murderer James Holmes (left) with his lawyer.

What do James Holmes, Adam Lanza and Jared Lee Loughner have in common? If you’ve paid any attention to the violent acts these individuals committed then you know, thanks to the drive-by media who gave these gunmen their 15 minutes of fame, that they all went on mass murder sprees.

The question is did you know these mentally disturbed individuals and countless others before them either attempted to seek, were urged by family and friends to seek, refused to seek, or were already undergoing psychiatric care prior to picking up the gun?

Last month a report released by the Connecticut Office of the Child Advocate profiled Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza noting "missed opportunities" by Lanza's mother, the school district, and multiple health care providers. It identified "warning signs, red flags, or other lessons that could be learned from a review of [Lanza's] life."

Lanza is just one case where signs of mental illness were completely ignored. When it comes to mass shootings mental illness is never the first thing mentioned as being the cause of that person’s rage. Instead, “the blame game” is pushed off on the AK-47 assault rifle the individual used, violent movies, rock music, comic books and the Internet. Whatever happened to blaming the person who pulled the trigger and the continuing breakdown of the nation’s mental health care system as the reason why so many of these mass shootings keep happening?

I couldn’t help but laugh when I read that the ten families who lost their children in the Sandy Hook shootings in December 2012 filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Bushmaster, the manufacturer of the firearm Lanza used. Here we go again! Distraught families file lawsuits blaming the gun when the real focus needs to be how and whether or not the healthcare system is properly treating potentially violent individuals who could be bent on committing mass murder.

In a 2013 article on CNN titled “’My son is mentally ill’ so listen up “ more than 60 million adults – 1 in 4 in America suffer from mental illness ranging from panic disorders to depression. Of those nearly 14 million, almost 6 in 100 live with a serious mental illness such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and severe depression.

What I find especially troubling is the stigma “normal” people hold against those who are being treated for mental illness. I am willing to bet if someone told you that he or she is under psychiatric care and taking medications to help get their mind straight the first thought going through your head will be, “should I get myself a bullet proof vest in case that person decides to one day go postal?”

Maybe if people did some actual research on the different kinds of bipolar disorder they wouldn’t jump to so many ridiculous conclusions. Perhaps if people were not so consumed with their personal lives that when they see someone who may be troubled they could take time out of their hectic schedules and ask that person, “How’s it going?” instead of saying to oneself, “Well that’s just so-so. That’s just the way they are. Nothing to worry about.” Until it’s too late. Then come the media interviews from people who knew the shooters who say, “Gee I didn’t know the guy had any serious personal problems.”

Mental illness will play a major role as jury selection begins in the trial of Aurora shooter James Holmes Jan. 20 in Colorado. Holmes has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity in the murders of 12 people and injuring 70 others at a movie theater on July 20, 2012.

"The public is going to get an insight into the mind of a killer who says he doesn't know right from wrong," said Alan Tuerkheimer, a Chicago-based jury consultant. "It is really rare. It just doesn't usually come to this."

I don’t know if Holmes’ lawyers will be able to spare him the death penalty. What I do believe is the only way these mass shootings will end is when politicians and the drive-by media stop playing “the blame game” and start looking at what more can be done to treat the mentally ill.

Just ask one victim who survived Jared Lee Loughner’s attempted assassination on U.S. representative Gabrielle Giffords in January 2011. Loughner plead guilty to 19 charges of murder and attempted murder in August 2012 and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

“People should have been alerted that he (Loughner) needed mental health treatment,” said one. “Had this happened the violent acts would never have taken place.”

Maybe the next time another mass shooting happens in Anywhere, USA be it the local church, shopping mall, school, movie theater, restaurant, a military base or the workplace, instead of playing “the blame game”, start asking yourself what kind of psychological treatment was that individual who pulled the trigger getting, if any.

©1/21/15

Gone Too Soon: Brittany Maynard (1984-2014)

Imagine having your whole life ahead of you. You are 29 years old. You just got married and have plans to start a family. Trouble is you have been suffering from massive headaches the past few months. You see the doctor and literally feel as though you’ve been punched in the stomach upon hearing the diagnosis: stage IV glioblastoma multiforme; in short, terminal brain cancer.

At the suggestion of the doctors, you opt to have a couple surgeries in hopes of stopping the brain tumor, but the cancer comes back a few months later, this time more aggressive. Doctors give you a death sentence of six months to live or less. What do you do?

If you do what I’ve known so many have done over the course of my lifetime whether they are family members or acquaintances after exhausting every possible life saving option chances are, provided they are able, decide to spend their remaining weeks or months at home as opposed to being bedridden in a hospital.

I don’t know anyone, so far, who would do what Brittany Maynard, 29, did when she was diagnosed in January last year with terminal brain cancer. Upon hearing how long she had to live after two failed surgeries and after consulting with family and friends, the California resident uprooted her family and moved to Oregon where a physician can legally prescribe medication to the terminally ill so they can end their lives based on the state’s Death With Dignity law.

On Nov. 1, 2014, Maynard took that medication “and died as she intended – peacefully in her bedroom, in the arms of her loved ones” according to Compassion & Choices, an end-of-life advocacy group Maynard worked with.

Much like euthanasia activist Jack Kevorkian's public support of terminally ill patients’ right to die assisting with over 100 physician assisted suicides in the 1990s, Maynard’s death again ignited the moral debate about how, regardless of the extreme pain the person may be in, suicide is still a sin in the eyes of most, if not all religious denominations, in particular the Catholic Church.

What angered me most was how days after Maynard’s passing, an official with the Vatican, which condemns suicide, called her decision to end her life “reprehensible.”

"Dignity is something other than putting an end to one's own life," said Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life. "... Brittany Maynard's act is in itself reprehensible, but what happened in the consciousness we do not know."

This brings me to the question of who are they, or anyone for that matter, to decide what’s best for the dying regardless of what the Bible teaches about suicide being a sin. How do they know what God will decide when that person goes before the Almighty on Judgment Day? It amazes me how people and religious organizations are so quick to condemn a dying person’s decision to end their life as opposed to putting it in God’s hands and waiting for the Angel of Death to take them.

Yet when Americans witnessed death up close on 9/11 watching the poor souls jump from the fiery smoke engulfed upper floors of the World Trade Center, I didn’t hear anyone condemn those individuals' heartbreaking decision who, like Maynard in realizing she had no chance of beating cancer, to take charge of their own destiny after realizing there was no hope of rescue.

Unless you are a born masochist who enjoys pain, I don’t think any of us wants to watch someone, let alone go through the final ravaging stages of such diseases as AIDS, the Ebola virus or the many forms of cancer. If we weren’t so compassionate, why then do we pet owners when told by the veterinarian that our beloved dog or cat is dying, choose to put them to sleep? The answer is because we don’t want to watch them suffer.

I don’t know what action I will take if/when the day comes whether it’s tomorrow, next week, next month, next year or ten, twenty years from now should some ailment I pay little to no attention to turn out to be something “terminal.”

Perhaps I’ll move to Hawaii, rent a house and spend my remaining days on the beach watching the waves creep up in hopes my time ends one day as the sun goes down. Perhaps when my time is at an end, more states besides Oregon will have adopted the Death With Dignity law and I can decide whether to take matters in my own hands. Personally, I don’t think I could bring myself to do it.

Considering the devastating side effects, however, that Maynard said she would have gone through had she chosen the radiation treatment which would have included her hair being singed off, first degree burns, morphine resistant pain, personality changes, and the combined loss of verbal, cognitive and motor skills as a result of her brain tumor, taking legally prescribed medication to end one’s life before the symptoms get worse seems the better more humane way to go than the excruciatingly painful alternative.

©1/14/15

Don't tell me what I can't watch!

When someone forbids you from either seeing a movie, reading a certain book or looking at a particular work of art what’s the first thing you are going to do? You do just the opposite, correct? You are going to watch that film, read that book and gaze proudly at that artwork whether you like it or not. You are going to view it just because someone told you not to. In other words, you do it out of spite.

That’s what my response was to my dad when he forbid me to see a little movie directed by Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese called "The Last Temptation of Christ" in August 1988. I was 18 when that movie came out and fresh out of high school. In my opinion, I could watch whatever the Hell I wanted, and just because I was raised a Catholic in which my parents paid good money to send me to both private grade and high schools doesn’t mean I subscribe to everything the Catholic Church follows.

To quote Scorsese, “I'm a lapsed Catholic. But I am Roman Catholic, there's no way out of it.”

Based on author Nikos Kazantzakis’ fictional 1953 novel, "The Last Temptation of Christ" opened with the title card assuring viewers "This film is not based upon the Gospels but upon this fictional exploration of the eternal spiritual conflict."

That was not enough to keep religious fanatics from creating an unnecessary stink about the film’s questionable subject matter which showed Jesus Christ (Willem Dafoe) as exactly who he was, a human being, who, like all of us struggled with temptation. What especially angered religious groups was a dream sequence showing the Son of God as he is dying on the cross settling down with Mary Magdelene (Barbara Hershey) and raising a family. The end result was the film played in only one theater in the Dallas area and could only be found for rent a year later in independent video store chains as back then, Blockbuster Video opted not to carry the film.



The point behind my plan to go against dad’s wishes back then and opting to see "The Last Temptation of Christ" (which didn’t happen until a year later) and doing battle with protesters outside the movie theater is the same point Americans, Hollywood and even President Obama felt when Sony pulled "The Interview."  The comedy about two want-to-be serious journalists (James Franco and Seth Rogen) recruited by the CIA to assassinate North Korea dictator Kim Jong-un was pulled from its planned Christmas Day release December 17 because of 9/11 style threats from computer hackers believed to be from North Korea.

When Sony did an about face releasing "The Interview" in independent and arthouse theaters across the country in limited release on Christmas Day, Americans celebrated freedom of speech and artistic expression by paying to see the film whether the critics embraced it or not. Most did not but if audiences actually listened to movie critics, there’d be no Transformers movies.

"This movie will be awful, but it's my choice to watch awful," wrote one Twitter user about the comedy.

I apply that same reasoning to "The Last Temptation of Christ." In America, it is “us” or to be more precise, me, who decides what’s trash, not my parents, not the government, and most certainly not terrorists.

I have not seen "The Interview" in theaters nor have I paid to download it online. At least now, however, I can decide whether I want to see it or not. If and when I do, I predict my feelings about the film will be the same I had after fast forwarding to the last 20 minutes of Scorsese’s film when I rented it a year later just to see what all the fuss was about. To this day, I still haven’t seen The Last Temptation of Christ in its entirety, not because of the supposed sacrilegious content, but because the movie is just so damn boring, I could use it in place of those Equate Maximum Strength sleep aid pills I often take to fall asleep.

In the end, I found the hype was a big deal about nothing and the only reason Scorsese’s movie, much like the combined $20 million gross "The Interview" has earned in theater and online sales so far, got so much attention were those two words, “controversy sells.”

©1/7/15