They Shoot Environmentalists, Don't They
One of
Ez's favorite all-time movies, and we're going back, way back on this one
to the time when
Ez was young enough to wish he had a pony tail but never had enough hair to tie it back in a tail let alone a stalk, is They Shoot Horses, Don't They? with Jane Fonda, Red Buttons and Gig Young. If you remember who any of these actors are, you are probably getting nasty annoying junk mail from
AARP. No,
Ez is not imitating a seal. That's the American Association of Retired Persons.
The
AARP is some baby boomer's great idea to do what the Germans, Napoleon, the ancient Romans, Alexander the Great, and quite possibly Genghis Khan, but we can't possibly know because he didn't leave a diary, only fantasized about doing and that is to rule the world. Every American, and very shortly, everyone else on the planet, gets an invitation to join
AAPR as soon as they reach, say 55. But, with enough people on junk food diets, swilling Pepsi and Coca Cola, and being exposed to microwave bombardment from cell phones, the average life expectancy assigned to humans may drop to 55, so
AARP will have to send those invitations out when folks reach 45.
But, say you decide to tear up your invitation and chuck it? No matter,
AARP will not give up on you. There is no way that you can ever get off the
AARP mailing list. You might think that the
AARP and the Social Security Administration were in league with
eachother the same way that EBAY is now linked to the US Post Office. These alliances are happening all over the place now. The Pentagon is a subsidiary of Exxon,
NASA's made an exclusive deal with
McDonalds to run the food service on the international space station, and who knows but far beyond, where no restaurant chain has dared to go.
AARP will keep hounding you and hounding you. And, if you hold out and resist, no big deal. They simply won't let you croak until you join. You see,
AARP is gobbling up all the funeral parlors in the US and Mexico.
There were a fair number of
AARP members a few Sundays back on the Commons at the big Green Party rally. In fact, 5 out of the 8 people attending the rally might have been old enough to see They Shoot Horses, Don't They? when it first came in 1969. How gray was my party, eh? Or maybe it was too early in the morning for anyone under 25 to be expected to discuss wind power?
Could it be that, even in this bastion of
progressivism, this
Ecotopia we call Ithaca, membership in the Green Party is declining? Are people still pissed about Nader in 2000? After 8 years of Republicans raping the environment, promoting global warming, spending billions building up the infrastructure of control and domination rather than infrastructure like bridges and cities, well you'd think more people would be a little forgiving and sign up on the Green dotted line.
Ez was a little surprised, to say the least, about the turnout. Not that he was there for the rally himself. On that given Sunday morning he was waiting for the Dollar Store to open up so he could purchase something produced by folks in Burma being paid $5 a year. If you want to get down to specifics,
Ez was buying a package of corn grippers. That's right, those little yellow things you stick in either end of your corn on the cob so you don't burn your fingers or have butter dripping down your wrists. It seems like no one in America produces those
thingees anymore. And, incidentally, no one in Burma eats corn on the cob.
Anyway,
Ez was curious so he followed one of these aging GP activists back to where the dude had parked his car. Holy shit.
Ez couldn't believe his eyes. This guy was in the process of getting some literature out of the bed of his brand new Ford
Silverado. You know, bronco tough. Big enough wheel span to take n entire family of possums out on the straightaway. Hey, remember, speaking of which, that road kill movie
Ez produced some years back. Well, it just won top honors at the
Tallahassee Film Festival.
Speaking of movies, let's get back to They Shoot Horses. First, a simple plot summary. This couple played by Jane Fonda and Michael
Sarandon sign up for a dance marathon during the Depression to make a little cash which was rather scarce in those days. Gig Young plays the cynical, world weary emcee at the event. After being in how many Doris Day movies, you'd be cynical too. Anyway, a week into the contest or after some agonizingly long time these folks had to be on their feet, dancing to Fats Waller tunes, these characters, who by that time were dripping with sweat, bone tired and sorely in need of some
gatorade, which, by the way. wasn't being bottled at that time, were ready to give it up. One says to his partner, 'they shoot horses, don't they?" The film doesn't have a happy ending.
Great movie. You really ought to see it. But, now let's get back to those environmentalists on the Commons. Those poor folks could have been sleeping in or doing laps on their treadmills,but here they were, out this early in the morning to preach to the choir, to evangelize for wind power and solar energy that is still so unaffordable most people in
Richford or
Newfield wouldn't be able to afford a single solar panel for their lean to'. Nor could the average resident of either of those communities afford to buy a parking space let alone a condo at
EcoVillage.
This is their last hurrah, after all. It's not like they'll ever have another banner year like 2000, do you think? Oh, where is the
visionary gleam? What did the poet say, you can never bring back the
splendor in the grass, the glory and the dream. They shoot environmentalists, don't they?
Comments invited at: ezrakidder@gmail.com - Peace, Ezra at 11:44 AM
