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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsKen Burns: Why I am voting for Barack Obama (wonderful endorsement)
One of my favorite movies of all time is Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life, starring Jimmy Stewart. In the film, Stewart's character, a despondent and near suicidal George Bailey, who runs a small savings and loan in the town of Bedford Falls, is given a gift: the chance to see what his town would be like if he'd never been born if he'd never extended a helping hand to his neighbors when they needed it most, never helped his community understand how much they depended upon one another.
In this alternative vision, the town's plutocratic banker, Mr. Potter without the decent George Bailey to counter him rules everything. A bottom-line-is-everything, every-man-for-himself mentality runs unchecked, resulting in Bedford Falls' metamorphosis into Pottersville, an amoral, soulless place.
The movie has a happy ending, thank goodness, but its themes endure to this day and echo in the current presidential election, which at its core asks the question: What kind of country are we? Are we Bedford Falls or Pottersville? Are we all in this together and stronger and better because of it or are we entirely on our own, with a few makers on the top of a heap of takers?
I'm supporting President Barack Obama because there is no question about his answer to that question. Having observed Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts, and then watching him in the Republican primaries as he tacked this way and that whenever it suited him (but mostly to the far right, the Tea Party radicals, even the birthers), I can't be sure of him.
<snip>
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20121019/OPINION02/710199989
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Ken Burns: Why I am voting for Barack Obama (wonderful endorsement) (Original Post)
cali
Oct 2012
OP
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)1. I vote for Bedford Falls. (love that movie...watch it every year) nt
onehandle
(51,122 posts)2. He's just in the pocket of 'Big' Big Bird.
Atman
(31,464 posts)3. A grea read followed by incredible stupidity.
The comments section is truly amazing. Much more in line, though, with one would expect of The Useless Leader.
no_hypocrisy
(46,130 posts)4. Mr. Potter donated $1 million to a Romney Super Pac . . . . .
Wow. Those comments are, on the whole, a pretty good chunk of why this race is still close. Delusional, to put it mildly. Am I the only one to see the monstrous irony in that these close-minded bigots ("I got mine, f*** you.) who seem to be iron-fisted convinced that all Democrats are on welfare are haunting (and ranting on) a UNION paper bashing Ken Burns??????
ronald dishinger
(10 posts)6. Spam deleted by SidDithers (MIR Team)
Faygo Kid
(21,478 posts)7. Great read. Mr. Potter lives. I've seen him.
I understand his heart is now completely a mechanical device.
Seems it always was.