If you check out any of my social media profiles you’ll come to find that “It’s a Wonderful Life” with James Stewart is my absolute favorite of all time. Sure, I’m a Star Trek fan, a Dirty Harry fan, and lots’ more, but this movie captures the heart and soul of both an individual man, his family, and the community in which he lives. It is simply a great piece of art.
Usually I don’t think about “It’s a Wonderful Life” until December, since that’s when the movie usually plays on TNT, or the mainstream stations. But today, after seeing a clip from a financial news show with a colleague, I was suddenly dumbstruck with something that just has to get out of my head now.
It so happens that today is the first day of California’s umpteenth failure to pass a balanced budget, so it’s not as if I haven’t lived through this before. California’s budget, like those of the counties and cities that make up this Golden state, have been turning putrid for quite some time.
Some thoughts and insights have fomented and seethed in me for over a year now, and perhaps using “It’s a Wonderful Life” as an example, I can at least unleash the demons that beset my thinking on this recurring and repulsive problem.
Take seven minutes and watch the America I grew up in. It’s a wonderful piece, with a message we’ll talk about down below.
Sorry, I had to wipe some tears again. I’m a real softy when it comes to communities, straight thinking, generosity and courage.
What stuck to my craw this morning when I was forced to think again about California and its problems was the fact that our sense of community is almost gone, forfeited by years of greed, selfishness, NIMBY’s and the pervasive idea that “I’ll take all I can get, when I can get it, from whomever I can get it.”
Teri, not Dayton, of course.
Here’s the heart of my heartbreak. With schools about to lose and children losing more, medical care being shut off, community programs for those in true need squashed, etc., etc., what I hear over and over again from those who HAVE is this. “We got ours. We want to keep ours. The rest of you can go down with the ship. We won’t play nice. We won’t share. We just want what we want, and we want it no matter what.”
They all want their $242, don’t they?
They (government workers, teachers, police, fireman, and all the unions) want their $242. They say they bargained for it, and now they’re going to get it. Just like the character in the clip, they stand at the cashier’s station, front and center, with nary a glance to the side or behind to the neighbors, friends and community they say they represent. “Pay me first,” is their mantra. You owe us. Sorry if it hurts, and sorry if you think you’ve been had. This is America, after all. Winner take all. Take no prisoners. We outsmarted you, so now you’re going to pay.
There are no more Rosie the Riveters. Gone are the families that sent in stockings and tires, and who bought savings bonds because first and foremost the nation needed to pull together. Gone is the allegiance to staying in the same town, playing for the same team, going to the same church, holding your tongue if you’ve got “nothing good to say.”
I feel stained today. Hurt. Pretty angry, actually. I’ve got nothing good to say about how those we’ve elected have guided us, nurtured us, strengthened us by their EXAMPLE. Instead I’m supposed to get what I can for myself, stomp on the frail, weak or misguided.
I don’t see many Jimmy Stewart’s any more.
I simply see Mr. Potter’s.
Al Lorenz says:
Don,
I bet folks can hardly imagine how California must have been in the 1950s. Before it was so crowded and when the warmth, sun and clear skies coaxed everyone into a mellow mood. Yet somehow in all that, California was a place folks did things. Aerospace, films, and Disneyland building the happiest place on earth. It was a mix of a heart like New York in a wrapper that was almost Hawaii.
Every time I go to California, while it still has many great attributes, I always imagine it 40 or 50 years ago. How did “can do” in private industry become “don’t do anything but give us your money” from government?
July 1, 2009 — 2:19 pm
Don Reedy says:
Al,
“It was a mix of a heart like New York in a wrapper that was almost Hawaii.”
You’re making all the synapses fire, and what a grand feeling and picture you have painted.
But the “can do” died along the long trail by the hyenas that slowly carved out pieces of the creative flesh, taking all the remnants for themselves, and leaving not a bit behind for those who would come later.
I’m glad you “escaped” with your memories of those times intact.
July 1, 2009 — 4:39 pm
Dave Shafer says:
Nostalgia aside, I have been castigated in my local newspaper letters to the editor because I suggested teachers actually make OK money and have better benefits than those in private business. You could hear their screaming all the way to Tallahassee when it was suggested they might have to take a 2% pay cut [they didn’t have to this year]. Now they are closing the most successful schools [small charter schools] putting those students into much larger schools all in the name of budget concerns. No howl from the teachers on this one! Students v. teachers pocketbooks, you know who wins. Wait to they have to go after the police and fire unions next year!
July 1, 2009 — 4:43 pm
Geno Petro says:
I like Clarence.
July 1, 2009 — 6:59 pm
Greg Dallaire says:
Don,
It’s a very sad thing that is going on in California and throughout our nation’s government. Thankfully we have strong writers with talent spreading the real reality of what’s going on. It’s nice to see that there are alot of active real estate professionals starting to get involved in our nations future.
We are the only one’s who can really change this messed up system. Hopefully the grim reality will help the true american’s wake up fight for what our ancestor’s and relatives fought for. FREEDOM and LIBERTY.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to help spread reality.
July 1, 2009 — 7:12 pm
Brian Brady says:
“I simply see Mr. Potter’s.”
That’s too easy because they’re EVERYWHERE in California:
1-I see the Del Mar Fair personnel, handing out circulars to petition the Governor to NOT sell the Fairgrounds; I want to buy it and I won’t change a thing.
2- I see the Solana Beach City Council passing resolutions protesting the “seizure” (sic) of property taxes by the State while passing more restrictive building regulations, aligned with “green” initiatives.
3- I see government employees’ unions with their hands out, screaming “Gimme more. Gimme more!”
I see all these Mr Potters and I love it; I love it, Don. The zombies have run out of flesh to devour so they have to devour each other.
“I don’t see many Jimmy Stewart’s any more.”
Oh but I do! I see opportunity. I see Tom Mc Clintock, predicting the end of this debacle. I see citizens cheering for the State to file BK so the gratuitous contracts can be broken. I see producers, who pay taxes to support the leeches, prepared to fight back.
Don’t be in a funk, Don. The land is fertile, the intellectual capital is vast, and the opportunity is compelling. It will, very soon, be dawn in California.
July 1, 2009 — 8:47 pm
Don Reedy says:
Greg and Dave> Thanks. Good to know good people have their ears to the ground.
Geno> It’s the long underwear, isn’t it?
Brian> Yes, indeed, I love the whole movie. “Here’s to George Bailey, the richest man in town.” What makes this movie, this story, and perhaps what you’re imagining and seeing so wonderful, is that there is a little bit of Bedford Falls in lots of Californians (Tom McClintock for sure), and so I will open the blinds tomorrow in hopes of feeling the sun of my face.
By the way, it’s much easier to overcome the funk with keen insights, actual pathos, and a hearty dose of local reality from a friend and mentor like yourself.
July 1, 2009 — 9:49 pm
Geno Petro says:
No, George Bailey. It’s the bells ringing in my head. But seriously, I watch with amazement as Cali continues to unravel like an onion skin in so many ways, day after day, month after month… And the self destructive side of me is yearning to move there.
July 2, 2009 — 10:44 am
Don Reedy says:
Geno,
You are like George Bailey. He wanted to go, but stayed. He self destructed, and came to know himself. He heard the ringing, and listened long enough to let the angels take him up upon their wings.
So it is with you, my friend.
So it is with you.
I think, though, that you will unwind and bear fruit in that great town you shower with great affection and style. In fact, I think I hear them delivering the Zoetrope to your door right now.
Go answer that ringing, that bell, my grand scribbler of thoughts.
July 2, 2009 — 11:54 am
Teri Lussier says:
I’m in a funk too, Don.
I avoid this movie. It’s way too painful to watch. There’s very little irony and black humor in it and if we have to watch one guy not follow his dream in order to save a small town from itself, well, heck, that’s the funniest damn thing in the world. Hardy har har.
>Teri, not Dayton, of course.
Of course Dayton. Only differently.
Okay, Don. I’m going to uncharacteristically pee in the flakes.
>>watch the America I grew up in.
You didn’t really grow up in this America, and this is no America to long for. Long for the end of the need for characters like George to swoop in and save us all from ourselves.
Did those townsfolk learn anything from the run on the bank? I’m never clear about that. It seems like only George learns anything in this movie. We don’t need heroes, we just need to think for ourselves. We need to educate the townsfolk so George doesn’t have to do all the saving. We have the opportunity to do that and education/information will drive the Mr. Potters out of your world, mine too.
Oh that gives me something to work on. I feel better now. I’ll return you to your holiday classic. It sure is a wonderful life!
July 3, 2009 — 9:19 am
Don Reedy says:
Teri,
Too bad Billy May passed away, because I can here him now:
“Just for a limited time, FUNK BE GONE, the new universal funky feeling removal spray. Yes, FUNK BE GONE will change the way you look at clearing your head and getting you back on track……”
I wish I could sit and watch this movie with you. You’ve got it wrong, my little Buckeye. It’s not about George the hero. It’s not about being saved. It’s ALL about one man’s struggle to live a life that threw him some curves, smothered his dreams and robbed him of his youth.
This movie teaches us, shows us, that what you do every day, at home, with your family, your friends, your community, and here in the community of BHB, defines who you are, what you are, what you mean.
George is a prototype for each of us in a funk. I won’t go into mine now. It’s trivial. You, however, could have pretty good reason to be in a funk.
George shows us, and I think particularly in the scene I put in the post, that great love for a community, great respect for a father, great understanding of greed, and great willingness to risk are all traits that pull us up, highlight our inner selves, and allow us to fully function and FEEL life at its fullest.
In case you don’t know it, you’re already engaged in driving the Mr. Potters out of the world, through your willingness to BE, think, express and risk yourself.
One day we’ll meet up again, and I’ll have Geno play Clarence, Brad Coy put on some makeup and play Mr. Potter, and we’ll see if we can’t put Bedford Falls into a perspective we both can put our arms around.
Happy and Blessed 4th of July to you and yours!
Don
July 3, 2009 — 1:37 pm
Rachelle Anselmi says:
I love the movie as well.
We live in a ME, ME, ME society. Somewhere along the way people in general forgot… how to step outside of themselves and try to do what is best for everyone involved, not just what is best for them. Is it $242 or $17.50? There are 2 types of people in this world.
On a recent trip to California I was in awe of the seals at the Children’s Beach in La Jolla. I enjoyed watching the seals as much, if not more, than the kids did. The seals would swim out, play around in the shallow surf and were quite entertaining. I want to say I was amazed to find out the locals want “their” beach back and want the seals to find another place to have pups – but I wasn’t. It is the ME, ME, ME society we live in.
The weather was WONDERFUL (cool, breezy, not like an oven), the beach was beautiful, the views were breathtaking but… I missed my small town. People still talk to one another on the streets, hold open doors and talk about much of nothing while waiting in line just because.
July 8, 2009 — 9:57 pm
Don Reedy says:
Rachelle,
Thanks for your wonderful thoughts. $242 or $17.50? Great way of saying what was in my heart.
California is a big place, with lots of room for diversity, and lots of room for folks who do want to lock their doors, build on their neighbor’s boundary line, act out the ME, ME, ME you’re talking about. But I live here partly because there are vast and numerous pockets of good, right, intelligent, giving folks, just as in the small towns I used to inhabit.
By the way, almost no one I know wants the seals gone. A small group of miscreants, selfish, ME, ME, ME folks worked the system to try to effect a result that only they wanted (sound familiar?). They have been defeated, however, and it now appears that the ME’s won’t be getting to take their bat and ball home with them after all. Score: Seals 1: Me’s 0.
July 9, 2009 — 1:26 pm
Al Lorenz says:
OK Don, I saw this today and had to share: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVKMA–nt4I It’s Arnold Bucks and it is at least funny. The best choice is to laugh!
July 14, 2009 — 2:05 pm