Issue Three: Resistance Isn’t Futile

—Well, that’s generally the point of a movie when the movie has a point.

—Yeah, like the fight between Good and Evil, Light versus Dark, personal power to overcome obstacles.

—Agency.

—Agency, that’s the word.

—And I didn’t think you were listening.

—Of course I was listening. And it’s not all crap.

—“Eye of the beholder.” 

—What?

—One person’s crap is another person’s wisdom. Like beauty. Eye of the beholder.

—OK, sure. Anyway, it was totally by mistake, or happenstance, or serendipity—I looked that one up too—because the jewel case someone left downstairs—

—On the ledge in the lobby?

—Yeah. Anyway, on the outside it said Play Misty for Me.

—Clint Eastwood.

—Yeah. And didn’t you just mention him to me the other day?

—Be careful what you say about Clint Eastwood.

—I know.

—Because he IS America.

—You said. And I totally get that now.

—From Play Misty for Me?

—No, that’s just what the jewel case said on the outside, but inside, the DVD read Hang ’em High, which is a whole other movie. You know it?

—I haven’t seen every movie ever made.

—Not yet.

—Clint Eastwood’s in that one too, no?

— Oh yeah.

—Ah.

—So now I get everything else you’ve been saying.

—What else have I been saying?

—About what’s going on today.

—What’s going on today?

—You gotta see this movie, Sydney.

—Right now?

—The title, Hang ’em High, refers to lynching.

—Alex!

—No, it’s violent, sure, and scary too, but really great, because this gang of “proper citizens”—

—“Good people.”

—Yeah, “good people,” led by Ed Begley Senior, ties up Clint Eastwood, who is totally innocent, of course.

—Of course. 

—See, what they do is they lynch Clint Eastwood, the gang does, or they think they do, only his neck does not exactly snap, but they don’t notice, so after they ride off, he gets rescued and guess what he does?

—Don’t be a spoiler.

—I’m not, that all happens in the first scene. But what he does is—

—Not another word.

—He goes after them.

—That’s four words.

—Every single one.

—That’s three.

—And then, coincidence upon coincidence—that’s synchronicity, by the way—

—You look that one up too?

—Oh yeah. Because not ten minutes after I watch the movie, OK maybe twenty, I happen to see on TV the photo at the Capitol, the one you told me about.

—Which one?

—And I was just channel surfing. But then not two hours later, I see it a second time, on the internet, OK maybe three hours, but, again, I wasn’t even looking for it, it just came up. 

—Which photo are you talking about?

—The one with the noose. 

—Noose? 

—At the Capitol … On Jan 6.

—Ah, right.

—Which makes that mob a lynch mob.

—Does it?

—Because a mob that takes along a noose in order to lynch somebody, or two somebodies on that particular day, by definition, can only be called a lynch mob.

—Can’t argue with that.

—No three ways about it. And when it comes to lynching, even the folks who don’t carry guns or the rope, the ones who stand by “peaceably”—

—The good people—ha.

—The good people. They are part of the lynch mob, too. 

—Because they make it that much more dangerous, or impossible, for the sheriff and his deputies, or the cops, or Atticus Finch, or whomever, to do their job and stop the lynching without risking a whole lot of bloodshed. 

—In this movie, they ride out to the wilderness, no cops, no sheriff. 

—No witnesses.

—Bingo. 

—So they think they’re going to get away with it. As if getting away with it is all it

takes to be good people.

—Only they don’t succeed. 

—Because Clint Eastwood goes after them.

—He can only go after them. That’s who he is. That’s his character. His character’s character, more accurately.

—You have been listening. 

—So on January sixth, when the mob tried to lynch The United States of America—

—Metaphorically, at least.

—What else can America do?

—Same as Clint Eastwood. Stay true to character.

—And you haven’t even seen the movie.

—Not yet.

—So listen, Sydney. I’ve been thinking.

—Uh-oh.

—Uh-oh is right.

—Take your time.

—So like, today, if someone supports that lynch mob, say, helping them get away with it, or even supports someone who supports that lynch mob—

—Like with a vote?

—Like with a vote. Wouldn’t that make them part of the lynch mob, too?

—Metaphorically, I suppose. 

—But is it just metaphor, or is it that now I actually understand? Because they’re all trying to get away with it. Just like the lynch mob in the movie.

—But Clint went after them.

—And now it’s up to America.

—Because America is Clint Eastwood. 

—That’s what I’ve been thinking.

—Wow.

—What?

—That’s some metaphor.

—It’s some movie.

—Must be.

—So you wanna borrow the DVD?

—You got it with you?

—Of course. Here.

—Great. Thanks.

—Wait till you see what happens to Ed Begley senior, the ringleader, at the end.

—Don’t be a spoiler now.

—Come on, I would never. But just think about the movie as metaphor.

—I get it. 

—You do?

—Ringleader. Today. Got it. Don’t say another word.

—I won’t.

—That’s two words.

(pause)

—Pretty horrible, isn’t it?

—What?

—Understanding.

—I’ll say.

—But it beats . . . not.

—Does it?

—I don’t know. I guess. I think so.

—Me too.

—Yeah?

—Yeah.

 ***

Notes

The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people
but the silence over that by the good people.

                                        —Martin Luther King, Jr., who is America 

                                                                                           Beats not.

                                      —Mark Twain, on getting old (who is also America)