Changing Views

Because my kids never, ever want to watch anything I want to watch, yesterday I told Sam he could pick any movie on Netflix, as long as it was in English. I’ve done that before, and we usually wind up watching some hideous crime show or a police drama.
He selected Terminal with Tom Hanks. I’d seen it before and not hated it. Tom Hanks is almost always enjoyable to watch, and it’s sort of a cute story, as I remembered it.
But, as I was watching, it seemed more and more an indictment against U.S. Customs and Immigration, and the American mentality as a whole. They treated the guy as a criminal, and couldn’t even locate a translator for
him, although when they needed somebody who spoke Russian, they called on him, I guess because they thought the two would speak the same language, i.e. foreign.
It reminded me “As Good as it Gets” with Jack Nicholson. The first time I saw it I thought it was funny. The second time I saw it, I thought a bit deeper. This was a story about how if you’re a waitress and your kid is chronically ill, you are shit out of luck in the USA unless some creepy old rich guy becomes obsessed with you and pays all your bills. But, presented as a romantic comedy.
The USA is not just falling apart now. It’s been rotten to the core for a very long time and people are just beginning to realize it.