Inherit The Wind . . . The Evil of Two Lessers

Dees Illustration

PA Farruggio

The fine 1960 film Inherit the Wind was more than just about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial in Tennessee. Yes, it had as its focal point the law forbidding the teaching of evolution in schools. However, when one views this film, or reads the play it was developed from, one sees a doorway to totalitarianism.

Added to that warning is the observation that many of us humans seem to need to be led. In the fictitious town of Hillsdale, Tennessee, the common folk were led by their religious leaders, who determined how they should not only act . . . but think. 

When the great statesman and Christian scholar, Mathew Harrison Brady, comes to town to lead the prosecution of the case, he surpasses even their pastor in influencing their minds. During the trial, Brady’s counterpart, attorney Henry Drummond for the defense decides to put the right to think for oneself on the witness stand. The right to question authority, and yes, to dissent from it, is what was really on trial in that case.

Our Silence is Aiding and Abetting the Warmongers

PA Farruggio

Activist Post

My 84-year-old pal John and I stand each Tuesday outside the local library with our protest signs. We’ve been out there, one hour each week, for over a year; before that for six years on a busy street corner during rush hour. 

One day, this German lady approached us. She thanked us for taking the time out and added “You know, Americans don’t like to get out and protest. If this was Germany, and our government did what yours did, we’d have thousands outside this library, not just two people.”

How correct she was. The Germans, the French and all the European peoples remember, or are taught, what it was like to be occupied and threatened by the Nazi police state. We Americans are lucky that our nation has never been occupied by a foreign power. Never! Thus, you would think that it might have been more difficult for us Americans to accept the propaganda pertaining to 9/11 and the phony wars that followed. The opposite was true, sadly. 

Presidential Horserace is a Two-Party Con Job

PA Farruggio
Activist Post

I was literally born into the world of thoroughbred horseracing. My father, a NYC longshoreman, worked as a part time bookie on the docks. My maternal grandfather, another longshoreman, was his best customer. I would go with my dad on weekends to the racetrack, ever since the age of five. I was able to read the Morning Telegraph, forerunner to today’s Daily Racing Form, by the age of seven. If anyone knows racing it is yours truly.

When most Americans think of horseracing, they think of the preeminent race of all, the Kentucky Derby. Sorry folks, but there is one race that is even bigger and more celebrated than that one. We call it the Presidential Horserace. Funny how each time the pundits always say how “This is the most important election (race) in recent history!" To us who know better, it’s just another horserace.

Once again the money is flowing out of the pockets of the super rich for both of our two party con job. In 2008, Mr. Hope and change did better than ‘I don’t approve of torture but I approve of bombing Iran ‘McCain (remember his song ‘Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran'? ).