Best of Intentions, Chapter 8

The day after Christmas 1939 finds Ben, Rita, Miguel and Betty at a busy outdoor market near Rita's house in Mexico City.  The Americans are shopping for presents and souvenirs.  They split into two groups, Ben and Rita go off one way, leaving Betty and Miguel alone.  There are many shops to visit and many people fill the area.

Suddenly, Miguel and Betty meet up with Raquel, Miguel's very attractive local girlfriend, who's not pleased to see Miguel with another woman.  Raquel and Miguel converse in Spanish which Betty, of course, doesn't understand.

"Raquel, what a nice surprise.  How are you?"

"I've been calling you for days and you've been ignoring me."

"I'm sorry.  I've been at my sister's for Christmas."

"Really?  I know this woman is not your sister."

Betty is not happy at being virtually ignored by the other two, especially as she doesn't understand Spanish.  She forces herself into the conversation.

"Hi.  My name's Betty.  And you?"

Ignoring Betty, Raquel responds to Miguel again in Spanish.

"A gringa.  What are you up to?  You don't return my calls.  You tell me you're at your sister's.  And now you're here in the market holding hands with this puta."

Betty responds, "Excuse me, missy.  I may not speak Spanish, but I know a few words.  And I'm not going to take that from some spic bitch."

Raquel, finally turning to Betty, responds in English, "Repeat that, you cunt, and I'll rip every strand of your fake blonde hair out of your head."

The two women are virtually nose to nose in mutual dislike.  A crowd gathers to witness the spectacle about to occur.  Miguel acts fast grabbing Betty's arm, pulling her away and out of danger.

When they reach Rita's house, Miguel pushes Betty into her bedroom and closes the door.

Miguel raises his voice, "Who the hell do you think you are using that awful word, spic?  I know she wasn't polite, but you've no right to say it.  That word refers to all of us, me, Rita, everyone here in Mexico.  I won't accept it."

"I can't believe you're defending her.  She called me puta and I'm the one at fault."

"I guess I don't know you, Betty.  I didn't realize you are a bigot."

"A bigot?  You're crazy.  I can't be a bigot.  I'm Jewish."

Later, Ben is in his bedroom organizing everything he bought at the market when there is a knock on the door.

 

"Come in," says Ben.  The last person he expected is Betty.

"I've got to talk to someone or I'll go mad.  You're elected."

"What's the matter?"

"I got into a fight with Miguel.  He called me a bigot.  Can you believe that?  Me, Betty Sobel."

"What happened?"

"We ran into his spic girlfriend at the market and..."

"Please don't say that.  I care a lot about Rita and her brother and all the other people I've met here and that's an ugly word."

"No, I didn't mean Rita or Miguel.  I was talking about this woman who called me puta."

"That was wrong, but what you said was insulting to a whole people, not just that woman.  You should apologize to Miguel."

"I can't believe this.  I thought I'd at least get some sympathy from a fellow-American, but I was wrong."

The following day, the four are back at the airport for Ben and Betty's return trip to New York City.  Betty and Miguel haven't spoken since their fight.  Meanwhile, Ben and Rita are having difficulty facing their impending separation.  They sit side by side, holding hands, waiting for the inevitable announcement to board the plane.

 

Rita, with tears in her eyes, says, "I'll miss you very much.  These days have touched me.  I feel alive again...for the first time since my husband died.  When will I see you again?"

"I feel the same.  I've been alone for too long...since my...  Come to New York again next summer, for the opera and baseball."

"It's a date."

A few days later, on New Year's Eve, a party is in full swing at the White House in Washington, D.C.  General Wharton and Secretary of War Stimson are having a private conversation while drinking whiskey.

General Wharton says, "I think the president should know about Karchevsky.  I got this from very good sources and it could be dangerous."

"It's hard to believe.  Mexico financing something of that significance, right under our noses.  The President won't be easily persuaded."

"It's his call, but first he's got to have the facts and it's your job to give it to him."

"I'll give it to him when the time is right.  But for now, he has a lot on his plate.  In the mean time, your people need to stay on top of this."

 

   

 

Narcos

Narcos, the Netflix series which, in its first two seasons, tells the story of the late Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, and his fight against the Columbian government.  He is portrayed by the excellent Brazilian actor, Wagner Moura.  Narcos reminds me of many similar stories of organized criminals, such as the 1987 movie, The Untouchables, starring Kevin Costner, Robert De Niro, and Sean Connery, which is about the federal government's fight against Al Capone during the Prohibition era in Chicago.

When I was watching Narcos, I came to see Escobar as a businessman, selling a product (cocaine), albeit an illegal one, that had a huge demand.  He was making so much money it was difficult for him to deal with the amount of cash pouring in.  In spite of the public's demand for cocaine, governments around the world, especially in Colombia and the USA, deem it to be illegal.  Should governments mandate what is in the best interests of their citizens?  Maybe sugar should be illegal?

I worked for a company (see my blog post of 03/20/2016 - JES) that, during a period of time before my employment, sold an illegal product, alcohol.  Then the government changed its mind and it became legal.  Alcohol and cocaine have something in common.  They are both drugs.  So, why is one legal and the other illegal.  It is what some call "line drawing."

The character, Walter White, in the American Movie Classic (AMC) series, Breaking Bad, discusses this subject with his brother-in-law, a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agent, who gave him a confiscated Cuban cigar.  Walter, on the other hand, is secretly engaged in the manufacture of methamphetamine, an illegal drug.  "It's funny isn't it how we draw that line - what's legal, what's illegal - Cuban cigars, alcohol.  You know, if we were drinking this (whiskey) in 1930, we would be breaking the law.  In another year, it would be okay.  Who knows what will be legal next year.  It's arbitrary."  

Marijuana, another drug, is currently going through a transformation from illegal to legal.  A number of years ago, it was discovered that the use of this drug can "treat disease or improve symptoms."  Hence, in a number of states we now have what is referred to as "medical marijuana."  If you can get a doctor to write you a prescription, you can legally buy and use it.  Furthermore, a number of states now permit the recreational use of marijuana.

It is hopeless to believe the police can win the so-called "War on Drugs" since so many citizens are willing to violate the law.  I remember an old expression, "If one person breaks the law, put him in jail; if everyone breaks the law, change the law."  Better to end the war and try to regulate such drugs similar to alcohol and tobacco. 

From a positive point of view, this change from illegal to legal frees up the use of the police to fight other types of violent crime, such as murders and robberies unrelated to illegal drugs.   Additionally, the newly legalized drug companies would then be able to utilize the justice system to enforce their rights under the law without resort to violence.

From a negative point of view, there will be abuse of a newly legalized drug.  However, our society has been dealing with similar abuse regarding alcohol and tobacco for some time.  Such abuse is inevitable.  Some adult human beings are susceptible to making poor choices.  This is part of living in a free society.        

    

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Even before you see anything at the beginning of this classic 1961 film, you start to hear the Academy Award winning music from the song, Moon River, written by Henry Mancini.  Then a yellow cab comes into view driving north on an empty Fifth Avenue (it became a one way street going south in 1966) in New York City early one morning.  After driving past the Bonwit Teller Building, it pulls up in front of 727 Fifth Avenue, which would become, in 1983, the next door neighbor of Trump Tower, the current home of the President of the United States (when not at the White House).  Then and now this is the address of Tiffany & Co., the world famous luxury jewelry store.

Stepping out of the cab is the beautiful actress, Audrey Hepburn, wearing a black, floor-length, sleeveless gown, with matching gloves.  She is also wearing multiple strings of pearls around her neck and has a tiara in her hair.  There are sunglasses covering her eyes and a white scarf draped over her arm.  Audrey walks (in high-heel shoes) over to one of the Tiffany display windows where she opens a small paper bag she is carrying which contains a cup (styrofoam) of coffee and what appears to be danish pastry.  This is her Breakfast at Tiffany's.

Very early in the film, we are unfortunately introduced to a character called Mr. Yunioshi, a Japanese man living in New York, portrayed by the famous actor, Mickey Rooney, who is not Japanese.  He "wore makeup and a prosthetic mouthpiece to change his features to a caricatured approximation of a Japanese person." 

What was especially unfortunate about this portrayal is that Mr. Yunioshi is a bumbling, laughable character.  For a white man to portray a Japanese in this manner is comparable to a white man portraying a shuffling black man while in black face.
  

In 2006, the film's producer, Richard Shepherd, said "If we could just change Mickey Rooney, I'd be thrilled with the movie."  Director Blake Edwards stated, "Looking back, I wish I had never done it...and I would give anything to be able to recast it."  In 2008, Rooney said if he had known his performance would be considered offensive, "I wouldn't have done it."

In 1961, a white actor portraying a Japanese character in a comical, caricatured manner was considered perfectly acceptable.  What was there to complain about?  More than fifty years later, society has changed and complaints arise.

I have included below some other examples regarding the casting of Japanese ethnic roles in films in that era.  The great actor Marlon Brando portrays an Okinawan in the 1956 film, The Teahouse of the August Moon, with the help of make-up.  In the 1961 film version of the musical, Flower Drum Song, which is about the Chinese community in San Francisco, one of the stars, Miyoshi Umeki, was Japanese, not Chinese.  On the other hand, in the 1957 film, The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Sessue Hayakawa, a Japanese actor, portrays a Japanese character.   

As you can see from my limited analysis above, Hollywood in the 1950s and 1960s was not always particular about correctly casting Asian actors to be Asian characters in films.  (See my blog post of 9/3/2016 - William Holden)  Regarding the future, I'm optimistic we'll never see anything like Mr. Yunioshi again, thank goodness.                                

Vince Lombardi

Today, February 5, 2017, is Super Bowl Sunday.  More specifically, it is Super Bowl LI.  Today the championship of American professional football (National Football League/NFL) will be decided.  The Atlanta Falcons will play the New England Patriots at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, with kickoff at 5:30 PM local time.

This tradition started fifty years ago, in January of 1967, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10, at the Los Angeles Coliseum to win Super Bowl I.  In January of 1968, the same Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders, 33-14, at the Orange Bowl in Miami to win Super Bowl II. The winning coach of both games was Vince Lombardi. After his untimely death from colon cancer two years and eight months later, the trophy for winning the Super Bowl was renamed the Vince Lombardi Trophy in his honor.

Vince Lombardi was born in 1913 in Brooklyn, New York, a child of Italian immigrants.  He started playing football at age 12 and continued playing at Cathedral Prep in Queens and then Fordham University in the Bronx.  In 1939, Lombardi started coaching football at St. Cecilia, a Roman Catholic High School in Englewood, New Jersey.  Eight years later, he moved on to coach at Fordham and then two years after that at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.  

In 1954, Vince Lombardi became an assistant coach for the New York Football Giants, my favorite professional football team.  He was a significant contributor to their success when they won a NFL championship in 1956 and almost won again in 1958, losing in overtime to the Baltimore Colts.  This led to his being named Head Football Coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1959, a perennial loser at the time.  In his nine years in that position, the Packers won the NFL championship five times (almost won a sixth), a truly remarkable achievement.

Besides his success on the football field, I admired Vince Lombardi because of his opposition to prejudice. He was a victim of prejudice in his personal life because of his Italian heritage. While growing up in an Italian section of Brooklyn, Lombardi suffered "rampant discrimination" outside of it.  His future father-in-law did not want his daughter to marry him because he was Italian.  Many job opportunities were denied him because he was Italian. When Lombardi reached a position of power in Green Bay, he used it to insure that none of his players, coaches, or administrators suffered any form of discrimination, especially against African-Americans and gay men.

In 1967, Lombardi started suffering symptoms of a "digestive tract problem."  Unfortunately, like too many people, he feared to seek medical treatment and attempted self-medication.  Three years later, Lombardi could no longer avoid doctors and hospitals.  However, by then, it was too late.  He was only 57 years-old, much too young to die. Please try to avoid what happened to Vince Lombardi by having a colonoscopy as recommended by your doctor.  I do.