Abraham's Son, Chapter 23

INT. IKE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

It is a little before 10 PM.  IKE is sleeping.  ABRAHAM hovers over him, loving him, but counting the seconds until the appointed time when he can enter his bedroom.  Finally, it is 10 PM.  ABRAHAM walks to his bedroom and opens door.

INT. ABRAHAM'S BEDROOM - NIGHT

ABRAHAM enters his bedroom.  He sees a surreal image, with sparkling dark blue lights, an unearthly form, like in a dream.  But it is HELEN.  He remembers her smile.  It is definitely her.  He is convinced.  He wants to hug and kiss her, but she is not flesh and blood.  He gets as close to her as possible.  Tears come to his eyes.  

ABRAHAM:  HELEN, do you know me?

HELEN:  How can I ever forget you, ABRAHAM?  When I can, I remember you.

ABRAHAM:  I love you, HELEN.

HELEN:  I loved you.

ABRAHAM:  Do you still love me?

HELEN:  I loved you.  I know I did.  Everything is in the past.  There is no present, no future.

ABRAHAM:  What is it like to be dead?

HELEN:  For me, there was much pain dying.  I was in agony.  But, then it stopped.  Everything stopped.  There was a calmness...I could rest.  Mostly, I rest.  Sometimes, I can remember the past...like when we met.

ABRAHAM:  I remember that day.

HELEN:  I was sitting on a bench on campus reading a book and you came up to me and asked my name.  I remembered you from class and I had liked the way you looked.  

ABRAHAM:  Yes and you told me your name right away and I sat down and we started talking.

HELEN:  And then we went to have coffee and talked for a long time.  On my way home I could think of nothing but the sound of your voice.  I longed to see you again.  I loved you from the very beginning, ABRAHAM.

ABRAHAM:  Me, too.  Don't I look old, much older than when...

HELEN:  I don't see the physical, but I see your spirit and it is the same as when I was alive.  

ABRAHAM:  What about our baby?

HELEN:  I care for our baby.  But, we both rest a lot.  It is good to rest.

ABRAHAM:  Do you know about ISAAC or IKE as I call him?

HELEN:  He is yours, not mine.  Our baby died.  It stays with me.  

ABRAHAM:  Are you angry about my having IKE?

HELEN:  I am no longer angry about anything.  That is a good thing.

ABRAHAM and HELEN continue talking until 11 PM at which time her image disappears.  It takes him a long time before he can sleep.  He keeps thinking of HELEN and every word of their conversation.  Then he watches TCM until he is exhausted and falls asleep in his chair with the TV still on.

Palestinian Arab State

In February 1947, the British government announced their intention to terminate their mandate over the Palestinian territory it inherited from the League of Nations after World War I.  Arabs and Jews who lived there were fighting each other and the British army that had been occupying the area for 30 years.

The British turned the problem of what would become of Palestine once the British army left over to the United Nations.  In May 1947, the UN established a commission to decide the fate of Palestine.

The chief problem the commission would have to decide related to the competing visions of the two sides, Arabs and Jews.  Each wanted Palestine for themselves.

In August 1947, the commission announced its decision.  It called for a partition of Palestine between a Jewish state (Israel) and a Palestinian Arab state.

33 countries (including Brazil and the USA) or 72% of the member states involved in the commission approved the partition plan.  

The Jews reluctantly accepted the partition plan.  The Arabs rejected the partition plan.  

Not getting the 100 % (of Palestine) that they wanted, the Palestinian Arabs lost an opportunity for their own state.

A few weeks after the UN commission released its report, Azzam Pasha, the General Secretary of the Arab League, told an Egyptian newspaper "Personally I hope the Jews do not force us into this war because it will be a war of elimination and it will be a dangerous massacre which history will record similarly to the Mongol massacre or the wars of the Crusades.  We will sweep them [the Jews] into the (Mediterranean) sea." 

The Palestinian Arabs did not intend merely to prevent partition but would continue fighting until the Zionists were annihilated.  They opposed the very idea of partition.  

When the British Mandate of Palestine expired on 14 May 1948, and with the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, the surrounding Arab states—Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Syria—invaded what had just ceased to be Mandatory Palestine, and immediately attacked Israeli forces and several Jewish settlements.

In 1949, after a year of hostilities, Armistice Agreements were signed between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.  They formally ended the fighting and demarcated the Green Line, which separated Arab-controlled territory from Israel.  

The Arab controlled territory did not become the Palestinian Arab state as promised by the UN commission.  Instead, it was divided between Jordan and Egypt.  If the Palestinian Arabs had only accepted the partition plan...

Ellis Island

Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New Jersey and New York.  It is in Upper New York Bay, east of Liberty State Park and north of Liberty Island.

The federal government assumed control of immigration in 1890 and commissioned a study to determine the best place for the new immigration station in New York Harbor.  It was eventually decided to build the station on Ellis Island.

The first immigration station opened on Ellis Island on January 1, 1892 and its first immigrant was Annie Moore, a 17-year-old girl from Cork, Ireland, who was traveling to meet her parents in the U.S.  On the first day, almost 700 immigrants passed over the docks from ships arriving in New York.  

Over the next year, over 400,000 immigrants were processed at the station. The processing procedure included a series of medical and mental inspection lines, and through this process, some 1% of potential immigrants were deported.

Additional building improvements took place on Ellis Island throughout the mid-1890s.  Over the next five years of operation, the station processed 1.5 million immigrants.

With the passing of the Emergency Quota Act of 1921, the number of immigrants being allowed into the United States declined greatly, ending the era of mass immigration.  Following the Immigration Act of 1924, strict immigration quotas were enacted, and Ellis Island was downgraded from a primary inspection center to an immigrant-detention center, hosting only those that were to be detained or deported.

By 1947, shortly after the end of World War II, there were proposals to close Ellis Island due to the massive expenses needed for the upkeep of a relatively small detention center.  Ellis Island closed on November 12, 1954 (69 years ago today), with the departure of its last detainee, Norwegian merchant seaman Arne Pettersen, who had been arrested for overstaying his shore leave.

By the time Ellis Island's immigration station closed, almost 12 million immigrants had been processed by the U.S. Bureau of Immigration.  My grandparents were among the 12 million.  

The Terminator

The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction action film written and directed by James Cameron. It stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, a cybernetic assassin sent back in time from 2029 to 1984 by Skynet, a hostile artificial intelligence in a post-apocalyptic future. The Terminator's assignment is to kill Sarah Connor, whose unborn son will one day save mankind from extinction.

Arnold Schwarzenegger was born in Austria in 1947.  Before becoming an actor, he was a seven time world champion body builder.  Arnold was elected as governor of California, serving from 2003 to 2011.

The Terminator arrives in Los Angeles and starts to systematically kill women with the name Sarah Connor.  He finds them in the phone book, but they are all the wrong one.

Eventually, the Terminator locates the right Sarah Connor at a night club and pursues her in a stolen police car.  She is arrested after an altercation with the Terminator and taken to a police station.

The Terminator follows her there.  He enters the station and approaches a policeman.

The Terminator:  I'm a friend of Sarah Connor.  I was told she was here.  Can I see her please?

Policeman:  No.  You can't see her.  She's making a statement.  

The Terminator:  Where is she?

Policeman:  Look, it may take a while.  If you want to wait, you can take a seat over there.

After surveying the area, the Terminator delivers this iconic line of dialogue:  "I'll be back."  And indeed he does, in a car smashing his way into the police station.

Interestingly, Schwarzenegger argued with Cameron that the Terminator should say, "I will be back."  Cameron, as the director, insisted on "I'll be back" and he was proven right.  

The Terminator topped the United States box office for two weeks, eventually grossing $78.3 million against a modest $6.4 million budget. The film is credited with launching Cameron's movie career and solidifying Schwarzenegger's status as a leading man.