Most of the time in my offerings here, I present rationally constructed ideas, analyses, and strategies. This isn't of that kind. It didn't come from any deep analysis or original insight. It's an image that popped into my mind and that I found gratifying to contemplate.
The image comes from the 1997 film AIR FORCE ONE, with Harrison Ford portraying a hellofa heroic president whose plane is hijacked by a bunch of cruel and ruthless terrorists from some former Soviet Republic. The head terrorist, vividly and creepily played by Gary Oldman, shoots and kills an appealing and innocent woman (an assistant to the president) simply to terrorize the rest of the people aboard the plane. The excitement of the movie derives from the fact that good old Harrison Ford, the decorated former military veteran, is still on the plane, not under the terrorists' control and, at first, unbeknownst to them.
A good thriller.
Near the end of the film, there's a final showdown between the head terrorist and the head of the Free World. It takes place --with the First Lady on hand to be held hostage-- around the gaping open door of the plane's cargo hold. At the final moment of this confrontation, Harrison Ford --with his trademark clenched-jawed determination to triumph over the bad guys-- releases all that holds Gary Oldman on the plane and gives him a kick with his foot, sending the bad guy off into high-altitude oblivion with the snarled injunction, "Get off my plane!"
So, that image popped into my mind the other day. In my mind, We the People of the United States were the Harrison Ford character, and George W. Bush was the guy who'd cruelly hijacked our plane.
And I just loved the idea of kicking him off into oblivion while snarling at him, "Get out of our White House!"
Andrew Bard Schmookler's website www.nonesoblind.org is devoted to understanding the roots of America's present moral crisis and the means by which the urgent challenge of this dangerous moment can be met. Dr. Schmookler is also the author of such books as The Parable of the Tribes: The Problem of Power in Social Evolution (SUNY Press) and Debating the Good Society: A Quest to Bridge America's Moral Divide (M.I.T. Press). He also conducts regular talk-radio conversations in both red and blue states.
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