The Irony of Hypocrisy

This past Tuesday my ENG 114 class watched the documentary "The Shadow of Hate."  The film examines America's history of intolerance.  The narrator began with the Pilgrims voyage and exposed the terrible hate and violence directed towards minorities in America.

I saw incredible irony throughout the whole film.  This country, founded on the grounds of equality, liberty and justice for all, has an tumultuous history of denying desired rights.  Pilgrims seeking the God given right to be free from persecution begot a nation that has hated Native Americans, Quakers, Baptists, Irish Catholics, Jews, Africans, Chinese, Japanese, Women, etc. and etc.  Humanity is out to destroy itself.

What angers me the most is the fact that people justify themselves with our nation's sacred texts; namely, the Constitution and the Bible.  Why must people claiming the grace of God, people who proclaim their devotion to a just and loving God, misuse the Bible?  Fear plays into the hearts of men.  It blinds us.  It creates panic and tension.  I believe those people who have taken fear into their own hands, those who use violent and hateful tactics and take the Word out of context, have lost sight of God's promise.  Their actions say the distrust God's plan; so much so, that they rather go about changing culture by their own Neanderthal means.  They don't want to see truth.  I would contend that some of those people aren't true Christians at all; rather, they are using the Bible to promote their own brutal campaigns.

Questioning the gushy stuff

I was excited to hear we were watching a movie in class.  I love movies!  I was also intrigued by the subject of the film.  Iron Jawed Angels tells the courageous story of a brilliant group of suffragettes.  The film closely follows the personal journey of activist Alice Paul, played by Hillary Swank.  We did not get to finish the entire film during the period; however, the hour and fifteen minutes did give me some curious thoughts.

From the first scene I was immediately immersed in the story.  The short frames and moving music rapt my attention.  The script and actors worked well to build interesting characters (can a political activist manage to be an uninteresting person?)  Everything was going smoothly until the camera focused in on a new character played by Patrick Dempsy.  I won't go in to detail as to what I think of Dempsy as an actor.  Suffice to say, I don't care for the sappy, overly smooth ladies men.  When I saw him enter the frame, I laughed out loud.  Of course, I thought, what would a chick flick be with out a little romance thrown in?  The choice of Dempsy also amused me.  Dempsy's character is the gentle, sensitive, Mr. Mom type.  This, in and of itself, is not terrible.  Throw him into a group of "iron jawed" women, he could get gobbled up.  His character is in no way a threat to these young, ballsy women.  Had he been any more macho, he might have tipped the scale.

What made me smirk the most was the typical Hollywood romance device employed.  Alice Paul walks into his studio, sees a picture of Dempsy with another woman and child, gets angry, and proceeds to walkout.  Herein-lies the cheap trick, his wife is four years dead.  The hearts in the audience sigh a resounding "Aw!"  His four years of loneliness only make his pursuing more credible.  Plus the fact that he has a kid, which he later takes to a dinner meeting, contributes to his sensitivity.

If you, dear reader, can not tell, I despise mechanical pulls on my heartstrings.  I am in no way against love, romance, and being pursued.  I just can't stand the unnecessary insertion of Hallmark card material.  I am looking forward to finishing up the movie. Maybe, I'll surprise myself by finding purpose to this relationship.  Frankly, I think not.  The Alice Paul in real life didn't need the Dempsy character; so, its more that likely that the film could do away with the nonsense as well.