I would like to recommend a movie. It's called This Land is Mine. It was made during World War 2 and stars Charles Laughton. One the surface the film is a love story but there is a stronger message about occupation and what occupation does to a people. Laughton makes two rather compelling speeches near the end of the movie, both condemning yet understanding the motivations of the people, yet he tries to speak to their hearts as human beings, not as political pawns or patriots. He gives the hard to fathom message that resistance means sacrifice and without sacrifice there can be no victory.

I recommend the movie because I have gotten some rather amusing notes the past few days. Because of social networking, people send all sorts of messages trying to get people to join one cause or another. It is just a simple thing, click a button and you send out mass information to hundreds if not thousands of people. With any luck a good portion of them will click to send it out to other people.

As a tool I have no problem with this, if people actually understand the stuff they are sending out. Unfortunately it seems that some people I know have come under the influence of FoxNews, and if not FoxNews it would be the conservative agenda. I have no problem with someone expressing their opinions. I know quite a number of people I know are FoxNews people, or have conservative leanings. I know where they are coming from and I actually will at least give them the benefit of listening to them if they send me something. I might not agree with what they say but I have no problem with them expressing their views.

I'm not vegan, but, like the old joke goes, some of my best friends are vegans. I don't hate them or their way of life. I respect their opinion. I eat meat, but I'm not so focused on being a meat eater that it governs my life. If I read something about the virtues of vegetarianism, I look at it. There may be news that is helpful to me, but I don't expect I'm going to give up meat overnight. While I do eat meat, I love animals and I wouldn't be cruel to one. Considering the amount of cats who think I'm their owner around my apartment I would have to say some animals like me.

I'm using vegans as an example, and it wasn't a vegan issue that came up, but I have received some solicitations from a few friends whom I have to question where their heads are at. They seem to have taken on the conservative agenda without looking at the whole picture. That's why I mentioned the film This Land is Mine. In the film people are so worried about how others think, about who is getting what on the black market, who is making the government angry they are losing sight of the bigger picture. The fault of their plight lies with the oppressors, not their neighbors. They are unwilling to take that hard look and make the choices necessary to help others.

I know times are tough, and when I look around I wish things could be fixed quicker. We look at politicians and blame them for our problems, yet will give them little time to fix them or will allow them the opportunity to dismantle systems that have helped people for decades. Almost ten years ago, firemen and policemen were heroes, teachers were the calming voices comforting our children. Today they are sponges, leeches and agitators. We wonder why good people don't want to be in public service and we treat those in public service with scorn. Instead of looking at the good ones we focus on the bad ones.

Think of it this way (and I can't believe I've gone this long without talking about Charlie Sheen) Charlie Sheen can be considered a bad apple but his behavior effected hundreds of people. People think of his show and think about Sheen and his bad behavior, not the people behind the scenes that lost their pay and probably their jobs. When people do think of the show and the impact, they focus on the cast, which admittedly is important but when you're on a hit show making over $500,000 an episode I would have to say some people might have a problem having sympathy. The thing is, they are thinking about the people in front of the camera. The guy running the camera is out of a job, so is the makeup people, wardrobe, catering, a whole list of folks who you don't see and who don't make hundreds of thousands of dollars a week are affected.

That lack of looking at the bigger picture has me questioning people who have been sending me conservative material, because their own lives are being effected negatively by the conservative agenda. What they hear is that the current administration is the cause of all their problems and they believe it. They hear that lower taxes will cause job growth and they believe it because it sounds right. The reality of the situation is not that clear cut.

The current administration has been in office for two years, the last administration was in for eight. There has been a start in cleaning up the mess but there's a lot more work to be done. Getting frustrated because things aren't happening as fast as you would like them to be is being a bit short-sighted because you are forgetting what the past administration was like. If that's too far in the past to look at, take a look at what is happening now in conservative circles. While the election mantra was jobs jobs jobs the outcome has been tax cuts for the rich. Now, let's be clear and define rich as not the guy with the corner store making $500000 a year. When they mention tax cuts for the rich that is the image they want people to see, but that isn't what's happening. From Ohio, to Wisconsin and even Arizona, Republican governors first gave tax cuts to very wealthy companies, supposedly so they could relocate to the state, then to cover those actions they cut out services to the poor. In Arizona Jan Brewer cut people off of a transplant roll they were on. These were people who were told they would be paid by the state for the transplants and then the state cut them off. The cost to put those people, now at 98 because two of the original 100 have died, would cost about a million dollars. There was a beautification program that was added to the budget that was half a million dollars and the business intensive plan is at a cost of almost two million dollars. Another program, this one being a broader health care program for low income people, is probably going to cut off 250000 people from the rolls. Most people don't meet those folks, because most people drive in their cars cocooned from some parts of life. Taking mass transit you see a lot of them. A few months ago I had someone talking to be about how he was worried about losing his health care. I didn't know the guy, he just wanted someone to vent to. I thought it wasn't something that would happen but months later his concerns are real.

This wasn't done by people in Washington, but Brewer and her conservative mouthpieces say this, and there are people who believe her. People don't want to hear how corporations are the ones draining them of spirit. Maybe they think the corporation is too big or maybe they want to work or even create a corporation some day. From my vantage point people, good people I know, would rather believe the lies of a vast conspiracy theory of hidden Illuminati members changing their lives than thinking its just the greed of a few with the money and resources destroying our way of life.