There are a few scenes in really good movies that capture the zeitgeist of the moment... [View all]

[WCGreen]

The Greed is Good scene with Gordon Getko, comes to mind.

Dustin Hoffman floating around in the swimming pool in the Graduate

Nevertheless, for me the quintessential scene of a movie that tugs at my heartstrings now more than ever is this scene from Casablanca...

I was not even born when WWII was going on; I came of age in the late 60's and the early 70's.

I had always heard about this legendary movie and at that time, there just wasn't the opportunity to watch in on demand or see it twice a year on TCM.

I was alienated from my parents as I was more than a handful to both my mother and my stepfather.

Casablanca was showing on the only UHF station in town and I asked my folks if we could watch the movie together.

Neither one of them was interested but they let me watch it on the good TV in their bedroom.

Well, I was completely blown away by the movie, the intricate story line, the bravery, the honor and the change that came over a cynical man.

Later on, perhaps on the fifteenth or so watching, I see how this movie captured the innocents of America.

By the time the WWII was over, the glory faded and life went on and the people became people more concerned about their own lives than what was going on in the country.

Not until the moon landing did America rally around like a country.

We have never really come together again.

Even the Twin Towers attacked was grabbed by the Right and used as a political crudgeon to force people who questioned the dark intentions of those in charge to back off or else.

We haven't had a leader who can transcend poetical barriers and given the vitriol that is out there now, it is going to be a long time.

Anyway, it is good to see the 99 movement-taking roots. I am too old and infirm to do much of anything, but I have hope, the kind of hope that might spring up and pull us all together.

The Nazi's were evil. There is no doubt about it. I would give my life to fight an evil like that.

But because I saw that the evil was on "our side" in Iraq, I do not think anything can make me proud of our country again until someone comes along and gets people to stop saying what is in it for me...

That is the true glory of the sacrifice of Casablanca is that people were willing to lay it all on the line for something that was greater than they were.