The F Word

I know we're supposed to write about whatever television program we watched this week but on the independent film channel was a movie title "The F Word" with a very intrigueing premise. The story goes that in New York, Joe (the radio announcer of "The F word") is being shut down by the FCC because of this obcene remarks. Now instead of having a "best of" show for his last broadcast he decides to go out to the streets of New York and find out what people think about what is going in this country. This film is taped like a documentary style but is instead a drama and takes place during the week that the Republican Nation Convention is in town for the 2004 election and the day that Bush is going to accept his nomination for president. The documentary style of the film oftentimes makes it hard to see when something is real and is not. After watching the movie I must say that I was mortified. It made me just think "Why did I not do anything?" At the time this movie takes place I was still in high school. I worked a meiger job as a busboy at an italian restaurant but I still knew what was going on then and still know what is going on now. The world is changing. America is changing and it's not for the better. In the film you see all the different viewpoints of the political scene. From anti-bush democrats participating in the march against Bush rally with over five hundred thousand attendees, to the five or six republicans that honestly wanted to march right along side the democrats in a peaceful protest, to the single mom who did not attend the protest for fear that it would endanger her only child. It really gives you a spectrum of things. I must say that the most poinent part of the film is when the mayor of New York is addressing the RNC. In his speech he says "Welcome to my New York" after he utters these words it cuts to a biker being arrested for just crossing the street "This is you New York" again the same biker is almost vicisausly beaten by the cops. This is the better America? This is the great society Bush has brought? Well over one thousand people were arrested that day (actual fact), most were just wanting to express there opinions as. I mean that is what America is all about right? That's what makes us special if we have a problem with the government or how it is run we can protest and change it.....right? Yes there a lot of sides to this issue, and yes we are dealing with arguments and paradigms that stretch FAR beyond the years of our lives or even those of our parents. But at the end of the day what are we? Yes we're americans but what does being an american mean? Does it mean that we should bend over, accept and even trust our government and it's actions? Or is it instead a fear and hate of this system that our founding fathers created. Maybe it's neither. Maybe being an american is expressing yourself and how you feel or what you think. Be it with words or actions, or neither I think the point, the real truth, is to just do it. Go out and express yourself in whatever way you feel fit. And if the government has a problem with that .......THEN FUCK THEM.