Hollywood, CA—I salute every
performer or artist in the world for his or her contributions both big and
small. What a horrible world we’d be
living in without the art, music, films, plays, dance and comedy.
We all have our favorites
celebrities. Sometimes we are
disappointed or shocked upon learning their personal politics or
attitudes. Sean Penn, Jane Fonda and
Barbara Streisand immediately come to mind. After Hollywood's Blacklisting of
Leftist artists in the 1950's it's now those artists on the Right getting the
treatment. Mel Gibson and James Woods
are two of today's examples.
I’m perhaps overly tolerant
all people when in comes to those whose views are totally opposite of
mine. Sometimes those people have been
indoctrinated their entire lives and believe every lie ever broadcast or
published. My job is to lead them by
tolerance, kindness and example.
I’m a really Conservative
Libertarian. In Hollywood I’ve meet some
really Left of center people that are incredibly talented and kind. Actor Martin Sheen is a great example. Sheen told me how he wanted to be a NYPD
officer, applied and was promptly rejected when he fell ½ inch too short.
Sheen actually wanted to get
my script, Come Friday about the Chicago policewoman hero Annie Leybourne made
into a feature film. . He spent some
serious time hooking me up with his talent agency, ICM. The film has still not yet been made because
of issues not under his or my control.
Recently mainstream media has
given a massive soapbox to professional race baiters like Jessie Jackson and Al
Starpton. Every young African-American
criminal killed by a white cop is treated like a innocent victim of a KKK
lynching. This is in part because both
print and broadcast media is dying and they hope to prolong their existence
with the sensationalism they too often create.
Now comes a somewhat self
taught and gifted writer/film director into to the limelight for making
ignorant, and hurtful denouncements of the men and women of law
enforcement. Yep, Quentin Tarantino took
the floor of the debate and managed to offend thousands including me.
The immediate reaction of my
cop friends was to call for a boycott of Tarantino’s films. I was hoping the law enforcement community
would put more thought into their reaction showing more tolerance than
Tarantino. That was not the case
however.
There is a lot more than
Tarantino involved here. There are
hundreds of fine men and women in the cast and crew of his films. We’ve all see the endless credits rolling
after every film. Punishing Tarantino also victimizes them.
Do we want to kill the hope
and dreams of the young actors lucky enough to land a role in a Tarantino film?
Tarantino was emotional and
convinced that he was addressing valid concerns. I’m sure he never once thought about how
politicians keep criminalizing more and more conduct. I’m sure he never though of how the
politicians have turned cops into extortionist bagmen to collect excessive
fines from citizens for very trivial violations.
I say that it’s okay to
rebuke Tarantino but a boycott of his films that we’ve all enjoyed is not the
answer. Let’s show Tarantino that our
skin is much thicker than we’ve displayed so far. I think all of us are guilty of putting our
foot in our mouths at one time or another.
Go see his new film and judge it on its own merit. I’m not going to miss the film, Hateful
Eight.
When I have my next chat with
Tarantino I will let him know that more than the cops, he hurt their wives and
children more by his rash remarks. I
will forgive Tarantino for his thoughtless rant just as I ask my Liberal
friends to overlook mine. It’s going to
be really difficult for Tarantino to save face here. Let’s help him along.
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