Why I love to share films I love

Lady in White, from a larger writing...

Most of the actors in this film are Italian American. Little Frankie’s family is portrayed as a happy, normal family, with troubles, sure, but lots of love. Kinda like Leave it to Beaver but with Italian food and rhythm and names. This is the kind of thing that helps teach people how we are alike, by showing that what is different is not, in itself, a threat to life as you know it. In fact, it often is quite wonderful (once you get used to twisting the pasta on your fork) and Eating the taco with your hands has become a tradition, theoretically, in homes across America, some of which might wish to send the cook back to where she came from. We are threatened by different, that’s ok. But when people pull out the race cards, the diminishment of folks means evil is at work. Personally, I appreciate the many angles of the potato. Being a little bit Irish and German, I grew up with a Lotta potata. Using the Italian family was second nature to Frank but to me it was foreign territory. I was happy to learn that we shared something I consider much more important than background. We share Time. We have the bond of shared songs, films, clothes, jokes.

what do you think I am, a PLP? midwestern maybe…. but i’ve met some who know what it means.

It is a lesson all of us must learn or we grow up harboring fantastic fears, (you can see it everywhere nowadays) and we grow terrible molds and spores made of rumor and conjecture and convenience, until we are racist, and sexist, and spoiled to happiness. Understanding these simple lessons that films can bring a kid is timely. Different syllables in names can seem like they are insurmountable differences. In the heart of us, we are living the same lives in America. Well, we were, anyway. I believe that we are connected by a common love of one another that is simply not celebrated nearly enough. Films are a way of reminding us how much we value our common legends and history.