Why Things Aren’t Working: or, The Parable of Bedford Falls
I believe the movie, It's A Wonderful Life, holds the answer to why our nation is in trouble. Almost nothing in America is working right now: not our economic system, not our political system, not our housing system, not our educational system, not our health care system, not our immigration system, not our banking system, not our social system - not even our postal system, which has always been the government agency that worked the best. Nothing in America is working right now, and the reason is pretty simple.
In the movie, It's A Wonderful Life, there are two towns: Bedford Falls and Pottersville. (They're actually the same town, but under different circumstances.) You'll remember that Bedford Falls is the town that George Bailey, the hero, grows up in, and that Pottersville is the town it would have become had George Bailey never been born. It's a dramatic contrast, presented by Heaven to show George that his life really has made a difference. If George is a Christ figure in the movie, which he is, then you could say that we get to see how a town with Christ looks, and then how it would look without Him. If George is also a Christian, trying to love his neighbor as himself, which he is, then you could also say that we get to see the impact that one Christian life can make.
Here's my contention: America, which was once made up of homey little communities like Bedford Falls, is quickly becoming a country of Pottersvilles; and we, who were once a nation of caring citizens like George Bailey, are becoming a nation of Potters.
One Hundred Eighty – 180 Movie
Click the icon in the lower right corner to make the video full-screen. It has great resolution.
To learn more, go to Heart Changer.
This is a production of The Way of the Master and Living Waters.
Howard Schultz Letter – Our Country Is Better Than This
There are two versions of this letter out there, each with a different signature, both claiming to be from Howard Schultz. Both letters may be authentic; but I'm guessing the second signature is the authentic one since it is on the "official" Upward Spiral Facebook page. But who knows - both could be faked. Regardless, they are both good letters, and I'm guessing mark a turning point between people just being frustrated with our government and the direction in which our nation is going, and their actually doing something about it. If you'd like to get involved in this discussion and movement, click the Upward Spiral link in the first letter or at the end of this article.
LETTER #1:
September 2011
Dear Starbucks Friend and Fellow Citizen:
I love our country. And I am a beneficiary of the promise of America. But today, I am very concerned that at times I do not recognize the America that I love.
Like so many of you, I am deeply disappointed by the pervasive failure of leadership in Washington. And also like you, I am frustrated by our political leaders' steadfast refusal to recognize that, for every day they perpetuate partisan conflict and put ideology over country, America and Americans suffer from the combined effects of paralysis and uncertainty. Americans can't find jobs. Small businesses can't get credit. And the fracturing of consumer confidence continues.
We are better than this.
Three weeks ago, I asked fellow business leaders to join me in urging the President and the Congress to put an end to partisan gridlock and, in its place, to set in motion an upward spiral of confidence. More than 100 business leaders representing American companies - large and small - joined me in signing a two-part pledge:
Hit the Road!
For generations, Americans have "found themselves" by hitting the road and discovering America, and many of them did that on Route 66. It's time we hit the Mother Road again.
In the early 1970s, I decided to hitchhike across America. I was discontented with college and had decided to be a missionary for awhile. I had a couple of months to kill before my training started, so I decided to spend them on the road seeing America.
I wasn't the first in my family to do this. Back in the 1920s, several of my granddad's brothers and cousins decided to drive from North Carolina to California, working their way across. Keep in mind that Route 66, the first interstate road in America, did not exist until 1926. Even then, it was just a patchwork of backroads and main street,s loosely joined together, that meandered from Chicago to LA. It wasn't until later that the "official" route was built. So my great uncles were setting out on a true adventure.
My adventure started in Lenoir, NC, my hometown, with my dad letting me out on the highway to hitch to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, where I was going to hook up with my high school class for a couple of days and then head out for California. Dad had done his best to talk me out of my trip, but my mind was made up. His eyes were filled with tears as he let me out on the side of the road. He thought he had lost me forever. What he didn't realize was that I had been hitching back and forth from college in Chapel Hill for a year, and thought I had a pretty good system down for getting rides. Just that little bit of success emboldened me to take the plunge and head west.
The Dumbing Down of America
Or, Whatever Happened to Hayley Mills?
People assume that Americans today are more sophisticated and less gullible because we have become a more visually-oriented society. But in the process of becoming more visual, we have become less literate and less literary, less educated and less informed, less conversational and less relational, less "thinking" (both logically and in regards to "horse sense"); we have a shorter attention span and are more inclined to addiction, violence, etc. What that means is that our society is more vulnerable to sensationalism by the media, manupulation by advertisers, gullibility of a new sort, emotionalism, repeating the mistakes of the past, following after the latest "star" (whether rock, movie or sports), etc. More than ever, we are a society of sheep going astray and less a nation of individual thinkers and doers as our forefathers were.
I don't know of any advantage of becoming a more visually-oriented society and I know of hundreds of disadvantages. The Egyptians were a visually-oriented society. What that produced, ultimately, was a weak society of god-rulers (stars) and slaves (fans).
Thinking and communication have always been based on words, not images. The Egyptians may have been great artists, engineers and builders, but they were by no means great thinkers. The Greeks and Romans were far more literary, and were therefore far greater thinkers. The British were probably the most literary of all societies and they have produced the greatest thinkers of all time, including our founding fathers.