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Only slightly off-topic this morning – as of the moment that I’m currently typing this, Hurricane Gustav is right on Louisiana’s doorstep. Brad Pitt’s Make It Right has been working hard to construct new homes for those in New Orleans who were left with nothing after Katrina just over three years ago.
If you pray, please do so for New Orleans and everyone else in Gustav’s path. If praying isn’t your thing, please think good thoughts. They’ve been through enough.
Let’s hope the new homes really can withstand the hurricane.
1. [Apologies to everyone for my long post.] OT: Hi, Sonja, to finish our conversation, your other point was why Angelina hadn’t endorsed Barack Obama. The following is my opinion only. I don’t know anyone who’d accuse Roseanne of being an intellectual. I agree with you that the best liberal/progressive/radical comedians hold up a mirror to society to critique what’s wrong with it. Examples in the U.S. include Blazing Saddles, Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Culture Clash, Margaret Cho and Roseanne herself at one time.
2. A recent article said that celebrity endorsements are a double-edged sword. George Clooney found that out when he campaigned with his father who was running for office (he lost). George was a liability because we Americans have a love/hate relationship with celebrities – we admire and envy them, and we also hate them because of all their privileges. We also think they should “shut up and sing/act” because we assume they’re all shallow and stupid. A recent poll showed that an overwhelming number – something over 70% – of voters said celebrity endorsements would NOT influence their vote. In fact, some celebrity endorsements would have a negative effect, e.g. Susan Sarandon (wonderful woman and great actress). So I don’t know the effect Angelina’s endorsement might have. IMO, any of Angelina’s fans who vote for someone or an issue solely because of her endorsement is being irresponsible if they haven’t studied the issue or candidate themselves.
1. [Apologies to everyone for my long post.] OT: Hi, Sonja, to finish our conversation, your other point was why Angelina hadn’t endorsed Barack Obama. The following is my opinion only. I don’t know anyone who’d accuse Roseanne of being an intellectual. I agree with you that the best liberal/progressive/radical comedians hold up a mirror to society to critique what’s wrong with it. Examples in the U.S. include Blazing Saddles, Charlie Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Lenny Bruce, Mort Sahl, Dick Gregory, George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Culture Clash, Margaret Cho and Roseanne herself at one time.
2. A recent article said that celebrity endorsements are a double-edged sword. George Clooney found that out when he campaigned with his father who was running for office (he lost). George was a liability because we Americans have a love/hate relationship with celebrities – we admire and envy them, and we also hate them because of all their privileges. We also think they should “shut up and sing/act” because we assume they’re all shallow and stupid. A recent poll showed that an overwhelming number – something over 70% – of voters said celebrity endorsements would NOT influence their vote. In fact, some celebrity endorsements would have a negative effect, e.g. Susan Sarandon (wonderful woman and great actress). So I don’t know the effect Angelina’s endorsement might have. IMO, any of Angelina’s fans who vote for someone or an issue solely because of her endorsement is being irresponsible if they haven’t studied the issue or candidate themselves.
3. Angelina did NOT endorse either McCain or Obama. Just because she didn’t endorse Obama, IT DOESN’T MEAN she supports and endorses McCain. It means she’s being publicly neutral, like the UN and Bono. IMO, not being partisan in this election is a choice she has the right to make. It’s also very wise because I think she’ll be more effective with her advocacy work. One of the earliest things I read about Angelina was how respected she was on Capitol Hill – not only for her knowledge and experience, but also for being non-partisan. Angelina began her UN work with direct aid to refugees and educating the public about them. She soon learned that in order for a permanent change for the better to be possible, she needed to go to the root of the problem – it’s kind of like someone bleeding from a wound. It’s not enough to put a band-aid/plaster on it. The source of the bleeding has to be found and sewn up. If we had a parliamentary system with many viable parties, I don’t think Angelina would endorse anyone either.
4. Angelina was absolutely right to ask both candidates for their positions on the issues most important to her. For one thing, neither had said anything about those issues. For another, it’s not wise to assume things – especially of politicians running for President of the U.S. There’s a wonderful movie called The Candidate with Robert Redford playing an idealistic person running for office so he can change things for the better. Along the way, he makes compromise after compromise in order to win. The goal was winning, and then he could make changes. In the end, he was a different man from when he started.
5. What with the havoc caused by this Republican administration abroad and at home, it would seem a no-brainer for Angelina to endorse Obama, right? Not so fast. People, especially progressives, minorities and young people, were so desperate to throw the Republicans out of office, and so elated about Obama’s messages that coincided with theirs that they rushed headlong to support him without getting any guarantees about following through. Obama tacked to the left to win the Democratic primary; since then, he tacked rightwards to move to the center to win the Presidency. Obama has backtracked on a number of things. He pledged to accept public funding with limits, then changed his mind. I think he was pragmatic, because public funding would work only if *all* the candidates did it. He vowed he’d vote no on FISA (government spying on its citizens without their knowledge and without warrants, among other things) even if he had to filibuster – he voted yes. He was against any form of offshore oil-drilling, now he’s for it under certain conditions.
6. Obama had a firm timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, he modified it. (6000 Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans Against the War demonstrated at the Democratic National Convention asking to meet with him, he didn’t even bother sending an aide to acknowledge them. BTW, protests have been at both DNC and Republican NC. The response has been bi-partisan – pepper spray and other time-honored tactics to break up demonstrations, pre-emptive raids of activists’ houses, confiscation of their materials, jail for the protesters and independent media trying to document the events.) This is not to say I won’t vote for Obama – only that I have a realistic view of him, not the Jesus Christ Superstar some have made him out to be.
7. Obviously, the election of McCain/Palin is too horrendous to contemplate. Yet, it might turn out that way. Tom Bradley, extremely popular and first Black mayor of Los Angeles who served 5 terms, ran for Governor. Everyone projected a landslide win – he lost to the white candidate. This became known as the “Bradley effect” – voters concealing their racism to pollsters, and voting against the Black candidate in the privacy of the voting booth.
8. I hope I’ve been able to show another side to your questions: “WHY IN THE WORLD A. HAS TO THINK ABOUT HER CHOICE? SHOULDN’T IT BE OBVIOUS? So I’m just really wondering why Angelina would say that she hasn’t decided yet!!! It is strange that someone like Angie says that she hasn’t decided yet and wants to WAIT what the candidates say about Angies main topics. I think Obama as well as McCain have said enough so everybody should know in which directions they are going…”
Thank Goddess that Gustav wasn’t as destructive as Katrina. Hope Hanna is like Gustav. Watched “When the Levees Broke” again yesterday – woman wore t-shirt saying “Girls Gone Wild – Betsy, Katrina, Rita.” :-) Oldies and Goodies, remember when all hurricane and typhoons were named after women? Thank goodness they started naming them after men, too.
Someone posted that Toronto announced Angelina wasn’t coming. I’m sure Brad kept in close touch with MIR project when Gustav developed into a problem – nice knowing what a caring guy he is.
According to MIR reps brad will not being going to new orleans, they filled brad in on everthing and everything is alright.Brad is only doing the red carpet in toronto according to the head of TIFF, so why bring angie along for that,and i looked at the list of presenters for the NYC concert and brad is not on it.So i guess brad will do the red carpet and fly back to france,good for him.
Thanks Deb re information about MIR. I’m so happy homes could withstand the hurricane.
I guess Brad will go to NOLA after Toronto to check MIR’s homes and their own home,If rumors about 10th of Sep are true,maybe he will go to NYC before leaving U.S to join his family in France. I hope Angie will go with him to Toronto but I guess if she is as much busy as not to go to Venice which is 30 minutes from Nice with Plane,wanting her to go that much far is more unbelievable,maybe he will go there with girls.finger crossed.
that’s good news Debra. i am really happy with that news. :)
my thoughts and prayers still goes to those who are experiencing hurricane gustav.
im really really worried about this “MT GUSTAV” but thankfully he is leaving w/o any damage to Brad’s project, and to all of the NEW Orlean residen’ts. keep praying good people, thank you GOD. Hurricane hanna is still out there. keep praying.
I was just watching CNN and Anderson Cooper (I love him so) said that the houses from the MIR campaign were holding up well. There does not seem to be any damage. I wanted to share. I know that Brad and his team must be happy to know this. Maybe others will use this model on other buildings. I really hope this news continues. It seems as if the worst has passed in NOLA. There was some flooding in the 9th ward. But it seems to be receding. Good new for those home owners.
Clicked too fast…wanted to add to that I really do hope those who are affected by this hurricane will not have to deal with too much, if any, damage.
From what I gathered in news over here, Gustav has hit Louisiana. I’m praying for everyone over there, that they be spared the destruction that Katrina brought.
Moderation?
Thoughts and prayers to everyone in the Gulf coast, Florida and the Caribbean.
My thoughts and prayers have been with Make It Right since I first heard about the hurricane. The houses look like they can withstand quite a bit. Hope the water recedes quickly.
My thoughts are with them. We in Florida just got through Fay. Not the same thing at all, but we are all sitting on the edge of our seats. I know that life happens, and nothing is guaranteed. I was thinking about the Make it Right project. THis is going to be a real test. I hope it passes so that others will get involved in the rebuilding. I saw on TMZ a dumb article about Brad’s house, I should not even mention it. Lets not. Well I said a prayer last night and will say another today. They have been through so much.
Hopefully everyone in the path of Gustav is doing okay. I guess now the worry will be the amount of rain it is going dump for long periods of time. I hope that there is not alot of damage from the winds and rains. This appears to be a hurricane season we will not forget soon. Hanna is growing and it looks like that will go up the eastern seaboard. So my prayers are with all of you.
I meant to add: Thanks for starting this thread, Sherry.
The first batch of MIR homes (Brad hopes that eventually, with people’s and corporate support, MIR houses can rebuild in other areas of the Gulf Coast) is in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans – hardest hit by Katrina and the broken levees.
We stayed overnight in a plantation in Houma (on high ground) on the way to visit friends in Biloxi. It was strange, but we wanted to see the actual physical thing to buttress anything we said about slavery in the South. Surprisingly, the docent was pretty honest and didn’t try to sugarcoat it.
We’ll know soon if the levees held – they were being rebuilt but still not up standards (!). Unless New Orleans is under water, we’ll continue with our plan to visit for a week starting New Year’s Day. Among other things, we were going to check on the progress of rebuilding. Now that Gustav has struck, I don’t know what we’ll see. I’ll check on the Jolie-Pitt house. It’s in the French Quarter which was damaged by Katrina, but relatively unscathed compared to the other parts of NOLA. It’s on high ground, so that helped.
Gustav has made landfall near Houma, LA. That is 75 miles west of New Orleans. I do not know where the homes of MIR Foundation are. The levees have held thus far, unfortunately there are several more hours of wind and heavy rains. The French Quater, where Brad and Angies house is located is above sea level, so hopefully flooding should not be a issue the winds will be the major factor in the French Quater. All my thoughts and prayers are with everyone concerned. God bless.
Our hearts and minds are with everyone in New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast – we have family and friends there, but even if we didn’t, we’d still care.
This is the most comprehensive HURRICANE GUSTAV/KATRINA EMERGENCY RESOURCES list I’ve seen. Make It Right is on the list with categories like Volunteer Opportunities and Charitable Giving, Sustainable and Equitable Development, RESOURCES FOR LONG-TERM EQUITABLE REBUILDING, Cultural Work and Educational Reform, Environmental Justice, and Criminal and Civil Justice.
“When the hurricane struck the Gulf and the floodwaters rose and tore through New Orleans, it did not turn the region into a Third World country… it revealed one.” – Danny Glover, actor/activist
http://troublethewaterfilm.com/content/pages/learn_what_you_can_do