Tuesday 10 December 2019

10th December 2019 - Wonderful Days and Voting

Thought for the day :"Albert Einstein was a genius – his brother Frank was a monster"

(And I know the monster was not called that - it was the scientist - this is humour !!)

We are coming to Christmas and I enjoyed this heartwarming article that relates to one of the iconic films of the season ....


For all the fans of “It’s A Wonderful Life” and Jimmy Stewart. Just months after winning his 1941 Academy Award for best actor in “The Philadelphia Story,” Jimmy Stewart, one of the best-known actors of the day, left Hollywood and joined the US Army. He was the first big-name movie star to enlist in World War II.
An accomplished private pilot, the 33-year-old Hollywood icon became a US Army Air Force aviator, earning his 2nd Lieutenant commission in early 1942. With his celebrity status and huge popularity with the American public, he was assigned to starring in recruiting films, attending rallies, and training younger pilots.
Stewart, however, wasn’t satisfied. He wanted to fly combat missions in Europe, not spend time in a stateside training command. By 1944, frustrated and feeling the war was passing him by, he asked his commanding officer to transfer him to a unit deploying to Europe. His request was reluctantly granted.
Stewart, now a Captain, was sent to England, where he spent the next 18 months flying B-24 Liberator bombers over Germany. Throughout his time overseas, the US Army Air Corps' top brass had tried to keep the popular movie star from flying over enemy territory. But Stewart would hear nothing of it.
Determined to lead by example, he bucked the system, assigning himself to every combat mission he could. By the end of the war he was one of the most respected and decorated pilots in his unit.
But his wartime service came at a high personal price.
In the final months of WWII he was grounded for being “flak happy,” today called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
When he returned to the US in August 1945, Stewart was a changed man. He had lost so much weight that he looked sickly. He rarely slept, and when he did he had nightmares of planes exploding and men falling through the air screaming (in one mission alone his unit had lost 13 planes and 130 men, most of whom he knew personally).
He was depressed, couldn’t focus, and refused to talk to anyone about his war experiences. His acting career was all but over.
As one of Stewart's biographers put it, "Every decision he made [during the war] was going to preserve life or cost lives. He took back to Hollywood all the stress that he had built up.”
In 1946 he got his break. He took the role of George Bailey, the suicidal father in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The rest is history.
Actors and crew of the set realized that in many of the disturbing scenes of George Bailey unraveling in front of his family, Stewart wasn’t acting. His PTSD was being captured on filmed for potentially millions to see.
But despite Stewart's inner turmoil, making the movie was therapeutic for the combat veteran. He would go on to become one of the most accomplished and loved actors in American history.
When asked in 1941 why he wanted to leave his acting career to fly combat missions over Nazi Germany, he said, "This country's conscience is bigger than all the studios in Hollywood put together, and the time will come when we'll have to fight.”
This holiday season, as many of us watch the classic Christmas film, “It’s A Wonderful Life,” it’s also a fitting time to remember the sacrifices of Jimmy Stewart and all the men who gave up so much to serve their country during wartime. We will always remember you!

Postscript:
While fighting in Europe, Stewart's Oscar statue was proudly displayed in his father’s Pennsylvania hardware store. Throughout his life, the beloved actor always said his father, a World War I veteran, was the person who had made the biggest impact on him.
Jimmy Stewart was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1985 and died in 1997 at the age of 89.

-- Ned Forney, Writer, Saluting America's Veterans
And on the subject of heroes.....
Back to Politics...
Only a few days to go - thank goodness...

A comment made the other day by a political commentator seems so right - Normally we look to see which party or leader we refer and agree with - this time around it is a case of to whom do you least disagree!!!! And that seems to be about right. In my Llanelli Consituency, we have a Labour lead - we always have. Agree or disagree with the national policies or the Party themes, there is littel doubt that Nia Griffiths will get into power - probably with a large majority - the level of dissatisfaction here will be shown by the level of majority she has....

With my father in law who now does not really understand the politics, thinks Brexit is an institution, and cannot gauge the concept that it is a procedure, only knows that he does not want Boris ans the leader, and had to have explained to him that his local vote will not make his man the new Prime MInister. But down in Waiting for God land on the South Coast the current ember has a 25,000 majority which was nibblers at a few years ago by the Lib Dens - who disappeared entirely at the last election. He wishes to struggle out ot the Pols on Thursday - but does not want to vote Conservative - I think he has been Labour all his days, but maybe not, but he cannot really understand the polling structure any more.

In both our cases - we are really disenfranchised by the system - whether we vote or not the result is a foregone conclusion. I know that there are those who state that you must use your democratic right regardless of the faults of the system, and in my case I have used my postal vote - but the system does not inspire confidence in democratic traditions and principles.

And so my choice? Labour will win. The Tories and the Lib Dems do not even live in the county!! The Green do - but I really cannot agree with their policies locally. Labour are promising to pay the women their pensions which could mean up to £20,000 in repayment to Susie - who lost out on 4 years of her pension by raising the age limit. (Oh and in other news - France apparently are having riots on the streets because they want to raise the French National limit to 62!!)

And so - the only one that has a policy that will personally affect is the one that I do not need to vote for as they will get in anyway !!!

But I have a democratic right to vote and would hate to have it taken away so I am old school and put my cross on the sheet the only way that it makes sense. But I still feel dirty !!!

Cheers !!!




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