I just watched the movie, “Amazing Grace”. This 2006 movie is basically about the efforts of a group of people in England that worked hard to abolish slavery. The movie centers on William Wilberforce and how he used his conversion to religion and a run in politics to lead to the legal passage of laws to abolish slavery. The process was arduous and involved the efforts of many people but the underlying theme I felt from the movie was the power to grow an idea even though the numbers are against you. While many felt defeated many times with great effort they pushed on and eventually convinced others of their ideas. One person had a great impact on the whole country but the truth is there were many people that helped push the politician, William Wilberforce, through their backing and even their research.
I found it especially interesting to watch the British Parliament sound very much like our own American politicians. Even though they knew slavery was morally wrong, they found it difficult to stop because of the financial hardship it would bring to the country. It reminded me of our own recent years of dealing with the issues of torture, war, civil rights, privacy rights and all of the other current issues. Many politicians know what is right but when it comes down to many of these issues it really is about the money, the money for private corporations. We are involved in wars that are quite profitable at a time when every other business venture is probably having some kind of financial difficulty, so we continue to keep the people riled up about terrorists, the new “boogey man” and keep sending our young men and women off to war. I know I make it sound quite simplistic but in my mind it really is, isn’t it? Haven’t we gone off to many of our wars for corporations, power and control?
In the movie men wanted more time to “contemplate” what to do as they just couldn’t abolish slavery immediately as it would have a huge impact on the economy, so they chose to do nothing! I see similarities in the current health care debate. It seems to me that the politicians know what the right thing to do would be but they are still holding out for their corporate masters that enslave them with their financial contributions that keep them in power. They are slaves to corporations just as the British politicians were slaves to their own corporate masters. Our American politicians have grown far too comfortable to really understand how most of the citizenry live. They don’t know that those that don’t have health insurance rarely see a doctor or only do when they are at their wits end. They don’t care that those that do have health insurance wonder what in the heck their insurance is really paying for when they get their bills!
For me the movie, “Amazing Grace” really reminded me of how timid and selfish politicians can be and how slow things move when men are the only ones making the decisions. I personally would like to see a real third party form that involves the efforts of many women, the sensible voices of women, the caring women that devote their lives to the young soldiers going off to war and are appalled at any injustice.