RIP

[kladner]

[Uncwilly]

U.S. civil rights pioneer, congressman John Lewis

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

U.S. civil rights pioneer, congressman John Lewis

From the AP story:

John Lewis saw the line of Alabama state troopers a few hundred yards away as he led hundreds of marchers to the apex of the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma on March 7, 1965. Armed with gas canisters and nightsticks, the troopers were flanked by horse-riding members of the sheriff's posse. A crowd of whites milled around nearby.

Lewis, who died Friday at age 80, was just 25 at the time. He had been leading voting rights demonstrations for months in the notoriously racist town, and he and the others were trying to take a message of freedom to segregationist Gov. George C. Wallace in Montgomery.

So, rather than stopping, Lewis put another foot forward.

That seminal step propelled him on to a global stage as a hero of the U.S. civil rights movement. The ensuing confrontation helped lead to the passage of the federal Voting Rights Act.

Whence cometh the next John Lewis?

As we know, the Voting Rights Act has been gutted [Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529].

[tServo]

Originally Posted by Uncwilly

U.S. civil rights pioneer, congressman John Lewis

We are a better nation for his having lived.
We are a poorer nation because of his death.

[ewmayer]

Originally Posted by Batalov

Exactly, and he was memorable in Brazil, too...

(in a film like Brazil it is very tough to match Pythons at a pythonesque game level and he did just fine!)

Another Ian Holm sighting last night, in 1979's somewhat-shlocky-disaster-fest S.O.S. Titanic, in which he plays a typically Holmian conflicted character, designer of the doomed liner J. Bruce Ismay, who survived the sinking and was afflicted with overwhelming survivor's guilt. Not a bad movie, but some hilarious ahistoricity-for-dramatic effect, notably the lifeboats carrying the 700-odd survivors being rowed through an ice-floe-filled ocean. Hello? 'Twas a rogue iceberg done the deed ... the whole reason the ship was steaming full blast was that no one was expecting significant ice so far south. Some other fine actors and future stars in the cast, as well.

1979 - same year Holm appeared in Alien and All Quiet On the Western Front. That's quite a trifecta for a single year.

The year before he appeared in the epic TV miniseries Holocaust, but not as as some ya-just-can't-help-but-root-for-the-lovable-underdog role like his later turn in the (IMO) mega-cheesy - tug those heartstrings! Jerk those tears! - Chariots of Fire, no, here he played none other than Heinrich Himmler.

The other British actor who comes to my mind as having had a similar combination of talent and willingness to play conflicted and unlikeable characters: James Mason.

[ewmayer]

Moderator note: Responses to this post may be found in Soapbox, Official "politics belongs in the soapbox" thread.

Originally Posted by Dr Sardonicus

From the AP story:Whence cometh the next John Lewis?

Wrong question. The more pertinent one is "where went the civil-rights and social-justice advocate John Lewis"?

Freedom Rider: No Tears for John Lewis | Black Agenda Report

“I was beaten bloody by police officers. But I never hated them. I said, ‘Thank you for your service.’” -- Congressman John Lewis

The people who fought against Jim Crow segregation in the 1960s were quite literally risking their lives. The list of martyrs is a long one. Activists of that era are rightly respected and their courage must not be forgotten or taken for granted. But as congressman John Lewis proves, their actions at that time should not provide dispensation from critique in the 21st century. Lewis is the latest target of president-elect Donald Trump’s attacks but that shouldn’t give him a pass either.

Despite his early history, Lewis now exemplifies everything that is wrong with the Congressional Black Caucus, the Democratic Party and the black misleadership class. The caucus was once known as “the conscience of the Congress.” Those men and women were always among the most left leaning members and could be counted on to reliably fight against domestic injustice and imperialism abroad. They were unafraid of their party leadership or of presidents either.

“The CBC that is a shell of its former self.”

But all that changed when they were targeted by big money contributors like the rest of their congressional colleagues. After years of unsuccessfully attempting to make inroads among black Americans the right wing realized their error. They began to promote compliant corporatist candidates for office and to target people like Cynthia McKinney and Earl Hilliard for defeat. The result is now a CBC that is a shell of its former self.

Instead of providing inspirational leadership to their constituents CBC members are now mere lackeys for the corporate wing of the Democratic Party. They said nothing when Barack Obama made grand austerity bargains with Republicans, or used sanctions, jihadists and drone warfare to kill in Somalia and Libya, or when he refused to prosecute killer cops. Only one of them, Keith Ellison, chose to support Bernie Sanders instead of Hillary Clinton, and CBC’s lobbying arm gave her a hearty and undeserved endorsement.

Lewis stood out among all the genuflectors. Having been dubbed a “civil rights icon” his opinions are given undue weight and he uses them to uphold the corrupt establishment. Not only did the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation endorse Clinton but Lewis chose to give the hapless Sanders a very public beat down. Sanders used his own youthful movement activism as a political calling card but Lewis dismissed him. He claimed he knew nothing about Sanders but did know the Clintons who were great friends of black people. The effort to discredit Sanders was so obvious and the claims about the Clintons were so outrageous that Lewis was forced to back track and clarify his comments.

Note: In the remaining unexcerpted-above portion of the op-ed there appears to be some kind of mismatched-italics-tag issue following "...paid speeches at Goldman Sachs".

[Dr Sardonicus]

Originally Posted by ewmayer

<snip>
The other British actor who comes to my mind as having had a similar combination of talent and willingness to play conflicted and unlikeable characters: James Mason.

One movie I saw James Mason in was Bigger than Life (1956). It was based (somewhat loosely) on an early case of cortisone therapy. [The real-life story was written up by Berton Roueché in the September 10, 1955 New Yorker with the title Ten Feet Tall.] The treatment was successful, but the patient, Ed Avery (Mason) became manic to the point of psychosis.

When Avery detected his young son trying to discard the drug, he decided he had to kill him. His wife was desperately pleading for her son's life, and mentioned that after God told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, He decided to spare Isaac. Avery's reply: "God was wrong!"

[ixfd64]

New York Times obituary for Ronald Graham: https://nytimes.com/2020/07/23/scien...ies-at-84.html

[xilman]

Peter Green: Fleetwood Mac co-founder

[Uncwilly]

Talk show, Who Wants to be a Millionaire? host Regis Philbin dead at 88

[xilman]

De Havilland's career spanned more than 50 years and almost 50 feature films, and she was the last surviving actor from Gone with the Wind (1939).