Yesterday afternoon I watched the fourth Harry Potter movie with my nine-year-old granddaughter. She is reading the books in order before watching the movies, so she had just finished the fourth book in the morning.
That makes three more books and movies to go.
This is the second time for me to go through the cycle of wizardly doings; the first was with my three youngest children, now in their early 20s,
My granddaughter says she likes the books better than the movies but that she likes the movies as well. She didn't just voluntarily offer this evaluation; I prompted her. For years, I have listened to friends debate the book-to-movie question, until I started working in film myself.
Then I realized what probably should have been obvious -- that translating a book to film means adapting the author's words to a visual language that has very different demands than words on paper (or these days, on screen.)
This is the reason that fires take up a disproportionate portion of the time allotted for the nightly news. As the cliche has it, you may use 1,000 words to describe a fire in print, but one image will do the trick.
***
The current national and international uprising demanding racial and social justice in the wake of the George Floyd killing repeats history for most of us as well. There have been periodic bursts of political tumult following similar murders since the early days of the Civil Rights movement; most memorably the Rodney King riots in the early 1990s.
Every single time, those of us hoping for deep reforms have been disappointed that the kind of change that is needed never seems to actually occur. The killings have continued, the demonstrations have erupted, the demands have been issued, the promises have been issued, the proposals have been lodged, the debates have been televised, the deals have been made, the new rules have been implemented,
And the killings have gone on.
That we have a demagogue in the White House who manipulates his followers with racist language and symbols stands in sharp contrast to the times of Presidents like Lyndon Johnson and Bill Clinton, Southern politicians who cared deeply about civil rights.
Now we have a President from New York, the capital of the North. This irony was always going to be central to whether change will actually happen. The Civil War was fought over the issue of slavery; once the North won, it was time to implement racial justice.
But the closest we got was was the immortal war-time speech by President Abraham Lincoln:
"I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.
And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all cases when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages.
And I further declare and make known, that such persons of suitable condition, will be received into the armed service of the United States to garrison forts, positions, stations, and other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service.
And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God."
***
The emancipation of the slaves was never completely realized. One by one new restrictions were imposed on black citizens in lieu of slavery. One by one, those restrictions were opposed by persons of conscience and in most cases struck down by the courts.
In our time, the code language for restricting black people's franchise is to raise the specter of "voter fraud." There is no evidence whatsoever of any systematic effort to cheat at the polls by poor people or minorities.
There is substantial evidence, however, of major attempts by foreign interests to undermine American democracy; most notably the well-documented attempt by Russia to influence the 2016 U.S. election. That effort succeeded, as the Mueller Report proved.
Scholars have not yet seen the unreacted version of that report, but as it becomes fully declassified, any remaining doubts that Russia enacted a propaganda war to elect Trump will be consigned to the dust heap of history.
While we wait for the truth to catch up with the outrage, Covid-19 is on the rise again. Millions of people are tired of sheltering in place, and they are out in their cars, on our streets and at our beaches in droves. As a result, the death toll will rise.
History, one way or another, is having its way with us.
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