Storm The Bastille!

Just 215 years ago - the French were storming the Bastille, a notorious prison that probably treated prisoners with the same gentleness as Sadaam Hussein did. (please, no Abu Ghraib ironies - since the folks involved in the torment there are being punished and the US Army was the one who relayed the news of the atrocities in the first place, on their web site for journalists - over 4 months before traditional media decided they could use the story to feed the I hate Bush disease (humor might cure it)….though you’d never know that if you read the N.Y. Times or watched mainstream network news). And what makes July 14th so special? Well that’s the day France celebrates their Independence Day, with fireworks and parades no less. Also - lots of folks think the French Revolution happened before our the American Revolution - not so, July 4, 1776 happened thirteen years before - and America became the first true democracy on planet Earth. Ok… we really are not a democracy - huh? Nope, we are a Republic, which means that the winner is chosen by the electoral college, not the one who gets the most votes. (darn those lame schools - there’s a ton of people who still think Bush stole the election - but in many cases in US history, the guy getting the most votes did not win the election for President. America is a Republic, not a democracy for a good reason. It was done to protect those who lived in less populous states - because we all know that those city slickers would someday want to tax us stupid bumkins in rural areas, and take all the money for the big cities. But i digress… today we celebrate the French Revolution - that began with the storming of the Bastille. While most folks think the good people did this to release the prisoners - the actual reason was to get the guns in the Bastille- and fight the monarchy that was ruling the people like a bunch of thugs. Since many French soldiers fought for America in the 1776 revolution - Independence, Freedom and Liberty became one of our first major exports. Yes - i realize that many people in Europe, the Middle East and even in the USA think the US Army invaded Iraq to loot and pillage - i suggest you take a chill pill and examine the history of our country. Deep in our hearts - most of us in America really believe in freedom, equality, treating people fairly, and in the God given right to allow people to govern themselves.

As I think back to the morning of September 11, 2001 - everyone here at LikeTelevision was busy filming a video for an incredibly talented fellow from France named Bruno Frascone. Bruno has devoted most of his adult life to perfecting his skills as a marionette operator and creator. Years ago he lived in Charlotte, NC and i met him and his charming wife Darlene through a mutual friend, Dr. Barre. (he’s not really a hockey team dentist, but he played one at LikeTelevision). Anyway - Bruno went back to France to ply his craft, where he is viewed as a French National treasure. Over a decades passed … and he was returning to the USA for a tour in San Francisco that included a private party for Robin Williams. (cool!) Dr. Barre asked us if we could help Bruno put together a promtional video for him and we were happy to comply. What a great time we had and the experience was wonderful - full of love, hope and laughing children. A perfect foil to the atrocities that were taking place that morning on 9/11. Unlike most of America - i never watched the planes crash into the towers. I knew it would be a bad thing to inject in my mind. Yes… i know it played over and over and over on the news - but i never watched it, always turning away before the planes hit. Several weeks later - the news networks figured this out for themselves - that replaying this horror over and over like a news byte was terrible thing to do, and in fact playing right into the hands of men seeking to wipe us off the face of the planet. Years from now - i suspect that most people will look back on how the mainstream press covered this war and turn away in disgust. Imagine if they covered D-Day the same way? Or Pearl Harbor? Sometimes i wonder if all the noise involved in living in large US cities or across the world for that matter - whether Paris or Berlin or London… sometimes i wonder if the daily grind of the city somehow erodes common sense. It seems like a fair question.

By the way - if you were wondering about the painting - it is perhaps the best known work of a brilliant Frenchman named Eugene Delacroix, and is titled - Liberty Leading the People. The painting was created in 1830 and can be viewed in the Louvre. Or at google.