Hoping for November and reflecting on past failures

Bill Knight column for Thurs., Fri., or Sat., April 26, 27 or 28, 2018

The New Testament says suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope, and hope doesn’t disappoint (Romans 5). And, despite suffering from declining union membership, Republican majorities in some state capitals willing to consider anti-worker bills, and a U.S. Supreme Court that seems bent on ruling against unions, labor seems hopeful, and progress would stem from Democratic victories in November.

Indeed, even moderate Democrats push “A Better Deal (for American Workers),” which facilitates first contracts, strengthens the right to strike, prohibits employers using “permanent replacements,” and bans Right To Work laws. Meanwhile, the AFL-CIO is behind the WAGE Act (for “Workplace Action for a Growing Economy”), which would make it easier for workers to organize and for government to punish employers who break the law.

However, as appealing as such measures are, nothing’s feasible without November victories, and a turnaround requires not just looking ahead but looking back.

Forty years ago, U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) – who this winter announced his retirement – filibustered an attempt to reform labor law for the first time in decades. There had been union optimism, if a lack of energy and enthusiasm by the Democratic Party – which then controlled both houses of Congress and the White House, with President Jimmy Carter.

“We didn’t try for revolutionary things,” said Ray Marshall, Carter’s Secretary of Labor. “We pushed for things we thought we could get broad support for.”

The lackluster effort failed.

Fast-forward to 2009, when new President Barack Obama also had Democratic majorities. Suddenly, “Keep hope alive” seemed more than a slogan, and labor dusted off the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which had passed the House in 2003 only to die by another GOP filibuster in the Senate. This time, Democrats supposedly had a “filibuster-proof” Senate majority, and confidence emerged.

That was naive.

“We didn’t have all the Dems, even though we were closer than we had been,” said Sharon Block, senior labor counsel for Sen. Ted Kennedy, speaking to Rachel Cohen of The Intercept.

Today, some observers blame overconfidence; others blamed conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats; still others “corporate Democrats” left over from Bill Clinton’s years – who remain a force in the party.

Commenting after a recent summit hosted by the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Communications Workers of America president Chris Shelton said there’s a keen difference between Wall Street Democrats and “poor people, working people, people of color, young people, woman, LGBT people [and] immigrants” that have become the core, if not the heart, of the Democratic Party.

“The GOP understands how important labor unions are to the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party, historically, has not,” wrote Eric Levitz in New York magazine. “With its financial contributions and grassroots organizing, the labor movement helped give Democrats full control of the federal government three times in the last four decades, and all three of those times — under Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama –

Democrats failed to pass labor law reforms that would bolster the union cause.”

Bradley University political science professor Ed Burmila in Rolling Stone magazine said, “Democrats have developed a habit over the last four decades of trying to get their voting base fired up during elections without delivering a whole lot once in power. They think Americans – and liberals in particular – want to see bipartisanship -- lots of hand-holding and playing nice. By the time they wake up from that fantasy, it may be too late.”

If Democratic Party leaders don’t address past failures and show how 2018 and beyond will be different, that could be disastrous for working Americans and the future – and for the Democratic Party.

Levitz, in New York magazine, added, “In hindsight, it’s clear that the Democratic Party didn’t merely betray organized labor with these [EFCA] failures, but also itself.”

Hopefully that’s clear.

At last.

Movie Shakespeare on the birth of the Bard

Bill Knight column for Mon., Tues., or Wed., April 23, 24 or 25, 2018

William Shakespeare is said to have been born this week in 1564 (and died this week in 1616), so it’s timely to reflect on how his plays have fared on film.

Shakespeare may mean torture in high-school English, but Hollywood has tried to make him accessible, with some successes, and the best show the works as wondrous, not ponderous.

No one so frankly expressed the challenges as well as Kenneth Branagh, who said, “I wanted to make a popular film that will satisfy the Shakespearean scholar as well as filmgoers who like ‘Crocodile Dundee’.”

There are more than 1,500 such movies, according to “Shakespeare on Film” author Kenneth Rothwell, and from the source material have come “modernized” versions: “West Side Story” (“Romeo and Juliet”), TNT’s made-for-cable “King of Texas” and filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” (both based on “King Lear”); “10 Things I Hate About You” is “Taming of The Shrew,” “Forbidden Planet” is “The Tempest,” etc.

Here’s a dozen films based on Shakespeare’s plays:

“Chimes at Midnight” (1967). Orson Welles’ movie (sometimes titled “Falstaff”) is riveting, blending scenes and references from parts I and II of “Henry IV,” “The Merry Wives of Windsor,” “Richard II” and “Henry V” – in which the memorable Sir John Falstaff appears. Ralph Richardson narrates, with co-stars Jeanne Moreau, John Gielgud and Margaret Rutherford.

“Hamlet” (1990). Kenneth Branagh and Laurence Olivier’s 1996 and 1948 versions are great, and Ethan Hawke’s 2000 effort is OK, but since few people expected anything from Mel Gibson, this is recommended for its surprisingly fresh adaptation. Gibson has the title role and makes the film an adventure accessible to audiences weaned on prime-time TV, not literature. Glenn Close, Alan Bates, Helena Bonham Carter, Paul Scofield and Ian Holm co-star.

“Henry V” (1989). Chills still happen when Branagh delivers young King Harry’s speech before battling the French at Agincourt. That and the final 20 minutes and its stirring score create lasting impressions. It’s comparable to Olivier’s 1944 version, itself an anthem to courage as well as English history. Co-starring are Emma Thompson, Ian Holm and Paul Scofield.

“Julius Caesar” (1953). Joseph Mankeiwicz’ version of Shakespeare’s memorable history stars Marlon Brando, John Gielgud and James Mason. Brando is excellent as Marc Antony, and the supporting cast is superior: Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr and Edmund O’Brien.

“King Lear” (1983). The finale of Laurence Olivier’s Shakespeare career, it’s terrific despite being a made-for-television production. Olivier is the aging monarch driven to distraction, then madness by scheming daughters and the temptations of power and wealth. Diana Rigg, John Hurt and Leo McKern co-star.

“Macbeth” (1971). Roman Polanski directed this violent revision about the Scottish figure who succumbs to paranoia, ambitions and supernatural visions in a bid to unseat a king. Vivid and vital, gritty but grim, Polanski’s version probably isn’t suitable for kids.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” (1935). Director Max Reinhardt’s vision of this comedy has an all-star Warner Brothers cast including Dick Powell, Olivia de Havilland and Jimmy Cagney. The romantic comedy of errors remains amusing, with good performances also by Joe E. Brown and especially young Mickey Rooney as Puck.

“Much Ado about Nothing” (1993). Keanu Reeves had a small but breakthrough role in Kenneth Branagh’s rendition of this delightful romp through political and romantic intrigue. Featured are Branagh, Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington and Michael Keaton (he as the effervescent, loony lawman Dogberry).

“Othello” (1995). Laurence Fishburne and Kenneth Branagh are electrifying in this faithful adaptation of the Moor warrior who marries a white woman of noble birth (Irene Jacob). Branagh is the jealous Iago, feeding false tales of infidelity to Othello.

“Richard III” (1995) Before Ian McKellan played Gandalf and Magneto, he scripted and starred in this re-telling, set in 1930s Europe, as factions of British government flirt with fascism and war. Director Richard Loncraine effectively uses other cast members (Maggie Smith, Robert Downey Jr. and Annette Bening) to accentuate the mania of twisted Richard. Writing in Newsweek, critic Jack Kroll reminded readers, “The Bard was the Oliver Stone of his day, creating a portrait of Richard that scholars have disputed ever since.”

“Romeo & Juliet” (1968). The 1996 urban-gang update of “Romeo and Juliet” starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes was exceptional. But Franco Zefferelli’s effort is the bittersweet best version of the tragic love story. Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting were teens when they starred; featured are Michael York, Milo O’Shea and Olivier (who narrates).

“The Taming of The Shrew” (1967). Zeffirelli’s rollicking version of the zany battle of the sexes is superb, helped by casting real-life couple Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor as an Italian nobleman and man-hating Kate. Set in the Renaissance, the film presents Burton as cavalier and Taylor uninhibited. Michael York co-stars.

Buzzing about Earth Day

Bill Knight column for Thurs., Fri., or Sat., April 19, 20 or 21, 2018

As the annual Earth Day approaches this weekend, the thought arises that since people apparently can no longer count on the U.S. government for as much assistance in environmental progress, it’s up to us individually and as volunteers, with small groups or whole neighborhoods or communities, to do what we can.

(It’s reminiscent of the 1955 song and prayer “Let There Be Peace on Earth,” with its key line: “Let it begin with me.”)

Personally, recycling is routine, a conversion to geothermal has been a win-win, and energy-saving changes are ongoing. Statewide, there are impressive efforts that have local levels of government stepping up and even private efforts that have the good sense of an old-fashioned barn-raising.

Of course, the Trump administration virtually denies climate change, and it’s trying to abandon the Paris Accords, to cut the budget, staff and purpose of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to weaken foundational laws like the Clean Air and Clear Water Acts, and to somehow defend the indefensible EPA administrator Scott Pruitt from his actions. All that happens a year after President Trump tweeted a transparently false message about Earth Day 2017:

“On Earth Day, we celebrate our beautiful forests, lakes and land,” Trump tweeted. “We stand committed to preserving the natural beauty of our nation.”

This was after reviving the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines; issuing an executive order directing the EPA to dismantle the Waters of the United States rule (an anti-pollution expansion of authority over wetlands and waterways); and getting Pruitt – the ex-Oklahoma Attorney General who criticized and sued the EPA – to be his eco-hatchet man.

But in Illinois, positives are happening. A school district in Fulton County that four years ago installed the largest solar array at a U.S. public school, this March approved proceeding with a second solar project that will generate more than 80 percent of its energy needs. Farmington Central CUSD 265 already benefits from a $1.8 million investment in its 2014 756-kilowatt system, and it’s planning to add a 975-kilowatt array made up of 2,700 solar panels covering about 60,000 square feet in three plots on school property – this time with no cash outlay thanks to the state’s Solar Renewable Energy Credit program and a money-generating component worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to the school over coming decades.

In addition, developers from Clean Energy Design Group of Springfield and the District are working with University of Illinois “Master Gardeners” and the Illinois Bee Association to have pollinating native plants growing beneath panels to contribute to efforts to fight colony collapse and other crisis among pollinators, a creative and original idea.

A statewide endeavor to help another important pollinator, the Eastern Monarch butterfly – Illinois’ state insect – is underway, too, as the non-profit Prairie Rivers Network is coordinating plans for businesses, churches, citizens groups and youths to help restore and protect habitat for the Monarch and other pollinators. Whether butterflies or bees, pollinators are literally vital for the production of fruits and crops such as corn, plus flowers and more. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says more than 75 percent of flowering plants, and almost 75 percent of crops require pollination.

“In Illinois, pollinators are faced with a largely unfriendly, unpalatable environment dominated by corn, soybeans, turfgrass and asphalt,” says prairierivers.org, an affiliate of the National Wildlife Foundation. “Pollinators need flowering forbs, shrubs and trees. Different pollinators have different needs, and like people, pollinators benefit from diverse diets. Therefore, plant diversity is key to creating good pollinator habitat.”

Monarch butterflies – which travel some 3,000 miles from Mexico through the Midwest and into Canada – especially need milkweed, where they lay eggs and newborn caterpillars dine on milkweed (their main food). But the plant is disappearing. That, along with habitat loss, insecticides, disease and other threats, is why Monarch populations have dropped by more than 80 percent.

Partnering with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Prairie Rivers is raising money to help restore and protect the Monarch and its habitat, and individuals can make a difference, too, by installing milkweed and flowering plants in yards.

“Let there be peace on Earth,” indeed. (Let there be Earth!) Let it begin with me.