Emproph
07-30-2009, 05:15 PM
(For the record, I've posted this on my blog too.)
http://images.apple.com/trailers/independent/images/explicitills_200902261427.jpg
I watched this last Friday and thought it was inspiring. Not necessarily while I was watching it, but it all kind of came together at the end.
It’s a movement too, called the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (linked to below). I took the liberty of typing out the “Get Involved” portion that was on the special features. It's rather long, so I'm including only the first paragraph here. The rest (http://thoughtfrisbee.blogspot.com/2009/07/movie-explicit-ills-bonus-features.html) is on my reference blog and will probably be more interesting after you’ve seen the movie.
1. Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (http://old.economichumanrights.org/index.shtml)
Mission Statement - The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign is committed to unite the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. We work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication and a living wage job.
I often think about what can be done to combat the hell on Earth that is life for much, if not most of humanity. Shortly before watching the movie I had been thinking, despondently, about what really can be done to help save the world. The segment from the special features answered it for me---end poverty. If we could minimize poverty and maximize opportunity, we could have the closest thing to heaven on Earth that is possible. Not that achieving that would be easy, but it’s a very simple and easy to remember solution.
Unfortunately, about 20-30% of the US population are united in their virtually-unreachable brainlessness, so we have our work cut out for us. I am not hopeful, but it's movies and movements like this that at least give me something to grasp onto.
Synopsis (http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/explicitills/):
The directorial debut of actor Mark Webber (“Broken Flowers”), “Explicit Ills” follows four inter-connecting stories revolving around love, drugs and poverty in Philadelphia. Babo, an asthma ridden seven-year-old lives with his mother in the badlands of North Philly. His neighbor Demetri transforms himself into a well-read boy in order to get the girl. Michelle, a well-off art student is quick to fall into a drug induced love-affair with her dealer Jacob. Kaleef and Jill’s marriage is strained as they pursue their dreams of bringing produce (sic) to the people as their teenage son Heslin focuses on competing in the World’s Strongest Man competition.
Trailer:
d9qXqYR7emk
(if that trailer ever goes down, you can find another one here (http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/explicitills/))
The same night I watched the movie, and by meaningless coincidence ;), Rachel Maddow had an interesting and relevant bit on the minimum wage and health care. The clip is here (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32133961), the relevant portion being at the 2:16 mark.
Here's the transcript (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32169319/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/) of that portion:
And finally, thanks to the Democrats‘ midterm election promise in 2006, the minimum wage in America went up today. If you make minimum wage, your annual salary just went from about $13,600 to just over $15,000. Of course, that‘s if you work eight full hours every single freaking week day of every single freaking week and you never get sick and never sleep in once and never leave early ever in the whole entire year. $15,000 grand for the year.
Are you, by any chance, supporting a family on that salary? And by any chance, does your minimum wage job not offer you health insurance? If so, here is the telling awful math about being poor in America today.
The minimum wage annual salary just went up to $15,080 a year, right?
The annual average cost of family health insurance this year is $13,150. Which means if you have a minimum wage job and you want to live the fantasy of buying health insurance for your family, on average, America expects you to live off a grand total of $1,930 for everything else you need for the year - food, shelter, everything.
Oh, also, we‘re the richest country on earth.
I didn't have the heart to embed this YT video on poverty (www.youtube.com/watch?v=526BTs_DRoE), but for the masochistic blubberers among us, it really drives home the point.
Anyone else feeling grateful?
http://images.apple.com/trailers/independent/images/explicitills_200902261427.jpg
I watched this last Friday and thought it was inspiring. Not necessarily while I was watching it, but it all kind of came together at the end.
It’s a movement too, called the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (linked to below). I took the liberty of typing out the “Get Involved” portion that was on the special features. It's rather long, so I'm including only the first paragraph here. The rest (http://thoughtfrisbee.blogspot.com/2009/07/movie-explicit-ills-bonus-features.html) is on my reference blog and will probably be more interesting after you’ve seen the movie.
1. Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (http://old.economichumanrights.org/index.shtml)
Mission Statement - The Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign is committed to unite the poor across color lines as the leadership base for a broad movement to abolish poverty. We work to accomplish this through advancing economic human rights as named in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, such as the rights to food, housing, health, education, communication and a living wage job.
I often think about what can be done to combat the hell on Earth that is life for much, if not most of humanity. Shortly before watching the movie I had been thinking, despondently, about what really can be done to help save the world. The segment from the special features answered it for me---end poverty. If we could minimize poverty and maximize opportunity, we could have the closest thing to heaven on Earth that is possible. Not that achieving that would be easy, but it’s a very simple and easy to remember solution.
Unfortunately, about 20-30% of the US population are united in their virtually-unreachable brainlessness, so we have our work cut out for us. I am not hopeful, but it's movies and movements like this that at least give me something to grasp onto.
Synopsis (http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/explicitills/):
The directorial debut of actor Mark Webber (“Broken Flowers”), “Explicit Ills” follows four inter-connecting stories revolving around love, drugs and poverty in Philadelphia. Babo, an asthma ridden seven-year-old lives with his mother in the badlands of North Philly. His neighbor Demetri transforms himself into a well-read boy in order to get the girl. Michelle, a well-off art student is quick to fall into a drug induced love-affair with her dealer Jacob. Kaleef and Jill’s marriage is strained as they pursue their dreams of bringing produce (sic) to the people as their teenage son Heslin focuses on competing in the World’s Strongest Man competition.
Trailer:
d9qXqYR7emk
(if that trailer ever goes down, you can find another one here (http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/explicitills/))
The same night I watched the movie, and by meaningless coincidence ;), Rachel Maddow had an interesting and relevant bit on the minimum wage and health care. The clip is here (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32133961), the relevant portion being at the 2:16 mark.
Here's the transcript (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32169319/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/) of that portion:
And finally, thanks to the Democrats‘ midterm election promise in 2006, the minimum wage in America went up today. If you make minimum wage, your annual salary just went from about $13,600 to just over $15,000. Of course, that‘s if you work eight full hours every single freaking week day of every single freaking week and you never get sick and never sleep in once and never leave early ever in the whole entire year. $15,000 grand for the year.
Are you, by any chance, supporting a family on that salary? And by any chance, does your minimum wage job not offer you health insurance? If so, here is the telling awful math about being poor in America today.
The minimum wage annual salary just went up to $15,080 a year, right?
The annual average cost of family health insurance this year is $13,150. Which means if you have a minimum wage job and you want to live the fantasy of buying health insurance for your family, on average, America expects you to live off a grand total of $1,930 for everything else you need for the year - food, shelter, everything.
Oh, also, we‘re the richest country on earth.
I didn't have the heart to embed this YT video on poverty (www.youtube.com/watch?v=526BTs_DRoE), but for the masochistic blubberers among us, it really drives home the point.
Anyone else feeling grateful?