Ban “Gone With The Wind”?! Is John Wayne Next?

This country is completely out of control. It is running at the speed of social media making knee-jerk decisions with no thought as to what the consequences will be. Just like a stupid tweet that goes out impulsively, the media is rabidly grabbing on to any narrative that the left decides to push, runs with it and twists the story into something that it was never intended to be!

That is what we are experiencing right now with this whole Confederate flag issue. This uproar has absolutely nothing to do with the tragic murder of nine innocent people in Charleston last week, yet the left and the media have somehow forgotten that a deranged psychopath was to blame and “not” a flag designating a part of our American history.

Ah, but lest we forget; the motto on the left is “never let a crisis go to waste” and they grabbed on to this one like a dog with a bone. In a matter of a week we don’t even hear about Dylann Roof anymore, the lunatic responsible for this tragedy. Instead we are bombarded with stories about everything connected to the Confederacy or the Civil War and how these items should be shunned, taken down, banned or banished to the basement and erased from our history. First it was the Confederate flag, and then it was possibly taking down a monument of Jefferson Davis, there was even speculation that the Jefferson memorial should be scrutinized. Next Wal-Mart and Amazon stopped selling any merchandise with this “evil” Confederate flag image on it, including the “General Lee” toy cars from “The Dukes of Hazzard” show!! Have we lost our minds???

Now, a film critic from the New York Post has opined that the film “Gone With The Wind” should not be shown on TV or in theaters anymore due to its “racist” subject matter. He wants it locked away in a museum where only people who like “that sort of film” can go and see it. He wants it to become a pariah like “Birth of a Nation” and “Song of the South”, two amazing films that you can’t even get access to anymore.

If you look at “Gone With the Wind”, it is a love story that takes place during a chaotic period in our history. It isn’t racist, but portrays life as it was in the south at that time. There are lessons to be learned through stories dealing with our history. They must be kept alive and must be learned from or we will be finding ourselves repeating our mistakes. It is ironic that this so-called film critic finds GWTW offensive when the portrayal of the African-American characters were not portrayed as negative. Look at Mammy, who was loved by the O’Hara family and loved the family in return, and when given the opportunity to leave the south, post-war, decided to stay on with Scarlett and Rhett. What about the scenes in the film showing the brave and courageous slaves who joined up and fought for the south? There is a wonderful scene with Big Sam speaking to Scarlett about proudly fighting and a touching moment where she wants him to let her know if any of them get hurt or need anything she will be there for them. Prissy’s character was perhaps the only one who suffered any ill in the film, but that was only because of Scarlett’s frustration, not out of hate. And it reflected the emotions that everyone dealt with during war time.

He also doesn’t seem to remember that Hattie McDaniel was the first African-American to win an Academy Award for her performance as Mammy. That was a tremendous and well-deserved honor made possible by the creation of this film. She won that award on the merits and her color was not an issue.

You can see by this article in the Post that this critic fills in the blanks and twists the scenes in GWTW to fit his narrative. There was no Ku Klux Klan scene, yet he “assumes” that that was what the political meeting was about that some of the characters attended. He “assumes” that the shot of the Confederate flag before intermission was symbolizing slavery and racism when in fact it was showing the horrors and suffering of war and how tragic this whole event was. However, those who have never seen the film will “assume” that his narrative is correct.

So if the left gets its way, what’s next? Will all John Wayne war films be banned because they offend Asians or Europeans? Will every western that he ever did be sent to the dustbin of history because they show racism against Native-Americans? What other films and books will be banned a la “Fahrenheit 451” written in 1951 by Ray Bradbury? When an independent thinking populace starts threatening the government will they start to burn all of our books, censor all of our films and rewrite all of our history to fit their agenda? Whatever happened to the individual making their own decisions about what they want to read or see or buy? Does the government now make even these decisions for us?

We never thought that this could happen in our country but now it is here. Are we even free anymore? Between the thought police, the banning of symbols and the demonization of citizens who don’t engage in “group think”, are we actually going to accept living in the world of Ray Bradbury and George Orwell in 2015?

We better speak up now and stop this insanity or science fiction will be become our reality.