{"id":35282,"date":"2024-07-15T11:50:09","date_gmt":"2024-07-15T16:50:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=35282"},"modified":"2024-07-16T13:46:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T18:46:17","slug":"high-noon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/?p=35282","title":{"rendered":"High Noon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/53859025095_a184dc0365_z.jpg\" alt=\"\" \/><\/p>\n<p>I sent the Editor of the Duluth Reader the following email just moments ago:<\/p>\n<p>Jim, <\/p>\n<p>I set <a href=\"https:\/\/duluthreader.com\/articles\/2024\/07\/03\/128622-western-showdown-as-witchhunt-allegory\">your column on High Noon<\/a> aside some weeks ago and just read it.<br \/>\nIt mentioned my favorite director Frank Capra&#8217;s involvement in WW2 with<br \/>\nNoon&#8217;s writer Carl Foreman. BTW, speaking of Gary Cooper, Noon&#8217;s star,<br \/>\nI just watched Meet John Doe again with my wife.<\/p>\n<p>I was confused near the end of your article when you write Gary Cooper<br \/>\nwas so impressed with Noon&#8217;s script that &#8220;he stood up for Kramer&#8221; and<br \/>\ninsisted he be kept part of the team.<\/p>\n<p>Typo?<\/p>\n<p>BTW  Cooper was always my image of a real hero. One of my favorite columns<br \/>\nwas about watching <a href=\"https:\/\/www.snowbizz.com\/Diogenes\/NotEudora05\/SergeantYork.htm\">Sgt York with my Grandfather<\/a> a fellow  awardee of the<br \/>\nCongressional Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n<p>Harry<\/p>\n<p>This email is about heroes, specifically my heroes. I grew up with Gary Cooper being my idealized hero. He was modest and brave. There was no brag about him but plenty of &#8220;aw shucks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>I read a column in the NY Times today about why a dozen black men are voting for Donald Trump. They may represent 20% of possibly more black men who will do so in the upcoming election. Like me for forty years badgered to avoid the Republican party they will stick to their guns. I understand both the consternation of their friends and their attitude&#8230;..at least I think I do. I do think it is built on ignorance of his past but its also build in part on a very different kind of hero I had who was completely unlike Cooper. Malcom X the wise ass world heavyweight champion and his new style of braggadocio. I admired the heavyweight&#8217;s wit the same way so many guys admired the shoot from the hip rapidity of rap music from the hood.<\/p>\n<p>Donald Trump is more Malcolm X than Cooper although Trump has never exhibited anything other than cocky narcissism fortified by inheriting a fortune. Malcom X was stripped of his title when he refused to go to Vietnam. Trump simply kicked black people out of his apartments while suffering from a fake foot deformation to keep out of the draft. One was courageous outside the ring. The other was a racist inside the real estate racket.<\/p>\n<p>As I wrote Jim Lundstrom I just watched Gary Cooper in Meet John Doe a movie by Frank Capra that has been on my mind recently. It was a movie that preceded Sergeant York in the 1930&#8217;s at the height of the Depression when My Dad watched his Dad, the first Harry Welty drive out to a farm to tell the farm family the bank was repossessing their farm for a farm loan they couldn&#8217;t repay. It was a job my Grandfather couldn&#8217;t stomach for long. <\/p>\n<p>Capra&#8217;s feel good movies were derided as &#8220;Capra corn.&#8221; In other words corny. But I loved them. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington with another great actor Jimmy Stewart is another classic.<\/p>\n<p>I loath the lucky Donald Trump who just cheated death with an ear injury. He&#8217;s never shown an inch of courage just bravado. As for his attempted assassin he got off easy. I&#8217;d have preferred him suffering Sirhan Sirhan&#8217;s fate &#8211; a lifetime prison sentence. He tried to screw with our Democracy. Just like Donald Trump.<\/p>\n<p>Note on &#8220;typo&#8221; Yes. Jim emailed back telling me that he intended to say Gary Cooper was sticking up for the script&#8217;s blackisted writer Carl Foreman not the Director was wanted to ease him out of the credit\/credits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I sent the Editor of the Duluth Reader the following email just moments ago: Jim, I set your column on High Noon aside some&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,25,149],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35282"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35288,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35282\/revisions\/35288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lincolndemocrat.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}