We learn from what we see. But we also can learn from what we don’t see. This is especially true if we don’t see something because it was intentionally deleted. This tells us about those who deleted it. They considered it so important that they went to the trouble of trying to erase it from our national consciousness. Why? What was so contrary to their value system that they found it intolerable?
The missing flag.
The photo above is one of the most famous images in history. In 1969 Neil Armstrong was the first human to set foot on the moon. He and Buzz Aldrin planting the American flag on the moon, and Aldrin saluting it, was an iconic event. I would bet serious money that the great majority of the 7.5 million people on earth can identify that photo. But not leftist Hollywood. The scene was omitted from the movie “The First Man”
Ryan Gosling, who plays Armstrong, claims that Armstrong didn’t see himself as an American hero. Like Medal of Honor recipients, he didn’t see himself as a hero, but he surely saw himself as an American. As 95-year-old Chuck Yeager says, “That’s not the Neil Armstrong I knew.”
Gosling admits he sees things as a Canadian. Oh, I see. It’s all right for Ryan Gosling to be a Canadian, but it’s not all right for Neil Armstrong to be an American? In Hollywood, maybe. But not in middle America.
The missing stroke.
Hillary Clinton sustained a concussion from fainting in 2012. Then she suffered a transverse sinus thrombosis. This unusual type of stroke involves blockage of a large vein draining blood from the brain. It can be fatal and is usually treated with anticoagulants for a lifetime. Hillary wore odd eyeglasses for a time, apparently to correct double vision.
Then, during the 2016 campaign, Hillary almost collapsed. If people were not there to grab her under both arms, she would have fallen on her face. The stroke and near-collapse were almost forgotten by the mainstream media, which instead demanded to see Trump’s medical records. And recently, at Aretha Franklin’s funeral, Hillary needed two people to help her up seven steps.
The presidency is physically demanding. A candidate’s health is of great importance to voters, who depend on the media to inform them.
The missing prayer.
Todd Beamer was a passenger on United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. What happened was verified by the telephone supervisor with whom he spoke. They recited the Lord’s Prayer together, and he made her promise to tell his wife and sons he loved them. He then said his timeless words:
God help me. Jesus help me. Are you ready? Let’s roll!
Beamer played a key role in the passengers’ revolt against the terrorists. As a result, the airliner crashed into a field in Pennsylvania, and not into the Capitol Building or the White House, thereby saving many lives. Revealingly, his timeless words were omitted from the film “United 93.” Hollywood doesn’t like to say anything positive about Christians, even if it is proven.
The missing phrase.
In the film “Pearl Harbor,” Jon Voigt gives a fine performance as President Roosevelt asking Congress for a declaration of war against Japan in the “Day of Infamy” speech. The screen version follows the actual speech, but with a major omission. Roosevelt declared:
With confidence in our armed forces − with the unbounded determination of our people − we will gain the inevitable triumph − so help us God.
The film version omitted “so help us God.” What was the problem with those four words? Or rather, what was the problem with that one word? When people are frightened of dying, or of their loved ones dying, many pray to God. The screenwriters apparently would not. But why pretend that others wouldn’t?
Why construct an artificial world where nobody is religious? Why not depict the real world as dramatically as possible? Is a leftist agenda more important than an accurate and dramatic film?
The missing couple.
The 1997 film “Titanic” includes many dramatic scenes. But one verified scene was omitted.
Among the passengers were Isidor and Ida Straus. Straus was co-owner of Macy’s Department Store. Once it was clear the ship was sinking, the Strauses went to the lifeboat deck with their newly hired English maid. Mrs. Straus refused to get into the lifeboat without her husband, saying, “I will not be separated from my husband. As we have lived, so will we die, together.”
Mrs. Straus gave her fur coat to her maid as the maid boarded the lifeboat, explaining that she would not be needing it. The couple was last seen on the boat deck, together. Mr. Straus’s body was recovered later; his wife’s was not.
The 1953 film “Titanic,” though less realistic, does include a moving scene of Mr. and Mrs. Straus. But the makers of the 1997 film just couldn’t find the time in 3 hours 15 minutes to show this touching and verified event. In fact, the scene was filmed, then cut out, though it lasted only 24 seconds. Was this latent anti-Semitism? Was it a simple oversight? Or was it that marital devotion was thought to be passé? Who knows?
In the 1953 film, when the lookouts sighted the iceberg, one crossed himself and said, “Jesus, Mary!” In the 1997 film, one said, “Bugger me!” No one is sure what the lookouts really said. But what do you say? Which screenplay represented a higher level of civilization? Can upgrading special effects make up for a deteriorating moral compass?
The missing guns.
In the film “Schindler’s List,” Liam Neeson gives an outstanding performance as Oskar Schindler, a womanizing, hard-drinking German who was a Nazi Party member. Yet during World War II, he saved about 1200 Jews from extermination by putting them to work in his factory. They now have over 6000 descendants.
Schindler escaped the clutches of the Gestapo by claiming that “his” Jews were doing essential war work. But Schindler did something that could not have been explained away. Had it been discovered, he would have been tortured and executed.
He stole guns and gave them to “his” Jews, so that if they were discovered, they could defend themselves. The film ran 3 hours 15 minutes, yet somehow there was no time to include this incident, which would have taken a minute or two. An anti-gun agenda was more important to the film makers than depiction of a dramatic and revealing incident.
To believe that today’s Americans shouldn’t have guns is illogical. Careful studies show that allowing law-abiding citizens to carry guns reduces the rate of violent crime. But to believe that Jews during the Holocaust shouldn’t have had guns borders on being delusional, even genocidal.
The guns were stolen twice − by Schindler to help the Jews, and by the film makers to further their leftist agenda.
The missing heroes.
If I depended on the mainstream media, I never would have heard of even one of the 19 recipients of the Medal of Honor in Afghanistan or Iraq. Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse? On the front page of the New York Times for 32 consecutive days. But courage and sacrifice by our troops? Positive role models for young people? Honoring those who defend our freedoms, including freedom of the press? No, it’s not interesting to the leftist media. But it’s remarkable and motivating to us.
The missing corpses.
Whether America should make reparations for slavery is a subject that exacerbates the debate on race. But the question implies something untrue − that no reparations have yet been paid.
The total death toll for both sides in the Civil War was about 624,511. About one-third of a million white men and boys died fighting for the Union. This does not include African American soldiers who died, nor does it include Confederate deaths.
Approximately one in four Union soldiers who served died in the war. The total population of the Union was about 20 million. One-third of a million deaths represented an enormous loss of life.
In addition, all serious arm or leg wounds were treated by amputation. Veterans on crutches or with pinned-up sleeves were a common sight on American streets for many decades.
If all those severed limbs, and all the blood that soaked into the earth from the dead and wounded, do not constitute reparations, nothing ever could. Yet these facts are rarely mentioned when the subject of reparations is raised. Why? Are the dead and wounded unimportant? Or are they merely inconvenient?
The missing communists.
In the Soviet Union, Stalin feared rivals, so he had associates shot or sent to Siberia. What is more, he had them removed from history books and airbrushed out of photos. In a notorious case, associates were deleted one by one until only Stalin remained.
Rewriting history and erasing images are symptoms of budding totalitarianism. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way. The moon landing was “one giant step for mankind.” Omitting the planting of the American flag is another small step away from freedom and toward totalitarianism.
Totalitarians don’t really care whether you believe their lies. If you do, you help to maintain their power. But if you don’t believe the lies, yet are forced to repeat them, you admit that you have sold your mind ‒ and perhaps your soul. And we haven’t sold either.
You want to see “The First Man”? Go ahead. Enjoy the popcorn. It’s as healthy for your body as the movie is for your mind. I’ll stay home and watch “Lone Survivor,” “American Sniper,” or “The 15:17 to Paris.” Maybe I’ll watch all three. And then I’ll watch the scene from “The Pacific” in which the widow of John Basilone gives “Manila John’s” Medal of Honor to his parents. Some memories are too deep to be erased by anyone.
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