Wednesday, October 16, 2002 7:06 PM Joe Coluccio

Give me your ‘umble poor, your ‘umble pie and your ‘umble bee!

Ever seen a movie called Les Enfants du Paradis, a creation of Michel Carné. Ever seen a movie called The Grapes of Wrath, a word creation of John Steinbeck a film creation of John Ford? Ever seen a movie called It Happened One Night, a film creation of Frank Capra? (Or for that matter any of the Capra Corn movies, yes including It’s A Wonderful Life) I have a friend that insists that there is a dark side to George Bailey, as evidenced on the night when bumbling Uncle Billy, puts the Bailey fortune into the hands of mean old Mr. Potter. George is cruel to his children, his wife in ways that show that they are not solitary incidents in old George’s life. George Bailey, child beater? wife molester? I don’t buy it, but then I am really not very much attuned to the twentieth century zeitgeist.

Or how about read Gorky’s the Lower Depths or seen every Russian farmer pee into the radiator of every tractor in Russia from Pudovkin to Eisenstein. The collective runs on the urine of the population. Or dallied a day or two with the East End Kids, the Dead End Kids, the Bowery Boys et al. It is true Populist Stuff and I enroll and endorse all of it. (Except for George Bailey as Psychopath, of course).

I, after all is said and done, come from the underbelly of the people. Look at Pietro DiDonato and Chirst in Concrete, a volume given to me by my father. Look at the fat but well intentioned leanings of Mario Puzo. Look at East Liberty and Larimar Avenue on the cusp of flight to suburban heaven and ultimate societal buffoonery. Look at A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The Divine Right of Kings indeed. Twain and Sir Boss were right on the money. Screw Arthur and Odysseus and Aeneas until they become mensch!

The people are revolting!

Indeed they are, but they are my revolting people. Every revolting molecule of them. It makes me laugh that the hollow halls of the academy chase after left politics in a righteous world. They wouldn’t know deprivation if it hit them in the face.

Hell, real people compromise their principals every day of their lives just to get by. Nobility comes from the acceptance of life, politics and the way things are sposed to be in the face of earning a living an in some cases putting that ethnic rich and inexpensive fare on the table.

Which brings me to my point. I have always known who the real thieves are. They are not people who steal a crust of bread, or even a color TV. Nope, my friends, these are just the people who go to jail. The pricks, as I have said earlier, are in charge. To them the mantle of injustice and the American way.

Hoorah for the failed Uncle Billy! Who was there to help him through his ignominy? George was off collecting kudos for his good works. Frederic, corrupt to the end, plays to the riled Children of the Paradise. Christians, in particular, take note!