1977 saw the release of the musical Annie which was produced by Thomas Meehan very loosely based on the comic strip from 1924 by Harold Gray. The musical was proposed to Meehan by Martin Charnin over 51 years ago as an answer to the mood of society during the Nixon era. Admittedly, I never gave this musical, the movie, the story or the comic strip a second thought.
Last week, the veteran site https://www.vettix.org/ sent me a notification that this musical would be playing near me. We decided to go since it was close and something different to do. Looking through the lens of my adult eyes and paying attention to story inspired some Sunday morning thoughts. Even if you haven’t seen this story, I am teasing out some themes which have me thinking of our time right now.
Just Thinkin About..
Annie was an orphan in 1933 at 11 years old. There were people living in the streets, homeless due to the great depression and economic stress. I thought of today almost right away. The people living in tents across our major cities. Post war and pre war conversations in the storyline along with a very significant connection and favorable view of Roosevelt. Turns out at least for me that he was my favorite character in the story.
The authors of the story and the play seemed to like Roosevelt as well. His New Deal was an inspirational turning point from Annie being present in the room during very difficult conversations. Her voice of inspiration and song, “Tomorrow” drove Roosevelt and team to “wage a war against the emergency” just as if “we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.” For reference, Roosevelt said that in real life in his 100k person inaugural address. It was implied in the musical that he was already in office and had this epiphany via Annie.
In real life just a year before Roosevelt took office, we had the “Bonus Army” march in Washington. Over 17,000 service members from WWI marched that summer demanding payment of bonuses promised by Congress just eight years earlier. Anything seem familiar about this to you? American service men set up camps and occupied buildings. Yeah, we forget about this and we also say in the media that nothing like this ever happened before. Hoover wound up ordering the late great Douglas MacArthur to move them out. MacArthur led 600 troops supported by tanks to drive out our service members, their wives and children. They destroyed their shelters and belongings.
Difficult and seemingly all but forgotten times in Amercian history. Roosevelt had to do something to get the Amercian people working again. The New Deal in the first hundred days had an initiative to “alleviate the suffering” of the nation’s high number of unemployed workers.
Annie stood up at the table with Roosevelt and his cabinet and said something. Roosevelt says, “Let her speak, let her speak,” and she starts in a quiet voice to sing “Tomorrow.” Roosevelt makes his cabinet sing. They are inspired by this young lady and they shift their way of thinking in a flash. They all step up and sing, “the sun will come out tomorrow…. “
In the musical, it played with military marching drums. The Amercian flag took up the whole backdrop of the stage and I could feel the red and blue blending to purple. Oh, tragedy where are you?
Tragedy, pain and misery is obscured in the light right before us. Annie of 1972 knew the history of the 40 years before it. Annie is really a “Christmas wish” story as told by her three authors. This was not the impression it left on me.
I was thinking about hopelessness, the “easy street” mentality, hope and the importance of strong political drivers for the greater good.
The Sun is Blacked Out Tomorrow
If Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and the like are our version of Daddy Warbucks we are clearly in a great deal of trouble. We of course have no person who in any way shape, manner, or form is like Roosevelt. I am certain we can find all the bad things he did and I know of a few off the top of my head, but many common people had images of him in their homes. His social policies and approach were not capitalist fundementals and so, conservatives and libertarians didn’t like what he was doing. All said, his approach historically pulled America out of a well. More than the policies and beyond the realities, he inspired people with hope.
In the past, we’d look to the heavens and the sky above for help. We would pray as we have done for almost all of humanity to someone or something or things that we believe exists and loves us. G-d is love and G-d is hope and for some religions G-d is many and for many G-d is one. We are also frightened by G-d and we believe that we are being observed. In some cases, we will suffer for eternity and in some, we will have forgiveness for all the things we do. Regardless of what these “things” are.
The danger of not having G-d in our lives is almost the same as having complete forgiveness. If there is no one watching, I can do animal things. After all, we are animals and it occured to me this morning as I thought about this story and the idea of fairness and equality that we struggle with this concept because in our DNA, there is no such thing as fairness and equality. Two bears fighting for a mate and their domain, one beats the other, he wins. He gets the girl and the land. The other bloody bear, shredded and weakened, moves along. It is the way of nature, but we can’t accept it because we are thinking beings with cognition and understanding. We are better than those non-thinking insects and animals.
Are we? When we look up in the sky today instead of thinking about G-d, we think about aliens or UFOs and we even renamed them to unidentified anomalous phenomena (do do de doo doo Phe nah me na) <— get it?
We don’t have hope, we have hype. Hype is our jam. We don’t try to save or help people with food, water, and basics, but we do give out phones and internet. We have billionaires flying satellites to pollute our skies and, of course, the world is burning. At a glance:
- Internal conflict in Myanmar: This is Asia’s longest war1.
- Israeli–Palestinian conflict: This is a Middle East flashpoint1.
- Russo-Ukrainian War: This is Europe’s frozen conflict1.
- Ethiopian civil conflict: This is a crisis in the Horn of Africa1.
- War in Sudan (2023): This is Africa’s newest war1.
- Mexican drug war: This is North America’s bloodshed1.
- Yemeni civil war: This is the world’s worst famine1.
- Gang war in Haiti: This is North America’s gangland1.
And in our area of the world, we have people pouring into the United States, cities in shambles, homelessness, issues with food, pollution, water, and Elmo asking, “How is everybody doing?” Elmo!!!
The two guys running for president aren’t doing fireside chats inspiring hope. One is heading to a brothel and the other a nursing home.
We are no different from those bears in the wilderness. We really want to be, but we aren’t. I think of a recent comedy show I attended with Brett Goldstein. He reflects on a concept that I’ll say in a different way so not to take anything from his joke. Just think, maybe just a few hours ago, this person presenting in front of you with great poise and professionalism was on his knees with a choker and his wife or mate with a whip. To be less dramatic about it, as the great Andrew Dice Clay would say, “Oh you don’t want me to say anything about her being pregnant? You ever wonder, how she got to be dat way?” Why? Because we are still animals.
Only a Day Away
If we are to have anything in our world driving us to live on and have purpose, it has to be tied to hope. Hope that we can be healthier. That we can do something about greed. Just a quick reminder here. When we introduced PFAS into the environment, we as a society had already caused a global lead disaster by introducing lead into gasoline. We have this tendency to make things that will kill us over time and think about the costs later. I ask you, “What are we a day away from?“ Are we a day away from “the day after tomorrow?” Are we a day away from the worst pandemic we’ve ever seen in human history? Are we a day away from greedy politicians and world rulers (not leaders) inflicting themselves on humanity? We haven’t seemed to learn anything from history. We forget history. Putin as an example may as well be a king.
What is Likely vs What is Desired – Easy Street
In the story, the “bad people” that tried to take Annie for the money were true to form. Hey, we get this kid, get the money, toss the kid, keep the money. Easy Street! Isn’t it where everyone wants to be?
The quiet people that mind their business, living their lives and not getting involved may be good people. These people eventually become recipients of their lack of engagement. In a newscast a few days ago, an Amercian woman with a Middle Eastern lineage said, “I’ll write in Free Palestine before I vote for anyone.” Regardless of where you or I stand on an issue, it is clear to me that if people do nothing even towards an intractable cause, their lack of action will result in their ultimate victimization. If we are all looking for Easy Street, we all might as well go live with Big Bird in Fantasyland because there is no such thing.
If we act on hope, we can work hard and change our path towards the greater good. What do you think will happen?
Hope has to have a foundation. What is the intent of G-d? Is it that we all love each other. Is that the foundation we need to address?