The 1976 Oscar for Best Actor went to Peter Finch for his
wonderful portrayal of tortured soul ‘Howard Beale’ in the picture
‘Network.’ Howard Beal is a man going mad who becomes a God-like
figure to his worshiping TV audience when he channels their
seething anger and frustration into words and actions.
The 1976 Oscar for Best Actor went to Peter Finch for his wonderful portrayal of tortured soul ‘Howard Beale’ in the picture ‘Network.’ Howard Beal is a man going mad who becomes a God-like figure to his worshiping TV audience when he channels their seething anger and frustration into words and actions.
Finch’s nomination and award were posthumous, the first then ever in an acting category, he had died the previous January. This Oscar was no mere gesture; Finch’s portrayal of Beale was riveting. Beal may have been on the edge of madness, but he stumbled on to something. Because he no longer cared what people thought of him, he was free to say what he really believed and it is summed up in words he shouts at the TV camera and down the street, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
What we need in the county are a few people who are still sane, but like Howard Beale, they need to get mad as hell and pledge not to take it anymore. Network is a biting, funny, scary and as it turned out, an all-too-true story of executives and people in power that care for no one but themselves. They will manipulate everyone to get what they want, not unlike what we are seeing every day.
Why is it so damn hard to find an American politician who tells the truth, plays by the rules or is smart enough to come in out of the rain? Is there a magnetic attraction between politics, liars and scoundrels? While those in Sacramento are wringing their hands over the impact of the new budget on the schools, the high-paid public employees in the University of California system are raking it in. Don’t be fooled by their modest base salaries, add in the bonuses and other incentives and see what you get. According to the Sacramento Bee, the head coach at UC Berkley has a base salary of $225,000, but his gross pay is $2.8 million a year and on it goes; 772 employees in the UC system have an annual gross pay of more than $300,000. Your taxes are keeping them in caviar.
Another investigation by the Bee revealed that the legislators from both parties have been paying their staff members under the table, hiding these bonuses from public view. How does that make you feel in these tough times? Oops, it’s only tough times for the taxpayers not employed by the government.
Why are we rewarding failure? From billions for General Motors and failed banks to billions for state and local governments that could not keep their budgets under control in the best of times, we are throwing good money after bad. The nation is forging the chains that will enslave our grandchildren. When their hard times come – and hard times always come – they will carry their own debt and they will have to carry ours too. The Congressional Budget Office says so. By then all those responsible will be retired and they will tell us they had the best of intentions. That will be a lie, as always they are just buying votes with OPM (other people’s money) and you and I are going to pay the bill. If spending the nation to death with the same old programs is the best the new administration can do, we are in more trouble than even an angry Howard Beale could handle.
