Street roots
9
July 22, 2011
JOHN SAYLES, from page 8
colonize, American
soldiers didn’t They
thought, “We’ll just
straighten them out and then leave,” but
that wasn’t the plan.
,
M.W.: So the government had a hidden
agenda?
J.S.: The only reason we didn’t take over
Cuba was that Sen. (Henry Moore) Teller
said, “Well, this isn’t because you people
want to take over Cuba and make it a
territory or a state, is it?” and they said,
“Oh, no, no, no, this is really out of the |
goodness of our hearts,” and he said, “Well,
put it on paper.” But nobody knew where
thè Philippines was and the expansionists in
the McKinley cabinet just decided this was
too good to pass up.
M.W.: What about Wilmington, N.C.?
J.S.: Once black men got the right to
vote, they voted in huge numbers. Then the
Union troops marched out - one of those
Bush-Gore elections where one guy got the
popular vote and the other got the electoral
vote and the compromise was, if you
Yankees leave,, we’ll let the Republican be
the president The minute that happened,
Jim Crow: laws started being put in. North
Carolina was the last of the Southern states
where that happened.
In Wilmington, blacks had the majority.
Blacks had a couple of wards, they had city
councilmen, they had firemen, they even
had policemen who had thè right to arrest
white men. This was a shocker for the old-
guard white community. Blacks had political
allies in the poor whites: It was called the
Populist Party.
The old Confederates decided to break
this alliance. The newspapers started
printing stories — mostly manufactured %
about black men raping white women. They
made it very clear to anybody that if they
’solà guns
black r ^ i tfi.eir'store wmncT**”
beburned down.
They bought a Gatling gun, demonstrated
it to the black leaders and told them, “Go
tell your people not to vote.” Black people
pretty much didn’t vote in that mid-year
election. The next day they came around
with the Gatling gun, killed a lot of black
people, rounded upi everybody they didn’t
like, black and white, put them on a train
and said, “Don’t get off until you’re in ,
Philadelphia, because there’s a lynch mob
waiting for you at every train stop from here
to there.” President McKinley needed the
votes, so he didn’t really look into it and
that was it for North Carolina — black
people couldn’t vote there either.
M.W.: The book ends with the electrocution
of an elephant. How did you choose that?
J.S.: There was a phrase in the Civil War:
“Have you gone to see the elephant?” That
meant, “Have you been up to the front
lines?” Later on, in Coney Island there Was
a hotel in the shape of an elephant that at
first was a tourist attraction, and then
became a house of ill repute. So to go to see
the elephant at first meant, “Have you gone
to see Coney Island?” Then eventually it |
meant, “Have you been to the whorehouse
today?” It’s about loss of innocence.
• People like to not know things and sd
they try to ignore things. The scene in the
book was something that was filmed by
Edison. You can go online and see the
elephant getting whacked. Edison was trying
to prove that alternating current was more
dangerous than the direct current that he
had invented — to show it’s so dangerous
you can electrocute an elephant with i t To
me this symbolizes that you can ignore
things for a while, but eventually, it’s the
size of an elephant and you can’t ignore it
anymore.
M.W.: So what’s your next project?
J.S.: A movie about the Rosenberg case; <
Their sons, Robert and Michael Meeropol,
have wanted a feature movie about that case
for a long time. They’ve dealt with some
new information very well, not what they’ve
wanted to hear, mostly that their father was
a spy, but he didn’t have the secret to the
atomic bomb. That was just our symbolic
show trial: While Stalin was killing
thousands of people in show trials, we
electrocuted a Jewish couple from the
Lower East Side.
Which of your
movies was your
favorite?
"Once black men got the
Every once in a .
while I watch a movie right to vote, they voted in
over, but it’s more like huge numbers. Then the
watching a home
Union troops marched o u t—
movie, because it
one ol those Bush-Gore
triggers memories of
making it. Shooting on elections where one guy got
location gives you
the popular vote and the
access to a
other got the electoral vote
community. I’ve been
thinking of “Matewan” and the compromise was, if
the last couple weeks, you Yankees leave, w e ll let
because Hazel
the Republican be the
Dickens, the great hill
president. The minute that
singer, died. We had
happened, lim Crow laws
her sing a couple of
songs and appeár in
started being put in."
“Matewan.” We
formed an alliance
with the people where
we were shooting in
West Virginia and they’d never had th e ir.
story told before. They became the actors in
small parts, and to this day you Can buy
copies of “Matewan” in hardware stores in
West Virginia.
M.W.: Anything else you’d like to say?
J.S.: Check the book out if you like to
read great, big historical novels. “Amigo”
will be opening in the States in August,
starting with communities that have a lot of
Filipino-Americans and moving on to the
regular art theaters. It’ll play in the Pacific
Northwest.
There Comes a Time
Wallace E. High
There comes a time
When life must grant us pause,
A moment’s deep reflection
On the efforts we have made,
The friendships come and gone,
The sweet loves won and lost, I
The winning at all cost
There comes a time
To cool brash ardors of youth,
Wave away the callow juvenile
Who would bum the sturdy bridge
Into our perception of the future
Where lies the specter of security.
Amid the blessings of maturity.
There comes a time
When we seek comfort in our slumber
But wispy hands draw upon our
senses,
Reaching out to us for respite,
The dreaming invades our peace,
The cries of dear ones calling fright
While we lavish torment in the night
There comes a time
To weigh upon the scales
Our puny attempts at glory,
Summations of profound intent
That somehow fall far short
Of the monuments we desire,
Of the fame we must aspire.
coffee bean
IN T E R N A T IO N A L ®
We tip our mugs to Coffee Bean International for donating coffee to Street
Roots and keeping our vendors warm in the mom tng!
Thank you!
There comes a time
To settle up the overdraws
Upon our sad accounts,
To atone means acts of vice and greed,
Predations to soil and air and sea,
Dark things we know are true;
Repay to Mother Earth her due.
There comes a time
To feel pressed upon our shoulders
The burdens of our past regrets;
Parades of sadden’d marchers cross
Our vision that we must blink away,
Before we yield to our emotion
At the mercy of a new devotion.
There comes a time
When the fiddler names his fee
And the landlord exacts his rents,
And we must pay or self-destruct
Before the juggernaut of pressure,
The cauldrons boiling up with
tension,
Troubles rising to great dimension.
Now comes the time
When we cannot bear it all
And we call out for help Divine
With sincere entreaty to the Lord
Waiting for just such a cry,
For He gave His Son for our relief;
Let us live our lives in that belief.
Office Cat Rooty wants to express
heartfelt thanks for the work of
volunteer, writer and SR board
member Ruth Kovaks, Thank you for
six fantastic years!