VIEWPOINTS A6 • MILFORD-MIAMI ADVERTISER • JUNE 1, 2016
COMMUNITY Editor: Richard Maloney, rmaloney@communitypress.com, 248-7134
EDITORIALS | LETTERS | COLUMNS | CH@TROOM
What is your all-time favorite movie - the one that you will always watch if you come across it while channel-surfing? Why do you like it?
“Really tough call. For spectacular scenery and weak acting, it’s ‘The Eiger Sanction.’ For the most intensity, ‘Argo.’ Best portrayal of Jack Nicholson by Jack Nicholson, ‘As Good As It Gets.’ Reasons are all personal. Wife and I engaged on the Eiger Glacier while skiing. I took many trips to Tehran before the Ayatholla and as the unrest grew to gunfire in the alley where I was staying. Jack Nicholson has played so many ‘Jack Nicholson’ roles, he has become my favorite. Yet, I despised ‘Anger Management’ and ‘Chinatown.’ ‘You can’t handle the truth!’ is even more iconic than ‘Heeere’s Johnnnie.’” D.B.
“My favorite, all-time, No. 1, most awesome, incredibly meaningful, deep and amazing movie is the ‘70s classic ‘Harold and Maude,’ which tells the quirky story of a love affair (but mostly relationship) between an 18-year-old over-privileged young man with a death obsession (not what you may think) and a 79-year-old concentration camp survivor with a spunk for life. If you have never seen this powerful movie you must. If you have seen it over 100 times, as someone I know, it’s past due time to immerse one’s self in it yet again. This movie is quirky, no doubt, but it holds so many deeper philosophical insights and positions on life that have been permanently woven into the fabric of my life. “Although not asked, you must be wondering what other movies round out my all-time Top 5 and they are: ‘Pay It Forward,’ ‘Out Of Time,’ ‘My Cousin Vinny’ and ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’ Rush out to Netflix or the library and enjoy all of these gems soon.” M.J.F.
“My all time favorite movie is ‘Step Brothers’ with Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. It is one of the funniest movies I have ever seen. I find myself laughing just thinking about the interactions of the two step brothers in the film.” C.S.
“Easy A!” “Jaws.”
Dalmesha Sloss Patrick Hijduk
“Apocalypse Now.”
Jim Longano
“The Spitfire Grill.”
Debra Higgins Robertson
THIS WEEK’S QUESTION Describe your “brush with greatness.” Every week we ask readers a question they can reply to via email. Send your answers to rmaloney@communitypress.com with Ch@troom in the subject line.
“Twister.”
Molly Miller
“Urban Cowboy.”
Nicole Stewart
“Pleasantville!”
Stephanie Collins
“‘Spencer's Mountain,’ great family movie.”
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Pamela Robinson Porter
“Say Anything.”
Shawnda Walker
“Tombstone.”
Cody Painter
“’50 First Dates,’ ‘Gone in 60 Seconds.’”
Shannon Kessel
“Dirty Dancing.”
Sherry Johnson
“Saturday Night Fever.”
Connie Gille Painter
“’The Notebook’ because it is a beautiful love story.”
Jennifer Jackson House
“Forrest Gump” – Life is like a box of chocolates!” Terry Smith
“’Steel Magnolias’ ... can recite entire scenes along with the movie.”
Suzie McGuire Langen
“‘Crazy Stupid Love’ because it’s completely unpredictable.”
Linda Girard
“Brave heart and the patriot.”
Sharon McDonald
“‘Home Alone 1’ and ‘2.’ And ‘Frequency.’ Angela Bonney Cottrell
“I just can't choose between my top three .... sorry, but they are ‘Gone With The Wind,’ ‘Excalibur’ and ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus.’” Roxie Held
“The Blind Side.”
Marc Wicher
“The Sound of Music.”
Kathy Wagner Williams
“‘The American President,’ great love story with very smart dialogue.” Elizabeth Mason-Hill
“My Cousin Vinny.” Because it makes me laugh out loud every time I watch it.”
“Everyone knows the only correct answer is ‘The Shawshank Redemption.’”
“Tombstone,” Saints.”
“‘Grease’ 1 in a million movie”
Susan-Mkac Gilmore Fultz
Boonedock Steven Leicht
“The Italian Job.” love the mini’s.”
Barbara Brown
“Eight Men Out.”
Ryan Sainola
Brandon Kidwell
Lori Marksberry Hendricks
“Love love the ‘Godfather.’”
Sharon McDonald
“‘Funny Farm’ with Chevy Chase. Because it's hysterical. It makes me laugh out loud.”
“Steel Magnolias.”
Teresa Davis
Cassandra Jane
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Gatch brothers at the Lincoln Assassination, Part 2
CH@TROOM May 25 question
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A publication of
The door to the presidential box opened. Someone called for a doctor. Oliver answered that his brother was a doctor. Charles, dressed in civilian clothes, was literally dragged inside the box. He rushed to the unconscious president who still sat in the rocking chair, “his head fallen on his breast.” Charles took hold of the president’s head. His finger inadvertently slipped inside of the bullet hole “near the left ear, from which the brain was oozing.” Charles determined the wound to be mortal. Lincoln was lowered to the floor. “It seemed,” Oliver recalled, “for a few moments, as Gary Knepp if we we’re all paralyzed.” The COMMUNITY PRESS silence within the box was GUEST COLUMNIST contrasted by the “tumult” in the theater. Charles suggested to Major Rathbone, a member of the president’s party who had sustained a knife wound while grappling with Booth, to take the dying president to a “more fitting place.” Rathbone seemed “nearly prostrated by the awful calamity.” (He died in an insane asylum after murdering his wife.) Charles, Oliver, and two others picked up the president and carried him out of the theater. The crowd outside of the theater parted to let them through. “There was silence as we passed. No one spoke. As we moved slowly across the street, the only sound that was heard above the sobbing of the people was the hoof-beats of the cavalry already approaching to guard the street.” They carried Lincoln inside the Peterson building and laid him on the bed of a young soldier named William Clark who was boarding there. The Lincoln family, physicians, and the “great men of the nation” gathered. Secretary of War Stanton came to take control of the situation and to begin the investigation. The brothers faded into the shadows as the death
PROVIDED
Dr. Charles Gatch
vigil began. About two hours before sunrise, a soft “dreary” rain began to fall. The end approached. “The moans that had harrowed us all night were hushed now, and silence fell upon us.” At 7:22 a.m., the president breathed his last. Oliver helped to put Lincoln’s body into the hearse. After revisiting the theater, the brothers returned home. Why did it take Oliver so long to tell his story? He thought that he really had nothing more to add to the tragic evening. But as the years passed, he changed his mind. As one of the last witnesses alive, he thought the time had come. “I have been prevailed upon by my friends, who have known my story these 40 years and more, to talk about it for publication,” Oliver said. Gary Knepp is an attorney and teaches history and political science, lives in Miami Township.
Rebuttal to ‘Transgender johns, here we go again’ Thank you for allowing me to respond to Leonard Harding’s “Transgender johns, here we go again with this issue” (May 18). I’d like to start by thanking the author for pointing out my unwavering commitment to Second Amendment rights. He also suggested that women be armed and prepared to defend themselves. Gun manufacturers market handguns designed specifically for women. CCW classes train people in gun safety and marksmanship. It is prudent for many citizens to be trained and prepared to shoot back if necessary. The author took exception to my support for public safety. Specifically, he seems to think that it is acceptable to have sexual predators in the bathrooms and locker rooms with women and children provided that they have the ability to use lethal means to defend themselves. I believe that it is common sense to keep would-be predators away so that nobody gets hurt. He also alluded to the North Carolina law that uses the sex on a birth certificate to determine bathroom usage. The legislation that I’m working on doesn’t do that. An outline of my bill can be found in the April edition of
The Becker Report at www.BeckerGOP.com. Like the 1.3 million Target boycotters, I became John alarmed Becker when I COMMUNITY PRESS learned that GUEST COLUMNIST Target publicized their open-door bathroom policy: “… we welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity.” Target makes no attempt to define what “gender identity” means. Are transvestites and cross-dressers included? Does it refer to people diagnosed with gender dysphoria? Could it refer to people who have switched their gender identifier (marker) on their birth certificate, driver’s license, passport, or some other document? Or does it mean someone with a sincerely held identity and an ongoing trans lifestyle? Could it also mean gender fluid? They might identify as a man one moment and a woman the next. The public safety problem that Target has created is that sexual predators now have
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ready access to women and children simply by claiming to be female regardless of physical appearance or vocal tone. My bill aims to put guardrails around these “inclusive” policies by creating an objective standard for defining transgender so that they can continue using the most appropriate bathroom. My legislation would be enforced the same way our voyeurism, trespassing, and public indecency laws are enforced. There are multiple levels and opportunities for common sense to prevail. If police were to field a complaint, they would ask questions and then possibly make an arrest. If charges were filed, then the prosecutor would decide if it’s worth pursuing. If so, a judge or jury would then have the “final” say before any appeals would be considered. In conclusion, I also wish to correct a media report. My bill will not require trans people to use a family or unisex bathroom. And to reiterate, it will be nothing like the North Carolina law. John Becker lives in the Eastgate area and is serving in his second term as Ohio’s 65th District State representative. He can be reached at 614-466-8134 or Rep65@OhioHouse.gov.
Milford-Miami Advertiser Editor Richard Maloney rmaloney@communitypress.com, 248-7134 Office hours: 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday See page A2 for additional contact information.