The Sound of Music was the first musical in English that my wife saw on video and grew to love as we would watch and rewatch it with our young children. Last night, we attended a wonderful performance of it at the Nashville TPAC. Completely taken in by the staging, choreography, and singing, we were all the more moved by the final scenes' portrayal of the pressure to accept the Nazi regime & the Captain’s resistance. In a song not in the movie, the opportunist Max and luxury-lover Elsa sing “No Way to Stop It.” “It” refers to Nazism or any aspect of oppression that does not interfere with one’s own comfortable lifestyle. The song concludes that this lifestyle is centered on “I” rather than “we” (and, by implication, “us” versus “them”). Little did we suspect when watching the movie with our young children that Ruka’s new country of citizenship would, 25 years later, have a president supporting neo-Nazism.
To what degree will we sing "There's no way to stop it"? To what degree will we resist? The title of my website indicates an interest in transcending divisions. But when I see the posts of Facebook "friends"--including relatives--with posts indicating their love of Jesus, racism & nationalism, I wonder if transcendence of these divisions is possible. One little step I have taken is sending the following to TN's Senator Bob Corker, chair of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee: I am an independent voter. I trust you are well informed about how the Nazi movement gained power in Germany, including passive support of churches and opportunism of politicians. I hope you will have the courage to resist this in our own country, now. I see no news item on your site indicating that you were appalled--or at least disappointed!--by Trump's press conference but am glad to see that you are at least "pushing President Trump for answers on Russia contacts."
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Trails we follow,
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