So, there was a blurb on the news about closing the local beaches and it ended with a kid saying "Sure they can close 'em, but I'm young and I'm reckless and I'll do what I want!"
"Yoot's," I said to my companion (mimicking Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny). "Bone-headed yoot's." "You really didn't need to say the word 'bone-headed'" was the reply (as it was implied).
So, everybody (I heard from a lotta people) are upset about wearing face-masks. The rants on YouTube have been verry entertaining; it's always fun watching snowflakes have a melt-down and the huuuuge issue of wearing a face-mask ("I'm not doin' it 'cause I woke up in a free country..."—Dude, Costco memberships aren't free and businesses have a right to refuse service, "No shoes, no shirt, no shit...") is making people a bit ornery and plumb feisty.
And that's fine. But, they're wrong, frequently stupidly wrong. Because, there are limits to freedom—the length of your arm, for instance, or the extent of responsibility, moral fiber, the limits of one's arrogance, or the depths of one's ignorance. You can't yell "Fire!" in a crowded theater, for instance...and there WON'T be any crowded theaters as long as folks have a hissy-fit about wearing masks. Sure, they can be hot and uncomfortable—ask your doctor, nurse, surgeon, dentist, hygienist, anesthetist, or anybody who's had to wear them as part of their job (while you've been skating all these years). And it's not like they're not available...everywhere...often for free.
But, the issue isn't comfort. It's the impression that this is a free country and you can do whatever you want, so long as your brain has enough of a spark in it to think it up. And that just ain't so, Joe. Freedom has its limits. And it isn't free. Ask your vet-grampa. Ask anybody who went through rationing during the war.
Right now, businesses are struggling. So are our neighbors. We all want to get back to work, but we're gonna have to do it once the "dust" settles (ya know, like, after an explosion...) and it ain't settlin'. And it ain't settling because people want to do what they want when they want it...like that's going to solve anything but their petty little concerns. Right now, the U.S.of A. is far out-distancing the world in the number of cases and deaths. "We're #1!" (yay)
So...this scene from Jaws. When I saw it (in a theater in 1975), it produced quite a laugh from the audience. Mel Brooks once said that the difference between tragedy and comedy is "tragedy is when I cut my finger—comedy is when you fall down a man-hole and die." Now, nobody objecting to masks will probably identify themselves with the guys over-crowding the boat ("what LOSERS they are!"), but it's all a matter of perspective, ain't it?
I'm done. Life is precious and too short to waste. I don't care what people do anymore. Just don't come whinin' to me when you get in trouble.
The Set-Up: The town of Amity is on the menu for a Great White Shark during the height of tourist season. There have already been a couple shark attacks resulting in human deaths, but the town officials want to hush it up because it's bad for business and, besides, do you know anybody who's been killed?
But Sheriff Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) has seen the results of a couple shark attacks and he wants to close the beaches over the objections of the businesses, the Chamber of Commerce and the Mayor—he was overruled and it resulted in a couple more deaths, including a child. The mother of the boy has offered a reward for the killing of the shark and that has resulted in an up-tick of the loon population—folks who want to bag a shark for $3,000.
Action.
BRODY: Yeah? Well that ain't safe!
BRODY: Oh no, no, no!
BRODY: Please, please.
BRODY: Come with me...
HOOPER: O-kaay...
FISHERMAN #4: (Hold on there.)
Jaws
Words by Peter Benchley and Carl Gottlieb
Pictures by Bill Butler and Steven Spielberg
Jaws is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Universal Home Entertainment.
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