3 SEP 07: YOU CAN GO YOUR OWN WAY
We wish you a happy Labor Day - and a safe one as well, for everyone who's traveling. If you're coming through Columbus, our best gas price is about 60 cents lower than it was two years ago. Yes, it's dropped 20 percent! So please stop all the whining about the U.S. military not accomplishing anything in Iraq.
We all need to be safe on the roads right now, because I've seen several recent examples of people who aren't. The death of an infant this weekend on Manchester Expressway was sobering. But other drivers are making moves which are just plain silly. And no, I don't have cable - so I'm not talking about Sunday night's NASCAR race.
When I moved to Columbus ten years ago, two men invited me to join them for dinner after church at Country's Barbecue on Broadway. They decided to lead me on a Historic District sightseeing tour, on the way to the restaurant - but something didn't seem right when they drove down Front Avenue close to the Space Science Center. Even I can recognize a divided four-lane road in a new city....
I asked the men when we reached Country's if what they did was legal. They'd driven northbound for a couple of blocks in the southbound lanes of Front Avenue. They wanted me to have a good look at the Space Science Center. But in the last ten years, I've done that simply by walking - not by risking a head-on collision.
That 1997 trip came back to my mind Saturday evening, as I drove northbound on the proper side on Front Avenue. Suddenly a car turned into the same two lanes, about a block ahead of me at Ninth Street. Was this driver from Britain - or from Marion County, where they might not have divided roads downtown?
Thankfully, there was a lane on Front Avenue for each of us. I moved to the right. The wrong-way driver stayed on his right side, then turned left into the driveway of the Marriott Hotel. So perhaps this was the other driver's idea of a shortcut - because that hotel seems to have much more scenery on the inside.
If you think that's strange, an even more bizarre sight rolled past me as I jogged down Front Avenue a few days ago. Someone crossed an intersection on the wrong side of the street, and with a cell phone on his ear. But that wasn't the strangest part. This guy was pedaling a bicycle....
I've heard of distracted driving behind the wheel of a car before, involving cell phones. But this man was holding a cell phone with one hand, while pedaling down Front Avenue controlling a bicycle with his other hand. Before you ask - why, of course he was NOT wearing a bike helmet.
Then there's the older woman whom I encountered on Broadway while jogging a few weeks ago. It was about 9:30 on a Saturday night, and she was heading southbound in the northbound lane. But her lights weren't on, and I don't think she even had any - because she was in a motorized wheelchair.
I caught up with the woman around Seventh and Broadway. I was jogging on the sidewalk. Her motorized wheelchair was on the bricks of Broadway. If I was able to catch her, the woman's motor may need a tune-up.
"Why are you on this side?" I asked the woman. I knew from a WRBL report several years ago that motorized wheelchairs are legal on Columbus city streets - and I don't think she even needs a license plate from The Ralston.
"You scared me!" the woman said in response to my question. Imagine if a car had turned into the northbound lane in front of her, after dark.
"I said, why are you on this side?" On the wrong side of Broadway, remember.
"I want to see what's coming."
Whether drivers could see HER was my main concern. "But on the other side, you'd be going with the traffic. And it's legal." On top of that, it would reinforce what we're supposed to think about older people - that they have decades of wisdom.
I jogged on home after that short discussion, so I don't know if the older woman switched sides of Broadway. She certainly didn't speed up her motorized wheelchair to harass me - which would have been the oddest case of "road rage" Columbus Police would have ever recorded.
There are safer spots in Columbus for riding wheelchairs. In fact, a new short path has just opened at South Commons - a ramp leading from Golden Park to the Riverwalk. I'm not sure why this ramp suddenly was built, after all these years. I mean, there aren't any signs naming it after retired Public Services Director Rufus Riggs.
I tried out the Golden Park ramp during a Friday evening run, and the angle was easy enough that I could run uphill with ease. But wheelchairs hardly ever roll around South Commons, so I'm assuming this ramp was made for bicycles. After all, real exercisers go up and down the Golden Park stairway - and prove they're real, by not using the handrails.
Yet bicyclists have been able to enter and exit the Riverwalk at the other end of South Commons, near the softball stadium. So is this new ramp really necessary, only four-tenths of a mile away? It's not like the Riverwalk is quite as busy as U.S. 80 in Phenix City....
E-MAIL UPDATE: We're not sure how we made the mailing list of an Oscar-winning film director. But we did, apparently because of a new movie with Columbus and Fort Benning connections....
Dear Film Members,
In the spring of 2004, I had just finished making my first film as a director and was looking for my second. I read Mark Boal's article, "Death and Dishonor." The story of Lanny Davis' search for his missing son, Specialist Richard Davis, made my heart stop.
I began doing a lot of reading - everything from small town newspaper articles to blogs that soldiers were writing about their experiences in Iraq. I talked to vets who'd just returned and some on their way back.
In this war, our men and women have to make impossible decisions every day. Sometimes those decisions work out just fine, other times they have terrible consequences. And they are almost always made in the blink of an eye.
I wasn't interested in how a bad person lived with making the wrong decision - I wanted to know how a good person lives with making the right one.
That's what I heard, over and over, as troops talked about the things that haunted them. They knew they'd made the right decision, they knew they would make the same decision again. But they were still having trouble coming to grips with it.
Ultimately what I wanted to explore was our responsibility. Whether we are for or against this war, those men and women are over there because we, our government, sent them there. And we can try and shirk responsibility or distance ourselves, but they are our troops, our men and women, our responsibility. What they are doing is in our name.
And that's what brought me to the story of David and Goliath.
Every day, for forty days, Goliath strode down the hill into the Valley of Elah, and challenged the King's bravest and strongest warriors, but no one would fight him. Until a boy named David came delivering bread, and said "I will fight the giant." The King offered David his own armor, but it was much too big. So, armed only with his sling and five smooth stones, David stepped into the valley to face Goliath. Goliath charged. David stood his ground and flung his stone, and struck the giant down.
An incredible feat of bravery. What the Bible doesn't tell us is how many boys the King sent into the valley before him. How many stories of brave young men were never told? How many aren't being told today?
So, I decided to take all that, boil it down until it could fit into a thimble and bury it deep in the heart of a murder mystery, set in Tennessee and New Mexico.
I want to thank Lanny Davis and his wife, Remy. They were the inspiration for this, and while the story changed, what they suffered in their search for the truth is more than any parents should ever have to bear. The movie is dedicated to the memory of their son, Richard, a good boy and a good soldier, who did everything his country asked him to do.
My best,
Paul Haggis
The director of "In the Valley of Elah" read the article about the killing of Fort Benning's Richard Davis in Playboy. So what do you know - maybe some men actually DO read that magazine for the articles.
"In the Valley of Elah" had its world premiere over the weekend at the Venice Film Festival. The online reviews I've read indicate Paul Haggis could be an Oscar contender for Best Director, and Tommy Lee Jones could be in the running for Best Actor. But Charlize Theron's comment that soldiers should come home from Iraq could earn her a "Jane Fonda Award" from veterans' groups.
"In the Valley of Elah" is scheduled for nationwide release on 14 September. So far, I've heard nothing about a special premiere in the Columbus area. But then again, Mel Gibson never came to town when "We Were Soldiers" premiered - and that's a much friendlier movie about the army.
We'll get into the Biblical side of Paul Haggis's e-mail on an upcoming Saturday. But now, let's attack a few Sunday headlines:
+ The high temperature in Columbus was only 81 degrees F., thanks to clouds and occasional showers. I kept my air conditioner turned off for the second day in a row -- and again showed I'm a loyal supporter of the "fan club" concept.
+ The Columbus Catfish clinched the second-half division title and a South Atlantic League playoff spot - because they were rained out in Savannah for the third day in a row. Today's make-up doubleheader to end the regular season has been called off as well. If I didn't know better, I'd think the Golden Park grounds crew had been moved across the state.
(But to be fair, WXTX "News at Ten" showed flash flooding in parts of Savannah. That city's had almost 12 inches of rain in recent days. It's rained SO MUCH that the city's famous "garden of good and evil" is becoming simply evil.)
+ Instant Message to Muscogee County Sheriff Ralph Johnson: I'm glad your deputies captured that alleged pipe bomber, and that no one was hurt. But that all happened before sunrise Saturday - and yet you didn't announce it until Sunday afternoon?! I think it's OK to reveal news on the first day of college football season.
BURKARD'S BEST BETS: Gas for $2.46 a gallon at Summit, 22nd Avenue and Victory Drive.... 12-ounce bottles of Diet Pepsi Max for 50 cents at Zelmo's on Wynnton Road.... and Jerry Lewis choking up at least once as he sings "You'll Never Walk Alone"....
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