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4 GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY. NOVEMBER 21, 1968
Most Rev. Thomas A. Donnellan D.D, J.C.D. - Publisher
Rev. R. Donald Kiernan - Acting Editor
Wendy Marris - Assistant Editor
2699 Peachtree N.E.
P.O. Box 11667
Northside Station
Member of the Catholic Press Association
and Subscriber to N.C.W.C. News Service
Telephone 261-1281
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Atlanta, Georgia 30305
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Published Every Week at the Decatur • DeKalb News
The opinions contained in these editorial columns are *
the free expressions of free editors in a free Catholic press.
In Praise Of A Movie
Motion pictures usually are not the subjects of editorials,
particularly editorials which praise. This editoral is in praise of a
motion picture, “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”
A Catholic Press Features review of this fine movie can be found
elsewhere in this issue and we will leave it to that review to discuss
the good and bad points of the film from the artistic standpoint. We
would just like to say something here in praise of Hollywood’s being
willing to again deal with a deeply moving story of human
compassion and loneliness.
It seems to us there is a Christian message in this story of a deaf
mute who literally sacrifices himself in the service of others. Never
stopping to pity himself, never backing away from temporary
setbacks and a sometimes mocking world, he steadily moves forward
to help those in need.
This man who lives in a world of silence - brilliantly played by Alan
Arkin - even gives up his job and moves to another city so he can be
near an institutionalized friend, another deaf mute who suffers
additionally from mental retardation.
In an almost perfect modem replay of the story of the Good
Samaritan he stops to aid a drunk who has injured himself. He insists
that a passing doctor, a Negro burned up with hatred for whites, give
the drunken white man first aid.
INFANCY OF CHRIST—The People of God dedicate the month of December to the Infancy
of Christ. This new painting 1 by Virginia Broderick is a modem Icon showing Christ hold
ing the scepter which is a symbol of His rule over heaven, and the globe of earth with a
cross which represents God’s continuing creation and redemption of the world. (© 1968
NC News Service)
—— GEORGIA PINES -
And thus begins another story of how the deaf mute gradually
through small acts of kindness convinces the Negro that perhaps all
whites are not bigots, that perhaps there is a common humanity that
crosses the color barrier.
Do You Remember When?
But gradually the tragedy of the deaf mute’s life unfolds for us. He
helps these people, he is briefly happy because they are happy. But
then they go their own way, leaving him so lonely in his silence.
He finally succumbs to suicide and you could almost hear the
mocking at the foot of the Cross: “He saved others, but himself he
could not save.”
But then we are made to see in the final scene that, while suicide is
always senseless and never solves any problem, in this case it has at
least made these people aware of how little they had done in return
for the love of this great man. The Negro doctor, now at peace with
the world, says of the deaf mute: “He was so busy helping us that we
never seemed to realize that he too had problems.”
Hardhearted is the person, indeed, who can walk out of this movie
and not vow to be a little more aware of the despair that could be
eating away at the heart of another.
Cynical, indeed, is the Christian who can walk out of this movie
and not vow to take his faith a bit more boldly into the world of
suffering humanity. And that, after all, is one of the better things you
can say of a film these days.
Tennessee Register
1 1 By R. Donald Kiernan ■
I don’t think it was the “hero” of 1429
Franklin Park Circle, but the other day 1 was
stopped at a red light signal and a station
wagon came around the comer and all of the
kids in it were eating snow cones. The driver
looked more like he was annoyed with all of
the screaming and yelling rather than enjoying
what he was doing.
For fear that I might again be accused of not
understanding the youth
of the day let me preface
my remarks by saying
that these are only
observations and not
intended to draw any real
conclusions (cf: issue of
three weeks back). The
fact is though that
walking has become a past
art. Granted that today it
might be more dangerous to walk than it was
ten or twenty years ago what with the great
increase of the number of cars on the highway,
their speed, and in many cases an absence of
sidewalks. But I remember at high school there
was only one boy who brought an automobile
to school and today there is more space
occupied by automobiles than is occupied by
the school building itself.
/^uiuuiuuiits tnemseives have gone thro
various stages of appreciation. There wa
time when an automobile was a conveniei
then it became a necessity, and following
the auto became sort of a status symbo
listened the other night to Paul Har
describe his appreciation of his own f
automobile. He ended up by saying that
car pas so many pleasant memories connec
with it that it is now up on blocks in agar
by itself. I saw a boy at the garage the ot
day and he had a chain and padlock t
around the hood. I thought that maybe he had
the same appreciation for his auto as Paul
Harvey has for his. So I asked the boy why he
had a chain and padlock on the hood. His
reply? It was to keep thieves from stealing his
battery.
Some boys spend as much time cleaning the
motor as they do the fenders, while other boys
have many mechanical gadgets that the vehicle
resembles something out of Dick Tracy. Wide
tires and painted stripes seem to be the vogue
today, as well as sunflowers painted on the
sides and fenders. All of these things have
symbolic meanings that make the traditional
black car resemble a funeral director’s
automobile.
Years ago a popular song of the day was
“Surry with The Fringe on Top”. This song is
credited with a flood of open-air cars being
found on all the college campuses of this
country. In those days such an automobile was
called a Phaeton. Gosh, were they cold.
Heaters were not standard equipment, and the
windows were eisenglass. Extreme
temperatures often caused this form of
covering to crack, so more and more as the car
grew in years it was found to be absent of any
protection from the rain and snow.
Then there was the rumble seat era. Now this
car really was a status symbol for a collegiate.
It usually meant that the “old man” was well
healed, or else his mother washed floors every
night in an office building.
I guess everyone remembers their first
automobile. Some worked hard, others went
into debt; some bought a new one, others were
content with a second-hand car. But to nearly
everyone the pride of ownership of their first
automobile is a never to be forgotten
experience.
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