Last night Meryl Streep received the Golden Globe Lifetime Achievement Award with this unusual acceptance speech. The center of her speech was the ridicule of a disabled member of the press during the 2016 presidential campaign. By recalling that sobering moment, Meryl Streep brought common decency into what, God forbid, threatens to be “the new normal”.
On my FB page, had some people really trashing Meryl Streep’s speech… and the actors in general….. Made little sense. and then ended up on a page mostly habituated by veterans, and that was unnerving! Were slamming her in every which way….
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Pretty awful, Karin. Pretty awful.
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It must be T-Rump’s juvenile communication style that makes me want to respond with the grade-school favorite “I know you are, but what am I?” (or is she) when he feels it’s necessary to call Meryl “over-rated” in retaliation.
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Erin, I so do understand. I thought I graduated from Marple Elementary School.
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Thank you for bringing this to our attention, Gordon. It was touching and beautiful and necessary.
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Karin, I thought so too.
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It was beautiful speech, beautifully delivered, by a beautiful person
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She’s a Vassar grad, or so my son reminds me. I guess that makes her a snob. But she’s one I like.
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The beginning of her speech was what really impressed me – where she talked about her peers and the wider variety of their backgrounds and birthplaces. And nothing in her speech promoting herself.
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Thanks for this observation David. Spot on! What a contrast, eh?
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Talk about stereotyping! Vassar grads are highly educated, often socially conscious, bright people who are not necessarily snobs– whatever that may mean.
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Mona, I agree. But you certainly agree that the graduates of the Ivy League and formerly called “Seven Sisters” are part of an elite class. Meryl Streep is no snob. She has great dignity, deep and widespread compassion, understanding of her position of privilege. She is not a snob (i.e, she does not look down on others who are not as privileged, educated, accomplished, or less able, etc.).
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Yes,and “elite” is not a synonym for “snob.” But then, words do have a way of morphing …or something. And it’s elite because it is intellectually, morally, socially (as in caring for others),and personally challenging. Would that all college educations could be like that.
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Amen to [Vassar] is “elite because it is intellectually, morally, socially (as in caring for others),and personally challenging. Would that all college educations could be like that.”
As you know better than I, there’s a deep anti-intellectualism streak in American culture. We have a love/hate relationship with the elites, especially when it comes to class (think billionaires/the one percent). Getting to the top is one version of the American Dream. Achieving intellectual, moral, compassionate responsibility? Not so much. Donald Trump is an elitist of the second sort wearing dark blue Wall Street suit, white shirt, red ties, Italian shoes – and a red tractor hat that will Make America Great Again. Last night Barack Obama delivered his last presidential speech. I wept. We never see a better person in the White House – truly an “elite” person in all the right ways.
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