Have you ever heard of some fellows who first came over to this country? You know what they found? They found a howling wilderness, with summers too hot and winters freezing, and they also found some unpleasant little characters who painted their faces. Do you think these pioneers filled out form number X6277 and sent in a report saying the Indians were a little unreasonable? Did they have insurance for their old age, for their crops, for their homes? They did not! They looked at the land, and the forest, and the rivers. They looked at their wives, their kids and their houses, and then they looked up at the sky and they said, “Thanks, God, we’ll take it from here.”
John Wayne, Without Reservations
An early example of the political philosophy of John Wayne from the movie Without Reservations (1946). A light-hearted romp, Claudette Colbert portrays the author, Kitt Madden, of a best selling novel Here Is Tomorrow which features a hero who bears a striking physical resemblance to Marine Corps Captain “Rusty” Thomas, portrayed by John Wayne. On her way to Hollywood for the making of a movie on the novel, Madden learns to her dismay that Cary Grant has turned down the role of the hero of her novel. When she meets “Rusty” Thomas she decides that he should star in the picture. One problem: Thomas hates the book! The film is very funny and an interesting satire on both novelists and Hollywood. (I wonder if Kitt Madden was supposed to be an anti-Ayn Rand, who was shopping her novels around Hollywood at the time.) Wayne and Colbert have magnificent chemistry in the film in spite of their different world views. (Ironically in real life both Wayne and Colbert were conservatives and staunch Republicans.) At the end of the film when Madden and Thomas admit their love for each other, Madden looks heavenward and modifies the line first uttered by Thomas, “Thanks, God, I’ll take it from here!”.
“They were men.” Compare them to many of the current occupants of political office in Washington. That bunch never got their hands dirty their entire lives.
As were the first Catholic missionaries to the present day United States. They were men.
Compare them to the likes of certain Bishops.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Enjoy your families and a day off from work (if you can).
I recall John wayne receiving an oscar and held it up to that Hollywood crowd, waved it proudly and proclaimed…”and I did it with my clothes on!”
I like most John Wayne movies. (“The Conquerer”, in which he played Genghis Khan, is necessarily an exception.) “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon” is my second-favorite movie. It’s not a good idea, though, to turn to celebrities for wisdom outside their specialization. If you wanted to know about black holes, Stephen Hawking was your man, but if you want to know about God, your grandma probably has far more wisdom to share. How can we be surprised at the state of this country when jewels dropped from the lips of comedians and the lastest skit on SNL iare treated as real news items? When the Right turns to John Wayne and the Left turns to Whoopi Goldberg?