Three weeks ago, I told my wife Molly that I wasn’t going to spend the weekend doing Honey-Do’s especially around the yard. Honestly, I should say I requested this, since I was still suffering from the poison ivy rash my feet received from picking up sticks in the woods from the weekend before. Molly is very particular about our woods.
She suggested that we go to see the movie “2016” based on the award-winning book “The Roots of Obama’s Rage” by Dinesh D’ Souza.
I told her that I didn’t want to go to see a movie that probably centered on whether Obama was born here or if he really was citizen or not. She said that she had read that it didn’t deal with those issues.
I then told her that the movie was not scheduled here locally and I wasn’t going to drive to Snellville or Atlanta to see it.
So Molly then did something uncharacteristic for her since she just put me on a diet. She said if we went, we could have popcorn and I could order my favorite candy, Nonpareils.
Very soon, we were on our way to Atlanta.
I was surprised that there was a rather large crowd already seated in the theater since there had not been a big nationwide push to view the movie.
I have not read D’Souza’s book, so I was quite caught by surprise that so many people would even have an in interest. Granted many were baby boomers, but there was a sprinkling of younger people.
The movie, which in reality was a documentary, was narrated by D’Souza himself who has a lot in common with the president in age and education. They were both products of third world countries the difference being that the president plays on the left side and D’Souza plays on the right.
As the documentary progressed and D’Souza described Obama’s upbringing and talked to experts and Obama’s family members of Obama, there was complete silence in the theater. There was no movement; the only sound I heard was me eating my popcorn.
We know very little about Obama the man and what his influences in life had been. D’Souza did an excellent job of narrating himself a step by step explanation of Obama’s childhood and assent to the presidency.
D’Souza skillfully backed up the documentary with documents and personal interviews and wove a tale of man who was strongly influenced by his mother, who was in every sense of the word a pure Marxist. It showed the torment he suffered in trying to understand his father who he only saw once as he grew up and who had abandoned him.
The documentary showed that Obama’s father was a very intelligent man who railed against Colonialism, who was also a bigamist and an alcoholic who was admired and loved by people in his inner circle and especially Obama’s mother.
The documentary also nicely tied together the men in Obama’s life, from his mentor to his minister and his college professors at Harvard, who have influenced him.
I am not going to give you great details of this documentary. I felt it was truthful and I have a clearer understanding of who Obama is and what drives him.
To tell you the truth what I saw alarmed me. As I left the theater, I observed people who looked stunned. I realized that I was so engrossed in the show that I still had popcorn left, a first I think.
We have an election coming up in November. Each of is going to have to vote for a person to lead us for the next four years. Each of you has an obligation before you vote to be informed.
If you are not voting for Obama or you are on the fence or you would like to learn the truth about his thoughts and plans, mostly from his own lips, I recommend you see this movie. It will either strengthen your thoughts or might cause you to think before you go to the polls in November.
This documentary opened in 62 theaters across the country. It is now being shown in over 162 theaters across the country and now locally at the Conyers theater.
It is now number eight in gross revenues for movies this year.
By the way if you go you might only want to order a small bag of popcorn.
T. Pat Cavanaugh is publisher of The Rockdale News. He can be reached at pcavanaugh@rockdalenews.com.
