Ellen DeGeneres and her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, have placed their Montecito, California mansion up for sale and flown to the United Kingdom’s rural posh Cotswolds region, where they have relocated in the wake of Donald Trump’s second election as president.
I seriously hope they take with them their absurd and irritating “Kind Science” cosmetics infomercials, where their airbrushed pearly white skin seems to fade into the background.
And that is actually the point. These two entitled white women with an inordinate amount of wealth can choose to pack up, fly away, and live abroad when the going gets rough here in the United States. Though many other people want to escape the expected onslaught from the second Trump Reich, most of us do not have the privileged means to do so. Besides, many of us do not have an interest in abandoning our country.
Learning to fly
The fantasy – or even the reality – of flying away in hard times is nothing new. The hoped-for escape many of us are dreaming of reminds me of the poignantly identifiable 1992 Hollywood film, Radio Flyer, with Mike (Elijah Wood as the child and Tom Hanks as the adult), his younger brother Bobby (Joseph Mazzello), mother Mary (Lorraine Bracco), stepfather “The King” (Adam Baldwin), and the boy’s trusted German Shepard, Shane (Vilos).
The adult Mike watches as his two young sons fight over an unkept promise one makes to the other. To teach them about the importance of keeping a promise, Mike tells the boys a story about a promise he made to his younger brother Bobby when they were young.
It began in 1969. Following Mike and Bobby’s parents’ divorce, their mother packed the old station wagon with essential belongings, and having very little money, the three traveled the expansive country from their New Jersey home to stay with Mary’s aunt and uncle in Novato, California.
Soon after arriving, Mary met her future husband, a construction worker whom her children called “The King.” Following the wedding, the four members of this blended family moved to a modest suburban home with green grass on every lawn, a backyard, garbage can-lined alleyways, and plenty of other young children.
All seemed idyllic until The King took Mike and Bobby on a fishing trip. Bobby was the first to catch a fish and began to reel it in. The King, who had been consuming large amounts of beer, slapped Bobby in the face for pulling too hard and breaking the fishing line, letting the creature escape.
This was the first time the boys had any indication that The King was not the good man he had purported to be. A few days after arriving back home at night in their shared bedroom, Mike noticed dark bruise marks down Bobby’s back.
Bobby pleaded with Mike not to tell their mom because she was finally happy now with her new husband. So as not to upset Mary, the boys promised to attempt to solve the problem of The King on their own.
In his narration of the story, adult Mike told his sons what he refers to as “the seven lost secret fascinations and abilities” of children, which they have until they enter puberty between their 12th and 13th years.
The “fascinations and abilities” are that animals can talk; your favorite blanket is woven from fabric so mighty that once pulled over your head, it becomes an impenetrable force field; nothing is too heavy to lift with the aid of a cape; when your forefinger is out and thumb up, your hand actually fires bullets; jumping from any height with an umbrella is completely safe; monsters exist and can be both seen and done battle with; and the greatest, most special and regrettable loss of all is the ability to fly.
They see the monster in The King every day when he comes home, reaches into the refrigerator to grab several beers, and retreats into the garage to listen to Hank Williams’s Jambalaya (On the Bayou) on his record player, all while Mary is working double shifts as a server at a local diner.
The brothers ordered an anti-monster potion in the mail to keep The King at bay. When the experiment goes terribly wrong and explodes on the kitchen stove, his stepfather ultimately beats Bobby, hospitalizing him with heavy bruises and cuts. The dog, Shane, took revenge by violently biting the man on his arm.
After spending some time in jail for child abuse, he came to Mary pleading to be taken back and promising never to drink or abuse again. But he soon violated his commitment and seriously injured Shane.
The boys then devised a plan for Bobby and Shane to escape the monster. Inspired by the story of a boy named Fisher who attempted to fly away on his bicycle over a cliff nicknamed “The Wishing Spot,” the brothers concocted a plan to transform their Radio Flyer toy wagon into an airplane in the hopes of uplifting Bobby and Shane away from harm.
They draw up an immaculate diagram with wings and an engine made from scavenged junk yard parts and an old lawn mower motor they found in an abandoned shed.
They secretly used The King’s tools they found in the garage and assembled all the parts into an elegant flying machine.
On the day Bobby and Shane were to lift off, Mike left a farewell letter for their mother on the kitchen table, telling her that Bobby and Shane would be leaving forever. The brothers then took their super-powered Radio Flyer to the cliff by night. The King, however, discovered their plans and drove his truck to the cliff. In his attempt to save his young pals, Shane jumped from the Flyer and ferociously attacked The King.
Bobby was then able to speed down the hill alone, knocking out The King with the wing of his plane. Toward the bottom of the hill, Bobby jubilantly soared into the air as Mike and Shane looked on in raptured amazement. Mary arrived at the scene with police officers, who arrested The King.
Bobby was never seen again. Occasionally, he sent Mike and his mother postcards announcing his latest travels on his around the world victory excursion.
The older Mike concluded his story by telling his sons: “That’s how I remember it.”
So many questions remain, however. How can a couple of young boys build a flying machine that can circumnavigate the globe? Did this really happen? Did Bobby die? Did Bobby ever truly exist?
Though the film’s director, Richard Donner, told the press that the film should be taken at face value, many theories have been put forward claiming that the film can be understood as an allegory for overcoming bullies and tyrants. In addition, it is possible that there was never a younger brother Bobby, and that the stepfather actually brutalized Mike.
Being too painful to acknowledge, Mike, in psychological parlance, may have disassociated from the trauma by inventing Bobby, the younger and physically weaker brother, to absorb the brutality. Possibly, Bobby did once exist, but The King had killed him. Mike could have kept the story of the mighty Radio Flyer to preserve his beloved brother alive in his imagination.
When monsters are real
I see a clear analogy in the plot of this film to the current era. Donald Trump, as the would-be King (monster), has the potential of turning back many of the gains progressive people have made, especially since the end of his First Reich in 2021.
I disagree somewhat with the adult Mike character in the film, who concludes that “the seven secret fascinations and abilities” of children disappear during puberty. Possibly, these can be retained, though transformed, for all of us who are past our adolescence and even past our middle years.
I know monsters exist and “can be seen and done battle with.” Oh, maybe not the kind of ugly creatures in horror movies and science fiction, but instead, the type that attempts to destroy our democratic institutions, the type that bullies us from the religious pulpit and from Congress to the Oval Office to the individual state legislatures.
The anti-monster potions, in these cases, are composed of the good people who join together in coalition against much greater powers to save and expand our democracy for “we the people.”
Characters in Radio Flyer represent in microcosm the four subgroups in the larger drama of tyrannies and genocides perpetrated throughout history.
1. The King as the perpetrators, the leaders (including the head(s) of state, oligarchs, and kleptocrats) along with their conspiratorial followers who perpetrate the oppression by neglect and/or intent and design.
2. Mary as the bystanders who consciously or unconsciously know what the perpetrators are doing but remain in denial and do not intervene.
3. Mike as the upstanders who consciously resist the perpetrators by intervening to improve conditions.
4. Bobby as the marginalized, scapegoated victim who alone is powerless to improve his plight.
Regarding the Holocaust, the bystanders might not have known at the time that they held the balance of power. If they had the understanding and courage to transform themselves into upstanders, the Holocaust may never have become a reality.
I am reminded of a time we had another would-be autocrat in the Oval Office. During Ronald Reagan’s presidency, in the face of the enormous threat of HIV/AIDS and an intransigent administration that refused to take effective action, we didn’t just sit back. Many of us consciously chose not to be among the bystanders. We mobilized.
The women’s healthcare empowerment movement predates AIDS, as recorded in the ground-breaking work, Our Bodies, Our Selves. By the time the effects of HIV were first felt, a grassroots network of medical, social, political, and informational organizations had already been put in place. Some of us, who under other circumstances would probably not have engaged in political organizing, were spurred into activism by the crisis.
Queer and heterosexual people were at the forefront of a coordinated effort to provide care and support for people with HIV/AIDS. Existing women’s and LGBTQ+ community service centers expanded their services, and new centers were established to serve the needs of people with HIV/AIDS: people of all races, socioeconomic classes, sexual and gender identities, and their loved ones.
In addition, we must not overlook an irony: LGBTQ+ people developed safer sex strategies and educational campaigns, and we remain some of the leaders in prevention efforts. Just think about it: LGBTQ+ people created these strategies, and we continue to teach heterosexual people, all people, how to decrease their risks of infection.
We also faulted the very system on which U.S.-American medicine was based, and we declared that clinical drug trials and drug distribution procedures as were then constructed were inhumane and highly exclusionary.
Subsequently, by 1986, militant direct-action groups of largely young people known as ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) were organized. A network of local chapters quickly grew in over 120 cities throughout the world. I contributed my efforts to the Boston chapter.
Though independently developed and run, the network connected efforts under the theme “Silence = Death” beneath an inverted pink triangle, turning upside down the insignia the Nazis forced men accused of homosexuality to wear in German concentration camps.
We reclaimed the pink triangle, the ultimate stigmata of oppression, and turned it into a symbol of empowerment to lift people out of lethargy and denial and as a call to action to counter the crisis. We cared for the community in an era of government apathy, malevolence, and abandonment.
So here we are again, joining to build the bulwarks to thwart the destruction of our democratic institutions as manifested in the ultra-right Project 2025, which takes its inspiration and program from its German edition exactly 100 years ago.
Social justice educators Pat Griffin and Bobbie Harro have created their “Action Continuum,” listing the full array of positions people take on a scale from “Perpetrating Oppression” on one extreme to “Confronting Oppression” on the other:
· Actively Participating in the oppression
· Denying, which enables the oppression
· Recognizing the oppression but taking no action
· Educating Self to learn more about the oppression
· Educating Others in mutual understanding through dialogue
· Supporting and Encouraging others also to become involved
· Initiating positive change to reduce and prevent further oppression
Now, as the Trump regime stands ready to retake power, he has again whipped up destructive Category 5 hurricane-force political winds, and he has left a collective national (possibly worldwide) traumatic stress disorder in its wake.
Trump’s First Reich was a contentious, divisive, Tweet-storming, scandal-plagued era from which the people of our nation suffer from a collective and all-consuming sense of PTSD (President Trump Stress Disorder).
He has twisted the acronym for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to DIE, as in death of a diverse, equitable, and inclusive society.
His forces have been readying to launch a newer and fiercer sustained backlash to turn back progressive social change.
Not only has Trump threatened to dismantle DEI initiatives, but he has also talked about getting rid of the so-called “administrative state,” a term describing the power that some government agencies have to write, judge, and enforce their own laws. The far-right, led by Trump, claims that this “administrative state” has gone after Trump and his cronies throughout the Biden administration.
Once referred to by Trump as “the swamp,” the President-elect and his conspirators allege that the deep state, a clandestine cabal within the federal government, especially the FBI and CIA), have been plotting, in conjunction with high-level financial and industrial entities and leaders, to exert extreme power against anyone and any entity not aligned with its agenda.
In psychology, we refer to this as projection: accusing others of actions the accusers themselves are guilty of perpetrating.
But all is not hopeless. Following a grieving process, we can pick ourselves and others up and organize our defenses. We need not disassociate. We need not enter the realms of denial.
For in the immortal words of Benjamin Franklin, “We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.”
