By ALEX PECHA
Contributing Writer
I find it very, very difficult to take a movement that is all about “being realistic,” and often calls out the left for being too sensitive, seriously when they can’t even take a simple statement of opinion without calling for a boycott and talking about harassment.
In case you didn’t guess what I’m talking about, very recently there was an incident at a performance of the hit Broadway show “Hamilton” when Vice-President Elect Mike Pence attended a performance of the show. At the end of the show the actor who plays one of the lead roles, that of once-Vice President Aaron Burr, gave a quick speech written by Lin-Manuel Miranda with help from the shows director, producer and the cast members. Now before I go on I think it’s important to the context of this article and my thoughts to have you read exactly what was said by Victor Dixon, the actor who plays Aaron Burr:
“You know, we have a guest in the audience this evening, Vice President elect Pence, I see you walking out but I hope you hear just a few more moments. There’s nothing to boo, ladies and gentlemen. There’s nothing to boo. We’re all here sharing a story of love. We have a message for you sir, we hope you will hear us out.
And I encourage everybody to pull out your phones and tweet and post because this message needs to be spread far and wide.
Vice President-Elect Pence, we welcome you and we truly thank you for joining us here at Hamilton: An American Musical. We really do.
We, sir, are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us: our planet, our children, our parents or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us. All of us.
Thank you truly for seeing this show, this wonderful American story told by a diverse group of men, women of different colors, creeds and orientations.”
To me, my initial reaction was one of understanding and appreciation. That was a great heartfelt message from concerned citizens. Even when the crowd started booing the Vice President the actor called for calm, as you can clearly see in the write up of what he said above.
This was a group of citizens and performers using an obvious chance to express their opinion. They did so in a respectful but firm way.
So why did our President-Elect, a man responsible for so much division already, a man who should be helping heal this country, call the situation harassment and say the cast should apologize? Frankly, what kind of bull***t is that?
How can we expect our President to run a country when he can’t take basic criticism? Not even harsh criticism, just reasonable concern voiced by people who saw a chance to use their voice for good.
Trump’s reaction, being as childish and boorish as it is, isn’t what really bothers me though. It’s the people who are saying people should boycott the show for various reasons that really get under my skin.
Their reasons vary, some say that theater isn’t the place for political opinions, some say that the actors have no right to talk “down” to the Vice-President elect, some are mad at the audience members who booed.
So just to be clear, the same people okay with when Clint Eastwood talked to a chair on stage are somehow not okay when a few actors take the time to air a plea of understanding. The same people okay with burning an effigy of a sitting President aren’t okay with a few people booing. For the people who are calling out the left for being hypocritical lately the hypocrisy here insults my intelligence on a level not felt since I first heard about the anti-vaccination movement.
In case you haven’t taken the time to do the research or listen to the soundtrack Hamilton is a very political play already. Using the life of Alexander Hamilton to bring up points about immigration, economics, class-ism and self-determination in a society already against you. I’m over-simplifying of course but the take-away here is that the show is intrinsically political, this isn’t a production of Phantom of the Opera. So to expect some unheard of level of “professionalism” is just silly, especially considering the show that this was made at.
Also how was this at all harassment? They politely voiced an opinion in less than 5 minutes and told the crowd to be calm, and they thanked him profusely for enjoying the show, they didn’t call him names, tell him they hated him. They reached out and asked that he think of people like them and the characters in the show when he’s in charge. That’s not a terrible statement.
It really goes into this whole idea I’ve been grappling with lately, this idea that since our side lost we have to stay quiet. We can’t protest, we need to get over it, we need to move forward.
No.
For 8 years, before I even had formed my political opinions I had to hear constantly about Obama, how he was ruining the country, how the Democrats were Satan and un-American. I am so done hearing about how we have to behave now and just help with the transfer of power and be good citizens.
Now to be clear I’m not saying we should go riot or even say that we should dispute Trumps presidency in any way. But this whole situation proves that even when we try and make a positive message in the kindest way we can with the best of intentions we will be degraded for it.
So we’re going to sit here and complain, we’re going to sit here and disagree with everything Trump and Pence say in whatever law-abiding way we can; myself included. We tried nice, and we still got yelled at for it.
To quote to very show that started this whole rant:
“It’s better to be divisive than indecisive, drop the niceties.”
