just watched an awesome movie called "Veronica Guerin". The movie is a true story about an Irish woman reporter that was concerned about the drug problem starting to run rampant in 1994. She basically did her job well, no one would listen to her, not the police nor politicians, until she gets assassinated for getting to close to exposing the "bad guys", and then everyone listens and does something about the problem. Crime rate dropped in Dublin by 15%, more people got angry and involved etc...... same ole same ole when society's citizens wake up.
Typical really. It's easy to blow off stuff when we think it will cause us more trouble than we want to deal with because of our fear of the backlash. But when someone as public and famous as Veronica Guerin gets assassinated, people notice... so politicians jump to action. I think it's truly sad that it takes an assassination to force action from public officials and concerned citizens.
(we have never had anything like this happen in the US.... ***cough cough***civil rights***cough***movement***cough***a hummmm.. or even non famous, but political in nature just by being in existence, like Matthew Sheppard).
This phenomena deeply saddens and scares me. I'm glad positive social change occurs as a result (some of the time)... but why must we be hit over the head with blunt objects to take notice. nothing about today's political environment rings true to this *said with much sarcasm*.
I highly recommend this film. I've been reading up on it and apparently the writers of the film did not do Veronica Guerin professional justice and made her look "flighty" and "dumb" (as some of the critics put it), it still is worth the watch. Apparently she was much more brilliant and professionally established than the writers portrayed. Cate Blanchette does a fabulous job with what she was given. But the bottom line that makes the story very engaging is the story itself, no matter how poorly it was written. I actually enjoyed the movie very much, but I tend to look for the point and the reason behind the making of the story when it's based on real life occurrences.
p.s. I deeply admire this woman, and other women that have been murdered, raped, beat, and so on, for standing up for a cause they deeply believe in... not backing down even though they know first hand how dangerous the men (usually) in power can be. These women are the true modern day Zenas
