E Pluribus Unum. One for all and all for one. Anyone see former presidents Clinton, Bush, Carter step onto America’s battlefield? Lend a hand? Offer an encouraging word? Stand behind the White House?
We the people hating, demonizing one another, survived two world wars, a Great Depression, the Cold War — did our parents and grandparents make mistakes? Sure, but they’d have opposed the current madness.
Monday’s brutality exhibited an oddity. Plowing through our city’s wildness, one man, safely walking through the madness, said: “They cared only about two things. Destroying the shops. And carting away merchandise.”
Seems not such a brilliant idea to open jails and let the criminal pros have a go at us. Possibly those we’ve elected, lame and sympathetic as some of their kin may be, should creep from behind their microphones and security and join the throng.
One effort at solution? Leadership. There is no cohesion. No Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Intelligence on both sides, not professional rabble-rousers. The demonstrators need to martial their various issues. We all have personal complaints. Gods gave each of us mouths. But if we don’t coalesce and cobble together some agreement, we’ll be like many on this globe. At war forever.
Palestinians and Israel, 72 years. Iraq and the Kurds, nearly 90 years. That where we’re headed? Combatants need to sit around a table, select leadership, and each present its issues. I mean, where else you want to live — Syria? Afghanistan? North Korea? Hong Kong?
You don’t like our country? Listen up — it beats the s–t out of Saudi Arabia.
SI guy’s on-screen story
“SNL’s” Pete Davidson — linked 10 minutes to Ariana Grande, Kate Beckinsale, Kaia Gerber — is in Judd Apatow’s new comedy “The King of Staten Island.” Pete co-writes.
Apatow: “It’s Pete’s opportunity to tell about himself. His feelings. Question was how biographical should this be. We decided completely fictional but an imagination of what Pete’s life could’ve been if he didn’t find comedy and dream of being a tattoo artist. He did drugs. Rehab. Troubled life.”
His character deals with life after the death of his firefighter father. In real life, Davidson’s fireman father lost his life on 9/11. Pete said, “The movie’s my love letter to my mom. Like, I got to a place where I could kind of let go a little bit.”
Marisa Tomei plays his mom. Real mom Amy says Pete’s journey’s one of struggle. “Hard for him to recover. Only recently he’s finding his way and being OK.”
“King of Staten Island” starts June 12 on demand.
Food-and-beverage biz in the tank
Decimated in the pandemic is NYC’s hospitality industry: 2,400 ballrooms and venues that accommodate weddings, openings, closings, bar mitzvahs, whatevers booked a year in advance with orchestras and seated dinners for 2000.
It’s owners, landlords, food and beverage specialists, executive chefs, caterers, barkeeps, designers, planners, bookers, stationers, stewards, florists. The Arthur Backal Hospitality Group, Mandarin Oriental, Rainbow Room, Pierre, Plaza, Waldorf, Ziegfeld, etc.
During a plague, we think Shakespeare wrote “King Lear.” During this plague, the $3.8 billion-a-year event industry’s writing IOUs.
Remember spiritualist Marianne Williamson put herself up for president twixt such fellow Spam sandwiches as Andrew Yang and Burpie Sanders? James Fragale says she may yet have Oval Office hopes. Despite a platform that drew thunderous ughs, she’s packed up lock, stock and the Bible and moved to DC.
Now, not only for New York, kids, but for America — Noah . . . please, the Ark.
Source: Read Full Article
