Dear People of the World (formerly Dear Americans)

The story of the film reminds me of American transwoman, Caitlyn Jenner, who was a Olympic gold medalist named Bruce Jenner.

He turned himself to be a woman at the age of 65 but her sexual preference was the same as before. She loves women.

The story started with a funeral scene and a woman named Claire who lost her bestfriend making a speech.

Her late bestfriend, Laura had been married and had a girl. One day Claire entered Laura's house and saw David, husband of Laura, dressed in woman cloth.

Claire was at first upset but later gradually accepting his feminine part and then attracted to him being a woman. In the end, the two fell in love with each other as two women.

Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation are two seperate matters. Never interlook each other.

The movie is about what is a big deal about gender and sexual orientation.

The actor who played David was excellent in terms of casting and his act as transwoman.

He was kind of a bi-sexual or neutral person but never disgusting. He was beautifully musculine as well as feminine.

In Japan it is said Gods or Buddha are asexual. Gender is what we, humanity defines.

Last week I attended one of LBGT events set forth for Tokyo Rainbow Parade 2016 held on 8 of May. The event was discussion on how family members of LGBT deal with their LGBT member and society. I met a Korean American woman whose daughter turned herself into male at the age of 16. She said she was encouraged by Jenner's coming out and was glad that her son could do the same much earlier age.

As the theme in this movie has become common recently, LGBT lifestyle has become more socially acceptable.

We may be living in a greatest transition period.

P.S. The French song, "Une femme avec moi" was just excellent as the movie as a whole. 

The story is about debate between a dedicated Christian college student and an atheist college professor.

The professor demanded all the students in his course to write "God is dead" following Nietzche words.

But one student protested. Then he was told to explain why he did to the class.

In the end, Christian prevailed and atheists were portrayed as evil.

First half of the film, I was very attracted to the theme of the film but latter half, I found that I had been deceived.

It seems for Christians, atheists are immoral people. Is Christianity so divine? Maybe for westerners, it is foundation of the society. But not for atheist, polytheist Shinto, Budhist or sometimes Christian Japanese like me.

However, it was great opportunity to learn how conservative Christians think about their own faith.

For them, Christian is superior to any other religion. Once one joins Christian organization, it doesn't matter if s/he has different background and they help each other.

It gives them happier life than others.

But scary thing is being big on it could somtimes lead to oppressing others. Once one believes in Jesus Christ, others would be just evils. Among them, atheists, who don't have faith at all are worst. That means such people are to be persecuted.

But didn't Jesus Christ say "Love your neighbors"? Only within their community?  

The film's portrayal of the 19th century South was unrealistic. Although the story took place after the Civil War, portrayal of Blacks was not bad.

Until civil rights era, the old South was wrongly portrayed as if Black people were happy serving white people.

In that film that was the way they were portrayed. Funny thing was they had friendly relationship with their white family. In the first scene, a Black servant woman sat right next to a white boy facing his parents in a carriage. That woman was played by the same actress who played Mammy in the film "Gone with the wind." However, that thing never happened in the old South. Blacks were supposed to sit in the back of a carriage. "Gone with the wind" has the same portrayal as well. Mammy was like mother to white family's daughter.

Maybe that was the problem. The film depiction of the old South was wrongly better than real history.

Great thing about the film was combination of real scene and animation. It is as good as modern time computer graphic technique.

The story of rabbit gives us lesson of how to handle troubles. Even you get away from some troubled place, you never can get away from troubles in life, so you have to deal with it and be smart.

I think that was the core message in the film.

From last December to beginning of this month, I was in Okinawa to join protest activities of locals who are opposed to construction of new military base runways in US Marine Camp Schwab in Nago city, Okinawa.

Why we are opposed has been described in this blog for years. Please read the posts clicking the tag Okinawa.

Especially, this article gives you outline of what is going on there. My letter to US Ambassador to Japan, Caroline Kennedy, daughter of JFK.

While I joined the protest, I used picket board that says "We are Rosa Parks."

Rosa Parks as you may know, is the symbol of refusal to unjust matters. A Black woman who refused to give front seat to white passengers in a bus and was arrested in Montgomery, Alabama, 1955. But her action sparked bus boycott protest led by Dr. Martin Luther King. 9 years later, civil rights Act was passed. A year after that, Dr. King led peaceful march from Selma to Montgomery to call for enactment of voting rights bill. Black people in the Southern states were blocked at voting registration office.

What surprised me was marines reaction to the picket board. Young marines looked positive. I asked one security guard, who was a young white man inside the camp premise, if he knew what it meant. He said smilingly "I know what it means." One Black man driving a car looked at me, smiled and gestured his support. "Rosa Parks" is known to every American.    

I saw the movie, "SELMA" after I got back home in Tokyo. It was a great movie. I found how hard it was for him to do this. A lot of people were hurt and even killed. But he and his followers never gave in.

Interesting thing to know was Dr. King was a very smart man so that he once retreated the march to avoid bloodshed by local police. He filed lawsuit against the Alabama state that bans peaceful march. Then the court made an order to allow the march. He prevailed.

Just like Rosa Parks and Dr. King. we did peaceful protest at the gate of Camp Schwab. Sit-in-protest at the gate that construction vehicles passed through.

Police came and took us from the gate. We never foughtback but just kept sitting down on the ground. I was carried by the police from shoulders to toes.

Protestants do every day. It has been going on for years. There were several injuries and arrests. But we still keep doing this. We cannot stop the construction but at least we are delaying that. We will never give in.

While I joined in the sit-in protest, I really felt like Rosa Parks, Dr. King and their followers in their times. We may be backed up by their souls. 

Thank you, Dr. King and Ms. Rosa Parks. I am proud of being part of this protest activity.

The US government should hear the voice of protestants and halt such stupid construction project. It is as stupid as segregation laws. It is actually what is happening in your own yard.