oct 27, 2010
in dayton, ohio. had some squash and pumpkin lasagna for dinner at winds cafe in yellow springs – a v hippie town about 30 minutes away. talked to two lovely ladies, who’ve organized the screening of my film. now off to bed. the screening’s tomorrow and they tell me there might be some resistance in the audience cuz this is still the bible belt. oh well, keeps things interesting.
oct 28, 2010
report on ohio screening: about 200 people. v diverse audience. extremely heated discussion. most people were open-minded but there was a sizable chunk of the aggressively defensive. one man complained that saying “violence begets violence” is anti-american (that’s pretty deep actually). a lebanese christian woman claimed that muslims want to spread islam by the sword (how original). but the moment i totally lost her was when she iterated that iraqis r converting to christianity en masse because of the love and good deeds of christian american soldiers. (one word: wikileaks). another woman became impassioned about how americans were fighting in iraq to give the iraqi people the freedom to practice their religion (say what?). a woman who had “many muslim friends” was more than happy to treat muslims decently but hey, they all wanna kill her and she’s just trying to survive. “i just want to live” said she. aie aie aie. my mantra for the evening: watch democracy now!
oh yes, my biggest supporter throughout the Q&A: a beautiful young woman sitting in the front row. she came to hug me later and was v upset at how ignorant many in the audience were. she was the wife of a young soldier who has just returned from iraq. she began to cry as she explained he had told her about the reality of the war in iraq. it was v moving for me to meet her.
also, thank u to sinclair community college for this cutting edge work on diversity, for reaching out to the community and trying to educate, and for their incredible incredible warmth and hospitality.