"...surrounded by kids on their 8th grade field trips ..."

Since tomorrow is a typical busy Saturday for me I thought I'd get a jump on its post. I wasn't accurate in the tease from earlier today. The next clue is in my second, not my first post. The title of that post was, "People don't talk like that anymore" and is from ... National Treasure (2004)

This is one of my go to movies. When I'm bored or need to just run away from the world for two hours and eleven minutes. As I've looked at the movies I've suggested there are definite themes to what I see as patriotic. Idealism and sacrifice. Speaking truth to power both as an individual or an institution. Rememberance, creation and innovation. For me, patriotism is seeing what is good and right and next to be done to ensure that opportunity for my children and grandchildren. Benjamin Frankln Gates is an excellent example. Riley Poole too, I think. His trust in Gates isn't blind. He is one of funniest character created for film lately. But, he gets a moment or two of Ben Gates-like insight. I like his line in the second movie, "Ben, if it were you trying to convince me, you'd have less evidence and I'd already believe you by now."

Yes, it is a silly movie and requires a suspension of both reality and physics. But ... it asks an interesting question. How far would you go to protect an ideal?

Up next: The patriotic gangster