Silkwood, Ghandi & other media types

In 1985 I saw the movie, Silkwood, in the mountain town of Esteli in Nicaragua. The copy of the film was so old the English sound track was incomprehensible and I read the Spanish subtitles to follow the story line. On my way home that night I encountered a cow in the middle of the city street, one of the more disorienting juxtapositions of my time there. Here's a product of today's writers group:

Another One

We need another one, always one more, a different color, shape, sex, composition. "When," she asked, holding the martini glass aloft, "is enough enough?"

"Basta!" Karen Silkwood proclaimed, dying of radiation poisoning in that flea-ridden cinema in Esteli. "Basta! You've made your point. Overkill won't kill me any faster. I'm done. I hope another one with courage will stand up to take my place - Erin Brockovich or Michael Moore. We can always use another Ghandi to speak the truth, confront the lie that silence equals safety."

Young children can see clearly. Our job may be to rediscover clarity before we say basta to life and cash in our chips, kick the bucket, buy the farm or design our own cliche to describe the end. For it will come, oh yes it will. It moves toward us with every breath. We can lift another glass of distraction and denial...the end is patient, until its appointed time when the bell will toll, the clock will chime, the dog will howl at a waning winter moon.