American History X

Stayed home on Friday night instead of going to UWCCF. Yes, yes, I know, I should’ve went to fellowship, but I skipped for good reason. Some people on our building watched the film American History X, some for the first time like me, and others just again because of the nature of the film. I can easily say that this movie is definitely among the most powerful I’ve seen. If you haven’t seen it, I strongly urge you to go see it, but you should know that it’s quite graphic, and not for the squeamish. Without spoiling it, it’s basically a film on extreme racism in urban America and the ramifications of your actions. I don’t want to say very much about the film itself, ‘cause I think everyone should see it for themselves. But I really have to say that I was absolutely taken aback at what the movie said. The events in the movie sorta seem extreme and exaggerated to a sheltered little Chinese boy like me, but I can still tell that stuff like that still happens today. It just really makes you think about humanity itself and all the cruelty we’ve caused each other and just how it’s all so stupid. We had a discussion amongst ourselves after the movie had ended and it was really amazing to see everyone’s reaction and points of view. It was a wakeup call for a lot of people. In our building (and the building next to us) we’re stressing “community language”, which basically means to do less swearing and really think about what you’re saying. And I think the movie really hit me in the sense that I tend to used to use “gay” in a very negative context. And for you who know me, you probably know that I don’t mean that in a hurtful way to homosexuals, but it can and probably is offensive to many people anyway. So consciously it’s just stuff like this I’m going to have to cut back on and eliminate in my life. I remember a sermon a couple weeks back when the preacher said, “Nothing you do in life affects only you. Don’t ever think that your actions only hurt yourself, because they don’t.” An interesting coincidence this afternoon too. My buddy and I were watching Gladiator (no, I don’t usually watch so many movies, but you know…), and the whole message of American History X hit again. “What we do in this lifetime, echoes an eternity” – Maximus Decimus Meridius.