Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
No, sir, there’s no compromise with truth. That’s all I got up on this floor to say.
Just get up off the ground, that’s all I ask. Get up there with that lady that is up on top of this Capitol dome–that lady that stands for liberty, take a look at this country through her eyes if you really want to see something and you won’t just see scenery–you’ll see the whole parade of what man’s carved out for himself after centuries of fighting and fighting for something better than just jungle law, fighting so’s he can stand on his own two feet– free and decent, like he was created– no matter what his race, color or creed. That’s what you’ll see. There’s no place out there for graft or greed or lies or compromise with human liberties. And if that’s what the grown-ups have done to this world that was given to them we’d better get those boy’s camps started fast and see what the kids can do and it is not too late because this country is bigger than the Taylors, or you or me, or anything else. Great principles don’t get lost once they come to light. They’re right here. You just have to see them.
I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don’t know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for, and he fought for them once, for the only reason that any man ever fights for them. Because of just one plain, simple rule, “Love thy neighbor,” and in this world today, full of hatred, a man who knows that one rule has a great trust. You knew that rule, Mr. Paine, and I loved you for it, just as my father did. And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any others. Yes, you’d even die for them, like a man we both know, Mr. Paine. You think I’m licked. You all think I’m licked. Well, I’m not licked and I’m going to stay right here and fight for this lost cause even if this room gets filled with lies like these, and the Taylors and all their armies come marching into this place.
Mr. Smith goes to Washington: See it.
The main character, Mr. Smith, is a “Daniel Boone” sent to the big city as a senator. Through a series of actions and inadvertently discovering a huge criminal political machine, he is framed by the political gangsters from his own state (including his fellow senator, who essentially betrays him). He does a filibuster to stop the senate from kicking him out, and talks for 24 hours nonstop – no bathroom, water, food, even sitting down- because he is so passionate and desperate for the other senators to hear what he has to say. All he seeks is for his fellow senators to hear the truth, to end corruption, to uphold the principles that this country was founded on like they had sworn to do. In the end, he wins, (it’s a movie from the Great Depression Era, so what do you expect?).
But the point is not entirely that he wins the battle for truth against fellow man. It is what he had that got him there. Passion. Zeal. A heart that sought the truth.
If I gain anything from this whole year, I hope it is a passion and zeal to love my neighbor unconditionally, the “simple rule of lost causes.” To have a passion for truth, for Christ. See it.
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
Jean Arthur, James Stewart
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