The Writer’s Strike: Taking Care of Our Neighbors

Small communities are rather wonderful. I like the way people take care of each other—watch each other’s backs. Today I went to our nearby (45 minutes is nearby around here) town. I put tires on my husband’s car and bought another to replace a flat on my car.Ouch, real spendy type money.

Vernon–in small towns everyone has a name and a past and a family—Vernon filled out my bill and marked paid as he waited for my credit card to cycle through the machine. The box balked and wouldn’t run the plastic so he tried again and again. No luck.

“Well,” I said, “I’ll be in town tomorrow. I could pay you then.” (I hadn’t planned on being there but I could make the run if need be.)

Vernon nodded, “That’d be fine.” He handed me my receipt.

I started to leave then realized the bill had already been marked paid. If I walked out no one but Vern and I would know that I hadn’t yet coughed up any cash. “You want to change the paid part, in case I decide to be a criminal and not come back?” I grinned as I passed the paper across the counter.

He raised his eyebrows at me. “You planning on playing the criminal?”

“No.”

He handed the bill back. “Didn’t figure you were…. See you tomorrow.”

Now the writers are another small community. Film and TV writers might seem like folks that don’t have much in common with you and me. But they do. And their strike is important to all of us. Here’s why. And if you’re like me and don’t always click on those links, here’s a summary. Toni Causey makes a strong case that if the writers’ fold then the corporations that control so much of media already will soon control even more. She argues, and I just agree, that when these corporations command content, as they will if the writers lose, then the audience (that’s you and me folks) will be force fed ideas with no counter information—One voice in the media, one mind in the masses. As one of those ‘masses,’ my brain kind of cringes at the thought.

So let’s say you agree with Causey and with me. What can you do to help out your neighboring community that has provided you with entertainment for so many years? Supporters online have come up with some all around great ideas. According to Joss Whedon (Firefly), the group, Fans 4 Writers, has excited the Writers’ Guild with its smart use of the internet. Whedon says that the union wants “to show the studios that there are no longer two sides to this struggle; there are three. The audience has a voice, and a right to be heard.”

So let’s take care of our neighbors.Pay attention to the strike.Talk about it (What’s a neighborhood without gossip). Write about it.And, if you’re in the area, bake some cookies or take over a casserole to the picketers.If you’re not, maybe you could send some cashy money.‘Cause remember our neighbors, the writers, need us to lend a hand.

I’ll see Vern tomorrow. And I’m helping the writers today. That’s just what neighbors do.

_____________

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max
Guest
max
16 years ago

Thank you Kym for posting about this. Smooch!

Heather
Guest
16 years ago

What a timely piece – and speaking of timely: Just last night David & I watched our Netflix movie that has been sitting in front of our television since before our mid-October trip to NoCal. I never know before the dvd is in the player and the main menu shows up, what the title is. Last night it was “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”. It’s a documentary exposing the MPAA (movie raters, for those who don’t know) as a secretive and controlling entity with all kinds of collusion with the major studios and theater owners. It sounds to me like this would be an informative and enlightening film to the strikers and their sympathizers. It was to me.

Heather
Guest
16 years ago

What a timely piece – and speaking of timely: Just last night David & I watched our Netflix movie that has been sitting in front of our television since before our mid-October trip to NoCal. I never know before the dvd is in the player and the main menu shows up, what the title is. Last night it was “This Film Is Not Yet Rated”. It’s a documentary exposing the MPAA (movie raters, for those who don’t know) as a secretive and controlling entity with all kinds of collusion with the major studios and theater owners. It sounds to me like this would be an informative and enlightening film to the strikers and their sympathizers. It was to me.

Staff
Member
16 years ago

I’ll have to see if I can’t rent that. Sounds like it would give me some insight into how, once again, the media is controlled by just a few.

Heather
Guest
16 years ago

Just a note about the film, you might not want the littlest moppet to see it 😀

Heather
Guest
16 years ago

Just a note about the film, you might not want the littlest moppet to see it 😀

Jen
Guest
Jen
16 years ago

There’s been a lot of misinformation flung around about the Writer’s strike. They’re not using the internet forum as effectively as they could.
As one who is both solid Union and a writer, I know that they’re arguing for more than first class tickets on airplanes. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen too many reasonable rebuttals for the perception that they’re “out for more money”.
Yours is the first. Love this.

Jen
Guest
Jen
16 years ago

There’s been a lot of misinformation flung around about the Writer’s strike. They’re not using the internet forum as effectively as they could.
As one who is both solid Union and a writer, I know that they’re arguing for more than first class tickets on airplanes. Unfortunately, I haven’t seen too many reasonable rebuttals for the perception that they’re “out for more money”.
Yours is the first. Love this.

Chris
Guest
16 years ago

I particularly like the way you stitched together the pesonal and local with the plight of the writers who are, for most of us, far from our everyday community experience.

Ray
Guest
Ray
16 years ago

Wanna get good and gorram mad?

Go here:

http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodinterrupted

Take five minutes and watch the 3 (rather funny, and, well-written) YouTube videos explaining what the studios are trying to do to the writers.

-Raycheetah ='[.]’=

Ray
Guest
Ray
16 years ago

Wanna get good and gorram mad?

Go here:

http://www.myspace.com/hollywoodinterrupted

Take five minutes and watch the 3 (rather funny, and, well-written) YouTube videos explaining what the studios are trying to do to the writers.

-Raycheetah ='[.]’=

Staff
Member
16 years ago

Thanks, I hope as the writers and their friends mobilize that opinion swings their way.

Ren
Guest
Ren
16 years ago

Earlier this year a paint store let me take my purchase without paying anything even though it was a chain and I had never been there before. I just promised to pay them the next day. I had simply forgotten my cash. That made me feel good, but most things in SF do!

Ren
Guest
Ren
16 years ago

Earlier this year a paint store let me take my purchase without paying anything even though it was a chain and I had never been there before. I just promised to pay them the next day. I had simply forgotten my cash. That made me feel good, but most things in SF do!

Staff
Member
16 years ago

Wow, here I was thinking that its small town people that trust people but apparently the trust thing happens in big cities too. So much for more my analogy:>

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