OPINION:
As we prepare for the second act of President Obama’s “fundamental transformation” of a country he and his wife find lacking, I challenge Hollywood to remind us of exactly what he would see undone: merely the greatest application of liberty among humans forever tempted to abuse power.
I’m not suggesting Hollywood make a dry documentary. Rather, it ought to shoot the riveting story of an illegitimate son of the West Indies, a boy who grew up to fight alongside George Washington in the Revolution, a man who laid every brick in America’s financial foundation, who waged intriguing political chess with four men who would be president, who was duped by a seductress and blackmailed by her sleazy husband, a man who was shot dead by America’s sitting vice president: Alexander Hamilton.
Hollywood, quit embarrassing yourselves with throwaway reality shows. Take us on a rollicking ride that ends in 1804, when two rowboats reach a meaningful “Jersey shore” on a murky July dawn.
Like the HBO miniseries on John Adams, you ought to spend hours and go deep into the vibrant life of Hamilton, our most analytical founder. Dredge up his terrible childhood. Track the meteoric rise. Expose the insurmountable flaws. Astonish us with each interlocking system this genius put into place to breathe life and breadth into an infant nation.
Take us back to when incredibly gifted men crafted a miracle of self-checking government, a miracle that would both trigger and survive the end of slavery’s evil. A miracle to which only the arrogant and ungrateful would dare take a jackhammer.
ROBERT SZYPULSKI
Irwin, Pa.
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