"War Made Easy" to Be Shown May 5 at Unitarian Church
Saturday, April 14, 2012 • 3:32pm
War Made Easy, a searing documentary exposing how governments of both parties have sold wars to the American people over the past 50 years, will be shown at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 5, at The Unitarian Church in Summit, 4 Waldron Avenue (at Springfield Avenue).
Everyone is welcome to this free presentation, sponsored by Moving Toward Peace at the Summit congregation and Seeds of Peace at Morristown Unitarian Fellowship. Light refreshments will be served. Small group discussions will be held afterwards.
Actor Sean Penn narrates the 70-minute film, which features media critic and anti-war activist Norman Solomon, author of several books on what he sees as complicity between the media and presidential administrations of both parties in promoting war. War Made Easy is based on Solomon’s 2005 book by the same name.
The documentary weaves archival footage from World War II to the present to illustrate a 50-year pattern of government deception and media spin. It gives special attention to the wars in Vietnam and Iraq with disturbing parallels between the public statements and propaganda of past and present political leaders and journalists.
Solomon’s thesis “touches on the historical nature of propaganda, bombing raids approved under the pretense of political ‘altruism’ and the manipulation of news media through omitted facts and outright lies designed to encourage pro-war sentiment,” wrote Jeff Shannon of the Seattle Times when the film was released in 2007. The movie was an official selection at international film festivals in Amsterdam, Montreal and Vancouver that same year.
Solomon is a nationally syndicated columnist on Media and Politics who has written the weekly “Media Beat” column since 1992. He is now running for the Democratic nomination in the newly created 2ndCongressional District of California, which includes Marin County and Mendocino.
On Memorial Day weekend, the Summit Unitarian congregation plans to take down its Human Toll of War display of ribbons, which has hung on the columns of the church since the summer of 2008. The Moving Toward Peace group created the exhibit with a ribbon for every American service person killed up to that time and additional ribbons for Iraqi security forces and civilians lost.
The focus will now be placed on how best to help our country’s veterans and their families. The weekend after Memorial Day, the group will show the film The Welcome, a prize-winning documentary on the difficulties of many vets, both men and women, as they return home from conflicts, many after repeated tours of duty. The free showing is scheduled for 7 p.m. Saturday, June 2, at the Summit church.
