Anne’s Diary (Page 81)

I would like to tell you a story that seems to me to have helped almost everybody I have told it to, and has certainly helped me.

I have gone on a long and dangerous journey into an unknown world. I don’t remember much about it, except one thing that is extremely clear: I remember a point at which I was given a choice. There was a natural desire to live and survive, and I was looking for ways to do it. But I think that if I hadn’t found a guide, I wouldn’t have made it.
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We expect all politicians and leaders to have ideals and surprisingly, despite the various dirty tricks some of them gotten up to, most of them do. I define ideals as moral goals?to get better education for kids, more housing for the poor, more jobs for the middle class, etc.

But when do ideals become ideology and how do we recognize this when it happens? I define ideology as a plan of action, with a set of specific goals that an individual or group wants to accomplish. There may be ideals behind this, such as world democracy, but an ideologue isn’t flexible about his or her plan. An ideologue sees only one way of doing things: his way.
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I recently saw Michael Moore’s incendiary documentary film “Fahrenheit 911.” There are plenty of comments on the film in the media already, so why should I add mine?– because I disagree with many of the film’s ideas, yet feel it is eminently worth seeing.

One of the recent trends that most upsets me is partisanship: the idea that I’m totally right, so you’re totally wrong. Anyone with half a brain realizes that both sides have ideas that are worth listening to. Good leaders listen to everyone before they make up their minds. Yet we now have partisanship at the highest levels, such as when the President and his cohorts didn’t listen to the CIA’s information that Saddam had no ties to al-Qaeda, because they didn’t want to believe it.
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In the Coming Global Superstorm, Whitley tells the hard-hitting facts about global warming that were shown in the film, "The Day After Tomorrow," which was based on that book. We have readers who also want to know: What was it like to attend a movie premiere?

Along with appearing on a major TV talk show, I guess attending a movie premiere is one of those events that people daydream about. I’ve attended a couple in the past, but this one was the best yet. We met up with Art and Ramona Bell in New York. Since they lead a nocturnal life, due to Art’s late night talk show, they said "Hi" and went right to bed.
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