1. We watched Dawn of the Planet of the Apes last night.
It’s an excellent movie, but it was uncomfortable for me to watch. I
was hoping that there would be peace and mutual understanding between
the humans and the apes. Caesar was fair-minded as the leader of the
apes, and so was Malcolm on the human side. But I knew that peaceful,
tolerant co-existence was not to be. And I dreaded what was about to
come.
Incidentally, Rise of the Planet of the Apes also made me uncomfortable. I just don’t like seeing animals being abused.
2. Mario Cuomo passed on. I have long known about him. I first
heard of him through a book of 1988 political cartoons that I loved to
read and reread when I was a kid, since there was speculation that he
would run for President that year. Cuomo was also the father of my
state’s current governor, Andrew Cuomo.
I don’t know much about his governorship, but I have been reading
that he was able to balance the budget and lower the state income tax,
all while making a society that cared for the vulnerable and
marginalized. I wonder how he did that!