true-story

Original Source: Star Bulletin

(quote)

"As I was revolving these matters in my mind, while the war was still in progress, I was visited by a sudden feeling of the cruel and unnecessary character of the contest. It seemed to me a return to barbarism, the issue being one which might easily been settled without bloodshed."

This quote from Julia Ward Howe is cited as the background for the initial Mother's Day Proclamation in 1870, born of her call to women to "take counsel with each other (so that) the great human family can live in peace."

Over the decades, the initial focus morphed through pacifism, workers' rights and finally fused itself on the role of the mother as the nurturer of new life, the bond of solidarity in the family and the one whose voice should always cry for peace and justice.

In 1908, Anna Jarvis took up the cause of her mother, Ann, who had organized women to campaign for sanitation and medical care for both sides during the Civil War. The daughter publicized Mother's Day with a celebration in Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church, Grafton, W.Va., attended by more than 400 children with their mothers.

...

Mostly Mother's Day celebrates the gift of life and its continuity, making it the annual event of reflection. We are born, we grow, we appreciate and we reflect. Most of all we harbor that spark of life which the next generation carry, torchlike, into a still troubled world where no mother wants her child to be fodder for war.

(unquote)

Photos courtesy of AP

“There is pleasure in the pathless woods;
There is rapture on the lonely shore;
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more.”

Above excerpt from poem by Lord Byron (1788–1824) is the beginning of the movie based on a true story, of a young top student and athlete Christopher McCandless from Emory University, who donated his savings (all $24,000) to charity and abandoned his car, walked by himself, alone, “Into the Wild”, into Alaska. He burned his social security card, all personal IDs, and family photos, leaving no clue for his well-off family to find him. A very sad journey of a young man at 24 to disconnect himself entirely from society from the moment he burnt the remaining cash in his wallet, a “new birth”, in his words… The perceived hypocrisy in his parents’ and family relationships that he hates most has buried, in a little boy’s heart, a secret bomb of pain, not unlocked in time. He did not make one phone call even to his younger sister, nor did love from acquaintances on the road stop him from a journey obviously leading an innocent to apparent danger. Does the young man “love not man the less, but Nature more”?

Released by Paramount Vantage. Running time: 140 minutes. Starring Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, and William Hurt. (screenshots) -

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*Update*
"Into the Wild" is a 2007 film written and directed by Sean Penn, adapted from Jon Krakauer's 1996 non-fiction book "Into the Wild" (based on Christopher McCandless's travels across N America and his life in the Alaskan wilderness).

Sean Penn's popular quote
"We've let the blade of our innocence dull over time, and it's only in innocence that you find any kind of magic, any kind of courage."

"The Hunting Party" is written and directed by Richard Shepard, based on a true story as originally told in an Esquire article, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation” by Scott Anderson, starring Richard Gere (Simon Hunt), Terrence Howard (Duck), and Jesse Eisenberg (Benjamin) as the protagonists. Released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and the Weinstein Company. Running time: 103 minutes -

"In theory, the official hunt for the war criminals in Bosnia continues to this day... However, the two most wanted men, Radovan Karadzic and Rtoco Mladic – continue to elude the U.S., the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, The Hague and all in the civilized world who claiming to be looking for them.

In the ten years that Radovan Karadzic has been on the run, he has published two books and one play. Perhaps if the International Community opened a summerstock theater... but they are probably too busy "searching" for Osama Bin Laden.

You should also know that the United States took out several full page Wanted ads in the local Bosnian papers to show the world it was serious about catching these war criminals ... of course, they listed an 800 number that could be only used in America."

"Only the most ridiculous parts are true" (screenshots) -

"A Little Sad Shadow" in snow, poem inspired by a true story, animated excerpt with music

Poet: .D. LuCxeed in solitude, poem inspired by a true story, in the upcoming poetry book with art "Love's Footsteps ~ dedicated to a Bridge for Wisdom to Walk on", www.loves-footsteps.com -
...
Inside, withered, is blood of life.
Outside, like a river, flow tears of grief,
From the cry of an unborn child for his father,
From the cry of an eight-month pregnant
Woman for her unwed husband.
Coffin's almost failed to bear... but wept,
Hiding beneath the draped flag, also wet.
...
(Footnote to the poem "Cry of an Unborn Son beside a Flag-Draped Coffin": "to save a soldier's life is to save a father for his child, spare a widow's cry, give back a family's future light.")

*music by calpomatt