YOU GOTTA GREAT FUTURE BEHIND YOU!

"Hey, pal, you gotta great future behind you...!" That was how my pal Joe Conti used to put down hecklers during his standup routine. Joe was big in Chicagoland clubs for years, but never big in the big time. Too bad, because Joe was not only a good comic, but a pretty good philosopher too.

Philosophically speaking, one of the few things liberals and conservatives, Democrats and Republicans, agree on is that very same sentiment. That our nation's past is where we start to re-build our nation's future. Call it a sense of community and progress, or label it family values and free enterprise, either party is drawing from our rich heritage. Our dazzling accomplishments. In other words, our enduring national myths.

Myths are not lies, they are those stories we tell about ourselves -- who we are and where we came from -- that energize us into making the myths come true. And who are our greatest mythmakers...? Hollywood, whose silver screens millions of us share, and which continually remind us of how strong and good and giving and loving we can be.

What's that you say? "Not many of the movies I've seen lately!" You'd be right. A hefty crop of current films are a study in sex, violence, and conspiracy. The films Joe and I are referring to are more the classics from the old studios like MGM and Warner Brothers. And the old directors like Capra, McCarey, Wilder, Hitchcock and Houston. Not that these guys were any more gifted than today's Speilbergs, Howards and Coppolas, but the stories they told usually created nobler American myths. Perhaps inspiring nobler Americans.

Which is why today's Oscar Ceremonies are always paying them such tribute. Not that today's studios and directors couldn't tell the same stories, but today's audiences are often less willing to buy into them. "Corny," "out-of-touch," "dishonest" are the usual epithets from today's 12-to-30 audiences. To really excavate those old national myths about ourselves, you have to check the old-movie channels. You know, where stuff like tall-in-the-saddle cowboys, work-with-their-own-hands fathers, stay-at-home mothers, kids playing all day without drugs or supervision, and admired cops & clergy were all fairly common fare at the neighborhood theatre.

Sure those movies had wars and crime and adultery, but somehow by the last reel the good side of the plotline seemed to prevail. Corny...? You betcha! But so is helping your neighbor in a storm, crying at your daughter's wedding, getting a testimonial dinner after retiring. You see, the corn is not really gone. And neither are the old myths. Maybe they've just been lying fallow too long.