by Tom Arnold, ©2024
(May 20, 2024) — This is a short but, I think, different and thought-provoking article, especially in these times. This weekend I decided to watch (on Prime Video, or it can be streamed over the internet) one of my all-time favorite movies, The Odessa File, from 1974. The movie received good reviews and starred someone who I have a great deal of respect for, not only as an actor but as a humanitarian and right-of-center advocate in Hollywood, Jon Voight.
Coincidentally with some of the things going on in our world today, the Frederick Forsyth novel, which was made into the movie, was about the extermination of Jews by the Nazis during and after WWII. Jon Voight played the role of a freelance journalist who happened to come into possession of a file containing the names, occupations, and locations of Nazis, particularly those (Odessa) who administered the death camps and escaped detection after the war.
For what seem like obvious reasons to me, lately I have begun searching the backgrounds of INDIVIDUALS (mainly American presidents, Intel officials, and others whose names I am choosing to withhold for now) who apparently hate the Jewish people and are sympathetic to the ridiculous, violent, and unlawful protests currently taking place throughout our country on the streets and in many universities and cities. Note that this activity, which I believe is anti-American, fails to recognize the six million or more Jews who were murdered years ago, as if it never happened or was not enough to satisfy supposed anti-Semitic grievances. Note that this recent focus of mine has been on evil INDIVIDUALS and not on groups, political parties, government agencies, etc.
The purpose in telling you these things is threefold: TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO WATCH THE MOVIE “THE ODESSA FILE”; TO WITNESS THE PERFORMANCE OF A GREAT AMERICAN ACTOR AND PATRIOT, JON VOIGHT; AND TO REFLECT ON THE LAST WORDS SPOKEN IN THE MOVIE (BY “OLD MARX,” A CONCENTRATION CAMP SURVIVOR) WHICH REMIND ME IN AN UNCANNY BUT REAL WAY OF THE QUESTION IN THE ABOVE TITLE OF THIS ARTICLE. The words spoken by “Old Marx” at the movie’s end were:
“PEOPLES ARE NOT EVIL. ONLY INDIVIDUALS ARE.”