Al Gore: American Hero

At the beginning of the month, I didn't think much about Al Gore. I thought he won the only presidential election he ran in, but there's a lot of bad Americans you could say that about. I felt bad about the whole "I invented the internet thing" because it was a classic case of someone being a little too proud of a real accomplishment (i.e. believing in and helping support the potential of the internet) and assholes taking your words out of context to tear you down.

After all, the same assholes who were mocking him for "inventing the internet" sure didn't do a lot to facilitate one of the greatest advancements in human history, did they? Shit, if I had just delivered pizzas to the guys who put the internet together, let alone tons of funding, I would totally be giving myself non-stop 24/7 mastrabatory backslaps.

But he handled the whole post-2000 election period terribly, and I never really forgave him for going all obsessive-compulsive about "Chads" when thousands of African American voters were disenfranchised.

Then the 2004 election came, we managed to disenfranchise more colored people, this time the ones giving their lives fighting for the country, and I kind of forgot about the guy.

So what's he doing now? Only saving the future of humankind... Look, maybe he's crazy. Maybe he's exaggerating again and living off of delusions of granduer. But the little science I understand seems to support him, and this isn't debating motherfucking Trivial Pursuit answers with your friends. If New York City or Beijing or Venice are completely wiped off the face of the Earth. That sucks! If there's a tiny, tiny chance that the polar ice caps melt and the planet no longer supports oxygen-breathing life, that's something I'd like to at least research further. That's not a "Don't worry about it" kind of thing!

Personally, I'm a little mystified by the whole mocking Al Gore thing. I understand that nobody likes the smart kid, but in the movies when the smart kid is trying to save the entire fucking planet from desolation, usually people back off on the name-calling and bullying and let him do his fucking job.

Otherwise, there's a decent chance that we are the society that the aliens laugh at when they come down to survey the crumpled remains of the human race. "Look these assholes had the choice between the savior of the human race and this ex-druggie racist, rich kid and guess who they chose!"

Ebert has an interesting commentary on the hate mail he's received for supporting Gore's non-partisan, why don't we save the planet film.

My only question is "Why are people willing to risk the lives of themselves and every generation of offspring just in order to be right about something?"

Watch the film or not. Cheer on Gore or not. Neither will make a major difference. What will make a major difference is deposing the ruling regime in our country that seems deadset on destroying our living environment.

Unless we do so, they eventually will succeed and then we can say, "I told you so!" from the outside of their environmentally comfortable bubble that they play golf in while we die outside.

Oh, and his TV network is hosting a new contest to produce a film on tolerance. Yeah, ok, so Paul "Birth of a Nation for the 21st century" Haggis is going to be a judge, but at least it's something.