V for Vendetta

I saw the movie "V for Vendetta" tonight, and while not overwhelmingly moved by the plight of the masked terrorist, I was compelled to think critically about the world around me, and was relieved to find that even though I've been out of school for a year, I'm still capable of being smart.

What struck me most, besides the obvious parallels to Bush's war on terror and the effectiveness of fear as a tool of governance, was the eventuality of disaster. What a morbid thought. Does it ever occur to you though, that there are unavoidable things in our collective future ... murders, plane crashes, terrorist attacks and natural disasters, that will become a part of our children's memory ... that we can't even predict? I can map my life by these events in my past, remember the exact moment that the world focused their eyes on one particular event or the next. I remember as early back as the Oklahoma City bombings, the death of Princess Diana, the Los Angeles earthquake, the exact moment that O.J. Simpson was pronounced Not Guilty. I remember TWA flight 800. The Colombine shootings. When Elizabeth Smart was abducted. The oil rigs burning in the Gulf War. When the planes hit the WTCs. The tsunami of 2004.

It makes me wonder what sort of monumental events are waiting for us in the future. Perhaps there are positive landmarks as well; maybe we will cure cancer or treat aids, or find a way to abolish famine. Maybe we will blow up a meteor on its path to earth. Maybe we will have fresh drinking water or learn to produce no garbage. But there is an eventuality to the world; everything that can happen, will happen - in time. V for Vendetta is both a comment on our current state of political affairs and a desperate warning on the possible social landscape of the future. To me, it felt like a reminder that we will all suffer personal grief in our time. I am thankful, therefore, for today: sunny, carefree and safe. Hopefully more of the world can say the same in the future.