little town of bethlehem (documentary review)

When I offered to review Little Town of Bethlehem, a documentary by EthnoGraphic Media about the growing nonviolence movement in parts of the Middle East, I was looking forward to broadening my view of what's happening in a part of the world that's almost always in the news but about which I don't feel like I know very much.

The three individuals at the center of the film are (bios copied from promo materials because they were accurate and well-written):

• Sami Awad is a Palestinian Christian whose grandfather was killed in Jerusalem in 1948. Today he is the executive director of Holy Land Trust, a non-profit organization that promotes Palestinian independence through peaceful means. 
• Yonatan Shapira is an Israeli Jew whose grandparents were Zionist settlers that witnessed the birth of the Israeli nation. Today he is an outspoken advocate for the nonviolent peace movement, both in his homeland and abroad. 
• Ahmad Al'Azzeh is a Palestinian Muslim who has lived his entire life in the Azzeh refugee camp in Bethlehem. Today, Ahmad heads the nonviolence program at Holy Land Trust, where he trains others in the methods of peaceful activism.

While it was educational, it had two major flaws and one distracting quirk. First, the narrator and most of the people interviewed were soft-spoken and fairly monotone. Plus the music soundtrack was louder than it should have been, overpowering the words it was meant to accentuate. I had trouble focusing on the information presented because the words weren't easy to hear. Additionally, the artsy editing was more jarring at times than interesting, and at times the way it was edited made it hard to figure out who was talking.

Second, while I know that classic documentaries are meant to inform more than editorialize (although Michael Moore's films changed that, and now most are politicized), this one tried so hard not to pass judgment that parts of it fell flat. The Israeli-Palestine conflict is complex, but there are aspects of it that are clearly noble or ignoble. Talking about peace in a relativistic sort of way rings false.

And, finally, I get that anyone with Western roots hears "nonviolence movement" and thinks about Martin Luther King, Jr. However, the references and video clips of him were excessive. Plus I don't think the parallels - if they exist - between these activists and MLK were clearly communicated, which is why it was more distracting than helpful.

I really wanted to like this. I just couldn't get into it, though.

Thanks to the team at The B&B Media Group, Inc. for providing this for my review. They didn't ask for a positive review, just an honest one.

blue m&ms

I remember when they came out. I was excited. More excited than one should get about the color of candy. (Quality of candy - now that's certainly something worth getting excited about!)

Anyway, if you give a little guy a blue m&m, you might get something like this.

And, if that happens, a wet wipe can remove the stickiness, but the blue will remain for a while.

(And, yes, those are the pink leggings of a little girl climbing above him on the couch. We're refined and reserved around these parts.)

democracy

It's a good thing.

And, yes, she is wearing an "I Voted" sticker. And so is her baby doll. And her other baby doll. And her other one.

flyin' high

I'm not sure who enjoys this more: Lee or the kids.

A kid first

I know and love a precious little boy. He loves cars and dogs. He likes giving hugs. He would rather run than walk. He cuddles with his parents and looks up to his older brothers.

Oh, yeah, and he has Down syndrome and a seizure disorder, and he's had more surgeries than years of life.

He isn't just a kid with Down syndrome. He's a kid who reminds me of Robbie in a lot of ways. And who also has some medical and intellectual baggage that's different from most kids.

I know lots of mommas who don't like sharing their kids' disabilities with people because then some people will never look at their kids the same way after that disclosure. They will always view the child through disability-tinted glasses.

That's why it's standard practice in special education to put the person first - "a kid who has Down syndrome" rather than "a Downs kid." The concept of person-first language is often considered to be about political correctness. And it is, a little.

But it's more about compassion. About not defining a kid by his disability. It's about caring about him as a child. It's about putting the kid first and the disability second in our thoughts, actions, and words.

The APA stylebook gets it right with their first statement under 3.15 Disabilities: "The overall principle for 'nonhandicapping' language is to maintain the integrity (worth) of all individuals as human beings."

God calls Gideon a warrior when he's cowering. God sees that his struggles don't define him and that there's more to him than his present condition.

God calls believers saints and makes us righteous, even though most days it would be more apt to label me "disobedient" or "sinful."

God still knit together my young friend in his mother's womb. God loves him. When Jesus invited the children to come to him, He didn't stipulate that only the kids with the correct number of chromosomes should come. 

God is the one gives each of us worth. 

I don't think that Jesus would flippantly label Thomas with the moniker he is often assigned, doubting Thomas. Did Thomas ask for evidence of Christ's bodily resurrection? Yes. Was it his finest moment? Maybe not. But he's known by many as the guy who doubted.

It think it's because we love categories:
The kid with Down syndrome.
The guy with cancer.
The young wife who is struggling with infertility.
The abused woman.
The homosexual.
The girl in time-out (who, by the way, is my daughter right now, but that's another story)

Labels aren't wrong. They aren't (always) untrue.

They are typically overly simplistic, though.

If it's useful to refer to someone by his/her label, go ahead. If a label isn't necessary, though, think before you speak.

Because my little friend is a sweet boy who you would love to know. When his momma looks at him, the first words that come to mind aren't "Down syndrome." If you stop at the definitions given by his disabilities, you might miss out on all the sweetness that his momma sees. You might miss out his "integrity (worth)...as a human being," a worth that was created by the same Creator who made the other kids you know and love.

Let him be a kid, first and foremost.