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I watched the James Bond movie “Live and Let Die” recently. It’s not the one you watch when you want to see a good film – it’s what you watch to get out of the way if you’re trying to be complete about a James Bond collection.

In my humble opinion, one of the worst. Even worse than “Diamonds Are Forever” and the only thing really redeeming about that one is the theme song.

“Live and Let Die” has terrible acting, unintentionally laughable special effects and make up, and a plot someone should have driven a truck through.

It’s also amazingly misogynistic – even for a Bond film. Yes, I’m talking about you, Pussy Galore. If the women in the film aren’t weak and useless, they are literally objects to be passed around. Poor Solitaire gets tricked into sleeping with Bond and suddenly she’s worse than useless. She’s basically luggage at that point.

The worst, though, is the racism. Blatant and unrelenting, no effort is spared to paint every African american in the movie in the worst possible light. Violent savages and brutish thugs to the last. Even the main villain – who can usually be counted on to have a certain flair – is just a drug dealer with a budget. Throw in some voodoo and a ghetto and we’ve got ourselves a movie.

It’s unsettling to sit through and there’s no way it could be made today. We can really only take a couple of good things away from it:

1. We don’t need to debate who is the worst James Bond. It’s Roger Moore.

2. At least things are better now.

But, are they?
Take, for example, the drive back from my parent’s house. The trip takes me through a number of very small towns that could be transplanted pretty much anywhere in the mid-west and it might be a month before the inhabitants noticed a difference. That’s not a bad thing or a criticism, just an observation. Small towns are pretty much small towns. Hey, I grew up in one. 🙂

One of them, though, boasted a garage on the outskirts of town adorned with two flags. On the right, an American flag. On the left…

The Confederate flag.

I’m sure that the rest of the town is populated with some really wonderful people, but in that location, well…

There might have been a time – perhaps during the “Live and Let Die” era – where it might be possible to make a weak claim that the confederate flag could be displayed as a historical artifact.

Now, there’s pretty much no way around just flat-out racism.

So, as I drove past that garage and saw those flags, I was struck by anger, disappointment in my fellow Ohioan, and sadness. And whatever pride I saw in the American flag was quashed by its companion.

And the irony. A symbol for freedom and pride next to one for slavery and shame.

So, not better – but perhaps more easy to recognize and separate out from the background. And knowing that we, collectively as a nation, still have a problem with racism is as good a first step as any to doing something about it.

Is there an AA for racism on a national level? A 12 step program for a country? Do we all need to crowd onto a psychiatrist’s couch and talk about our collective childhood?

How do we fix this? How do we reach the owner of those two flags and get them to take down the flag on the left – and take real pride in the one on the right? Because if we can’t reach that one person, how will reach the rest of the nation?
It’s got this one middle class – and middle aged – white guy, thinking.