THE OSCARS !

I love the Academy Awards, I think I've been watching them ever since they first came on television! I was watching them when no one was watching them. I'd shut off the phone, fix some snacks and a drink, and settle down for a wonderful evening of red carpet arrivals, and all those excited winners and deflated losers. I loved trying to guess who would win, I'd root for my favorites and cheer them on, and become extremely agitated if they won, yelling YES YES! and even more so if they lost, as I'd be shouting at the screen, asking the academy how they could have voted for someone else. It was my favorite TV viewing night of the year.

And now it appears that the rest of the world has caught up with me, as now it is viewed by billions of people the world over, thanks to satellites and the prosperity of so many families that have TV's in their homes. Yes, the world is catching up to the United States in prosperity, thanks mostly to our exporting of democracy and captialism to other countries, they are enjoying the same benefits we enjoy.

The Oscars represent everything that is part of that great American Dream. It represents the best work of people who dream dreams, people who want to demonstrate what's possible. It's the people who create reality by creating fantasy, because not far behind these films comes the creation of similar ideas in life. Film is a medium so profound, it takes the old saying about a picture being worth a thousand words, and translates into a film being worth a million words. Films can wake us up out of our complacent stupors. Films inspire, motivate, and create nostalgic looks back in time. Film is the art of the Twentieth Century, and hopefully, it will continue for another hundred fabulous years. The billions of people who watch The Oscars, they are dreamers too.



Jiva