Values Worth Sacrificing For

Opening in January 1943, with the world at war, Casablanca gave audiences something they needed to hear, says screenwriter Howard Koch: “It said there were values that were worth making sacrifices for, and it said it in a very entertaining way.” Americans bracing for the coming months of attack ads need to hear that kind of message again. From us.

In a Casablanca documentary, playwright Murray Burnett talks about a key scene in Rick's Café Américain. Responding to singing German officers, the club’s refugee patrons drown them out by singing La Marseillaise – the powerless standing together against the powerful. Burnett wrote the scene with tears streaming down his face.

Victor Lazslo – the resistance leader – tells the band to play La Marseillaise. The band glances nervously at Rick. He nods. Lazslo stands poker straight and sings his heart out, his fist clenched. Patrons jump to their feet and they sing too, some with tears streaming down their faces. When you watch it, you’re there with those refugees. Your throat tightens. Your eyes tear up. And you feel that same mixture of hope and defiance.

Every time. Every time.

Americans need to hear that kind of message again. They need their hope restored, or the possibility of it. But media lapdogs feed them fear and distortion, and technocrats presuming to know America’s soul debate programs and policies.

Who will tell Americans, instead of “vote for me” or “support this plan,” that we are all in this together? That nobody should be left behind? That America is greater than the sum of her parts? That America is strongest when we live those ideals?

Values worth sacrificing for. Not programs. Not policies. Not single issues. Yes, they are important, but we started thinking they are everything, that the way to voters’ hearts is through their heads. It is the other way around. Win their hearts, and their heads – and votes – will follow.

If you are outmatched, you fight back with whatever you have. In Casablanca, Victor Lazslo fought back with a song.

Suspicion. Surveillance. Torture. Naked power. Americans again face troubling times. The world needs us to find our voices [1] again.

Somebody around here had better start singing.