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Quigley Down Under (1990): Not Just a Western
The 1990 film Quigley Down Under is a movie of many colours. It is not just a western. It is not just a r0mance. Or an adventure of a stranger in a strange land, or about racial inequality. It is not even, at the core of it, a film about stealing land from the natives who own it. The Aborigine. Read on Quigley Down Under, written by John Hill (Whose prowess as a Hollywood scribe peaked with…
#Alan Rickman#Jerome Ehlers#John Hill#Laura San Giacomo#Mel Gibson#Quigley Down Under#Ron Haddrick#Simon Wincer#Tom Selleck#Tony Bonner
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Jerome Ehlers in Fatal Bond (1991)
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Fatal Bond (1991) | Full Movie | Linda Blair | Jerome Ehlers | Donal Gibson
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American Matt Quigley answers Australian land baron Elliott Marston’s ad for a sharpshooter to kill the dingoes on his property. But when Quigley finds out that Marston’s real target is the aborigines, Quigley hits the road. Now, even American expatriate Crazy Cora can’t keep Quigley safe in his cat-and-mouse game with the homicidal Marston. Credits: TheMovieDb. Film Cast: Matthew Quigley: Tom Selleck Crazy Cora: Laura San Giacomo Elliott Marston: Alan Rickman Major Ashley-Pitt: Chris Haywood Grimmelman: Ron Haddrick Dobkin: Tony Bonner Coogan: Jerome Ehlers Hobb: Conor McDermottroe Brophy: Roger Ward O’Flynn: Ben Mendelsohn Kunkurra: Steve Dodd Slattern: Karen Davitt Slattern: Kylie Foster Reilly: William Zappa Sergeant Thomas: Jonathan Sweet Deserter: Michael Carman Tout: Jon Ewing Miller: Tim Hughes Mullion: David Slingsby Mitchell: Danny Adcock Cavanagh: Maeliosa Stafford Carver: Ollie Hall Mrs. Grimmelman: Evelyn Krape Bugler: Mark Pennell Ticket Seller: Don Bridges Kajubi: Gnarnayarrahe Waitairie Aborigine: Bruce Burrngu Burrngu Startled Man: Fred Welsh Startled Man: Ian Lind Bushman: James Wright Bushman: Bruce Knappett Elderly Woman: Joanie Thomas Elderly Man: Vic Gordon French Canadian: David Le Page Little Bit: Cory Tjapaltjarri Bullocky: Allan Bradford Bullocky: Graham Young Klaus Grimmelman: Eamonn Kelly Deserter: Greg Stuart Tribal Elder: Billy Stockman Oliver: Brian Ellison Paddy: Mark Minchinton Cliff: Guy Norris Whitey: Gerald Egan Hayden: Spike Cherrie Scotty: Jim Willoughby Smythe: Danny Baldwin Film Crew: Original Music Composer: Basil Poledouris Producer: Stanley O���Toole Screenplay: John Hill Director: Simon Wincer Producer: Alexandra Rose Director of Photography: David Eggby Editor: Peter Burgess Set Decoration: Brian Edmonds Production Design: Ross Major Art Direction: Ian Gracie Set Decoration: Brian Dusting Stunts: Spike Cherrie Stunt Coordinator: Guy Norris Second Unit Director of Photography: Ross Berryman Focus Puller: Derry Field Steadicam Operator: Harry Panagiotidis Clapper Loader: Adrien Seffrin Still Photographer: Barry Peake Stunts: Linda Megier Stunts: Rocky McDonald Stunts: Johnny Raaen Continuity: Judy Whitehead Stunts: Lloyd Ventry Movie Reviews: John Chard: Matthew Quigley: Sharps Shooter. Quigley Down Under is directed by Simon Wincer and written by John Hill. It stars Tom Selleck, Laura San Giacomo and Alan Rickman. Music is by Basil Poledouris and cinematography by David Eggby. Plot sees Selleck as Matthew Quigley, a Wyoming cowboy and sharp shooting rifleman who answers an advertisement to go to Western Australia as a hired sharp shooter. If proving his worth, he’s to work for Elliot Marston (Rickman), but when Marston outlines his sick reasons for hiring Quigley, the pair quickly become on a collision course that can only see one of them survive. It was written in the 1970s by John Hill, where it was hoped that Steve McQueen would take on the lead role, but with McQueen falling ill and Clint Eastwood allegedly passed over, the project sat on ice until 1990. In came Selleck and the film finally got made. Just about making back its money at the box office, Wincer’s movie deserved far better than that. It’s competition in the Western stakes in 1990 were Costner’s beautiful and elegiac Dances With Wolves and the Brat Pack bravado of Young Guns II, both vastly different films from each other, and both considerably different from Quigley Down Under. If those two films contributed to the average response to the Selleck picture? I’m not completely sure, but viewing it now one tends to think that the 1990 audience just wasn’t ready for such a delightfully old fashioned Oater, one that features a straight and simple narrative to tell its tale. It’s safe to say that anyone after deep psychological aspects will not get that here. There’s some serious themes in the story, such as the horrid genocide towards Aborigines, while the deft kicks at the British are fair enough even to a British guy such as myself. But in the main this is old time Western fare, ...
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Fatal Bond (1991) Full Movie Linda Blair Jerome Ehlers Donal Gibson from I AM STREAMING on Vimeo.
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#bangkok hilton#australian film#mini-series#hanoi hilton#nicole kidman#Bangkok#1960s#sydney#beach#affair#illicit affair#Jerome Ehlers#goa#thailand#Thai#execution#the 1980s#love#gaze#stare#look#eyes#hotel
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Which are your favourite The Lost World episodes? I'm currently up to The Outlaw on yet another run through which admittedly is a favourite of mine.
love the outlaw and rewatch it all the time. mine are:
1. stone cold! that wild and ridiculous transdimensional fog gets me every time. it’s such a silly episode. so completely wonderfully silly.
2. the games and all the other tribune episodes: more than human, barbarians at the gate and all or nothing. i LOVE tribune and his arc is my fave story overall in the series. the show didn't really go for serialization much in the beginning, so episodes are more or less interchangeable, but tribune was introduced early and was the first recurring part that hinted at a greater mythos. the gunpowder spreads (to great distress) throughout unseen kingdoms on the other side of the plateau! still the coolest thread they ever introduced. i tend to rewatch these together a lot. centuria! and other minor lizards like wayne pigrym who was on farscape! love the supporting cast a lot these episodes.
3. resurrection bc it's the best of the 'imprisoned gods want to fuck with roxton" episodes and a great marguerite/roxton ep. also a really great ned and veronica episode.
4. dead man's hill. tbh i love all the spontaneous travel through time, dimensions and spaces episodes. i just like westerns and liked seeing the gang in a western for no explicable reason. this one’s also another great marguerite/roxton episode. you’re gonna start to see a pattern soon lol.
5. the travelers bc jerome ehlers who plays the trickster god also plays tribune and his chemistry with rachel blakely is insane in and out of makeup. this episode is also a lot of fun for marguerite who is tested with all of her favorite things. i group this episode together with out of time and survivors and other marguerite-centric episodes, just like i’d watch the tribune bunch together.
6. paradise found. i love the character dynamics in this episode a lot and the thread of veronica’s parents starting seriously.
7. time after time. just a cool solid time travel ep.
8. trapped bc of marguerite/roxton, but really the last four episodes of the series are fantastic. they hurt a lot because they’re so great, and the show literally explodes into its own mythos. every single thread introduced disparately throughout three seasons, all apart from each other (marguerite in shanghai, veronica’s parents, challenger pursuing maple white’s journals), all of it comes together and it promises so much more. even roxton’s conquistador history returns and if you read the season 4 and 5 plans, it would’ve been triangle between marguerite, roxton and roxton’s ancetor who looks just like him! the world war one stuff comes back too, with the fourth to last episode, another episode i really love. just this whole bunch is a blast.
#mystuf#the lost world#sir arthur conan doyle's the lost world#i could go to 20 honestly#divine right#tourist season#cave of fear#absolute power#i love camelot a lot bc it's so romantic
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What are your favorite Latine fcs? I’m sending this to a few folks so don’t feel pressured to answer!!!
Danny Trejo (1944) Mexican.
Emilio Rivera (1961) Mexican.
Pedro Pascal (1975) Chilean [Spanish, Basque, possibly other], 1/16th Peruvian.
Sara Ramirez (1975) Mexican, some Irish - non-binary - queer - they/them.
Lauren Ridloff (1978) African-American / Mexican - deaf.
Daniella Alonso (1978) Quechua Peruvian, Japanese / Puerto Rican.
JD Pardo (1980) Argentinian / Salvadorian.
Emayatzy Corinealdi (1980) Afro Panamanian.
Viviane Porto (1981) Afro Brazilian.
Nathalie Kelley (1985) Argentinian, Quechua Peruvian, possibly other.
Clayton Cardenas (1985) Mexican and Filipino.
Miguel Gomez (1985) Colombian.
Tamara Mena (1986) Mexican - is paraplegic.
Oona Chaplin (1986) Mapuche Chilean, Spanish, evidently Romanian / English, Irish, 1/16th Scottish.
Alex Meraz (1985) Purepecha Mexican and Lakota.
Jillian Mercado (1987) Afro Dominican - has spastic muscular dystrophy.
Vaneza Oliveira (1988) Afro Brazilian.
Y’lan Noel (1988) Afro Panamanian.
Emily Rios (1989) Mexican - lesbian.
Laith Ashley (1989) Afro Dominican - trans man.
Stephanie Nogueras (1989) Puerto Rican - deaf.
Harvey Guillén (1990) Mexican - queer.
Annie Segarra (1990) Peruvian and Ecuadorian - non-binary and queer - she/they - has classical Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome.
Sofiya Cheyenne (1991) Taíno, Dominican, Syrian, Italian - has spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia congenita.
Luz Pavon (1991) Afro Mexican.
Mj Rodriguez (1991) African-American / Puerto Rican - trans woman.
Tommy Martinez (1992) Venezuelan.
Paloma Elsesser (1992) African-American / Chilean and Swiss.
Zion Moreno (1992) Mexican [Unspecified Native American and Spanish] - trans woman.
Yalitza Aparicio (1993) Mixtec and Triqui Mexican.
Sofia Carson (1993) Colombian – including Arab [Syrian-Lebanese, Palestinian], Spanish, possibly English, possibly other.
Marimar Quiroa (1994) Mexican - has cystic hygroma.
Coty Camacho (1995) Zapotec Mexican.
Brandon Perea (1995) Filipino / Puerto Rican.
Angel Bismark Curiel (1995) Dominican.
Ricardo Hoyos (1996) Ecuadorian, Quechua Peruvian, Spanish / Irish, possibly Scottish and French-Canadian.
Román Zaragoza (1996) Akimel O’odham, Mexican, Japanese, and Taiwanese.
Dru Presta (1996) Puerto Rican - has metaphyseal dysplasia.
Jaylen Barron (1997) Mexican / African-American.
Jharrel Jerome (1997) Afro Dominican.
Becky G (1997) Mexican – including Spanish [Andalusian, Aragonese, Asturian, Cantabrian, Castilian, Extremaduran, Leonese, and Valencian], Basque, Galician, Unspecified Indigenous, and African, as well as distant Portuguese, remote German and Italian.
Joanna Pincerato (1998) Mexican, Syrian, Swedish, Italian.
Sivan Alyra Rose (1999) Chiricahua Apache, Afro-Puerto Rican, and Creole - genderfluid and pansexual - she/they.
Alycia Pascual-Peña (1999) Afro Dominican.
Violet Nelson (2000) Kwakwaka’wakw and Honduran.
Auli'i Cravalho (2000) Puerto Rican, Kānaka Maoli, Portuguese, Chinese, Irish - bisexual.
Aaron Rose Philip (2001) Afro Antiguan - trans woman - has cerebral palsy.
Zoey Luna (2001) Mexican - trans woman.
Danielle Perez (?) Afro Dominican - double leg amputee below the knee.
Vico Ortiz (?) Puerto Rican - they/them el/ella - non-binary.
If you'd like more suggestions please let me know!!
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Cody's characters and reader with chronic pain, like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS). It takes her awhile to get out of bed, because she place her joints back in place. Sometimes she has bad nights sleeping. Stairs are a nightmare; she can climb them, but is tired afterwards. This is why she only goes up the stairs when it's time for bed. Reader bruises easier, which makes the boys think that someone hurt her, but no, she just bumped into a corner. Also, ableism or people call her a liar/lazy.
i squealed out loud reading this, i suffer from something very similar (ankylosing spondylitis, chronic pain sisters unite) and this is paaainfully relatable! we all need Cody’s boys when we’ve run out of spoons, right? 🖤
F&R!Michael is the fiercely protective partner you’ve always needed. He sees your discomfort around the Cooperative members, the judgemental glares that suggest all eyes are scanning you for any signs of faking it — after all, in the world of flannel and Patagonia, you have to be making up this syndrome purely because they can’t understand it. Luckily for you, the demonic blonde on your arm has his own ways of handling them. Any ableist whispers around the Cooperative meeting table are met with a demonic stare, a quirked eyebrow and the culprit bursts into flame in their seat. “Anybody else that feels like disrespecting the Antichrist’s wife, please do speak up. I’d hate to disappoint the paying audience here today.”
Xavier is a concerned and cautious lover, always on hand to help you through your pain. He has breakfast waiting for you on the bedside table so you have time to relax and loosen your joints in the morning, refusing to take any studio classes until you’re up and about. He’ll never admit it but hearing you in pain, even when the slightest joint click catches you off guard and a small mewl escapes you, tears Xavier apart and drives him to think of new ways to help. From new workout techniques that help you keep mobile to running you hot baths to soak your aches away, and needless to say he’s more than happy to be on top to save you hurting yourself in your intimate moments together — “Nothing’s too much for my fragile baby girl.”
Moving into Duncan’s penthouse apartment was a daunting prospect at first, knowing full well if the elevator ever failed that you certainly couldn’t take the stairs. Duncan supported you throughout your concerns, reassuring you he’d sooner land a helicopter on the roof to get you home, short of carrying you up the stairs himself. “You don’t have to worry about a thing, princess,” he soothes as he gently weaves his fingers through your hair while you cuddle on the sofa one evening. “I’ll get you the best medical care this country can offer, and I won’t take no for an answer.”
Despite your protests, Jim tries his hardest to balance his time out on the waves with his time on shore with you. If you’re feeling brave enough to venture out with him, both his baby blues are fixed on you the whole time and a protective little hand glued to the small of your back. He insists on carrying you all the way home from the beach and doesn’t complain once, even when you see him rubbing away his own aches later that night. Your tiredness may seem like an obstacle to you and almost as if your social life suffers because of it, but Jim always reassures you by organising everything around you. House parties always come to an end when he catches your first yawn, but it’s only because Jim wants you to be comfortable at all times.
Bless him, Richard gets very concerned by your bruises. The first time he spots those faint purple blooms littering your elbows and knees, he immediately assumes the worst that someone else in the clinic caused them. The silent glares across the lounge, the darting glances whenever someone passes you in the hallways; he’s only looking out for you even if it does come across as paranoia. Once he’s comforted that they’re just part of you, you find him kissing them when you’re cuddled up together at night, appreciating them as a symbol of your strength. They even make an appearance in his sketches of you, along with your look of surprise when you spot another one you can’t remember acquiring.
Jerome finds your dizzy spells a real worry at first, after all he’s hellbent on defending you from your own condition whether humanly possible or not. He leaps out of chairs whenever you stand up, just to be there to catch you if the motion gets too much for you. He’s often more stressed about your condition than you are, but it’s out of sheer love and affection for you that he wants to do anything in his power to decrease your symptoms or at least make them liveable. He’s made mobility adaptations all round your house, makeshift handles on every surface in case you need support as you move around. Your resourceful Travelling Salesman would take you everywhere on his journeys with him if you could, but he knows your limits almost better than you do yourself. “Take it easy for me baby, you’re not leaving this bed at all today and that’s a very polite order,” he coos as he plants a peck on your forehead. “I brought your favourite candy home too, this supply should last you at least until tonight.”
#fire and reign!michael#fire and reign!michael x reader#Xavier Plympton x reader#duncan shepherd x reader#jim mason x reader#richard x reader#the tribes of palos verdes#the last time i saw richard#travelling salesman x reader#michael langdon x reader
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Crownies - ABC1 - 7/14/2011 - 12/1/2011
Legal Drama (22 episodes)
Running Time: 60 minutes
Stars:
Todd Lasance as Ben McMahon
Hamish Michael as Richard Stirling
Ella Scott Lynch as Erin O'Shaughnessy
Andrea Demetriades as Lina Badir
Marta Dusseldorp as Janet King
Indiana Evans as Tatum Novak
Peter Kowitz as Tony Gillies
Jeanette Cronin as Tracey Samuels
Lewis Fitz-Gerald as David Sinclair QC
Jerome Ehlers as Rhys Kowalski
Chantelle Jamieson as Julie Rousseau
Christopher Morris as Andy Campbell
Daniel Lissing as Conrad De Groot
Marcus Graham as Danny Novak
Aimee Pedersen as Ashleigh Larsson
Ritchie Singer as The Honourable Mr Justice Rosenberg
Paul Moxey as Harry
Petra Yared as Paula Corvini
#Crownies#TV#ABC1#Legal Drama#2000's#Todd Lasance#Hamish Michael#Ella Scott Lynch#Andrea Demetri8ades#Marta Dusseldorp#Indiana Evans#Peter Kowitz#Jeanette Cronin#Lewis Fitz-Gerald#Jerome Ehlers
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After the Rain 2000 Australian TV-movie written by Jerome Ehlers and directed by Mark Lamprell.
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SAN FERNANDO
Eight men and a woman were nailed to crosses while hundreds of barefoot men beat themselves with flails on Good Friday, in a blood-soaked display of religious fervour in the Philippines.
Frowned upon by the Church, the ritual crucifixions and self-flagellation in the north of the country are extreme affirmations of faith performed every Easter in Asia’s Catholic outpost.
Wilfredo Salvador stared at the sky and appeared to mumble a prayer after the slight 62-year-old with wild grey hair and a long beard became the first local zealot this year to hang from a wooden cross.
“I will not stop this for as long as I am alive, because this is what gives me life,” said Salvador, a fisherman who has been volunteering to be crucified for 14 straight years since recovering from a nervous breakdown.
Neighbours costumed as Roman centurions drove eight-centimetre (three-inch) spikes through each of his hands and feet before the wooden cross was raised briefly for the crowds to see.
He was treated and bandaged at a first aid tent after the village square ritual — then nonchalantly walked back home.
Seven other men and a woman were also crucified at other villages around San Fernando city during the day, the city tourism office told AFP.
Clad in a maroon dress, Mary Jane Sazon told reporters she had herself nailed to the cross for the 16th time to beseech God to keep members of her family healthy.
“I’ve been doing this year in and year out because I know it leads to a better life for us,” said the 44-year-old beautician.
Earlier Friday, hundreds of barefoot men wearing crowns of twigs and black shrouds walked silently on the side of a village road in the scorching tropical heat, flogging their backs with bamboo strips tied to a length of rope.
While many of the 80 million Filipino Catholics spend Good Friday at church or with family, others go to these extreme lengths to atone for sins or seek divine intervention in a spectacle that has become a major tourist attraction.
“This is a religious vow. I will do this every year for as long as I am able,” 38-year-old truck driver Resty David, who has been self-flagellating for half his life, told AFP.
He said he also hoped it would convince God to cure his cancer-stricken brother.
Blood and sweat soaked through the penitents’ trousers with some spectators grimacing with each strike of the lash.
Some hid behind their companions to avoid the splatter of gore and ripped flesh.
– ‘Very intense’ –
Many in the crowds had driven for hours to witness the crucifixions — the frenzied climax of the day’s gory spectacle that Catholics say is a re-enactment the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.
German tourist Annika Ehlers, 24, was among them.
“I’m a little bit overwhelmed. It’s very intense, I haven’t expected something like this,” she told AFP after watching Salvador’s crucifixion.
The bloody spectacle has played out every year around San Fernando, about 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of Manila, despite Church entreaties for their flock to spend Lent in quiet prayer and reflection.
“The crucifixion and death of Jesus are more than enough to redeem humanity from the effects of sins. They are once in a lifetime events that need not be repeated,” Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines official Father Jerome Secillano said.
“Holy Week… is not the time to showcase man’s propensity for entertainment and Pharisaical tendencies,” he added.
Nearly 80 percent of people in the Philippines are Catholic, a legacy of the nation’s 300 years of Spanish colonial rule that ended at the turn of the 20th century.
[wpedon id=”123787″ align=”left”]
Flogging, crucifixions mark blood-soaked Easter in Philippines SAN FERNANDO Eight men and a woman were nailed to crosses while hundreds of barefoot men beat themselves with flails on Good Friday, in a blood-soaked display of religious fervour in the Philippines.
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CALIFICACIÓN PERSONAL: 7 / 10
Título Original: Sahara
Año: 1995
Duración: 106 min.
País: Australia
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
Guion: Philip McDonald, David Phillips
Música: Garry McDonald
Fotografía: John Stokes
Reparto: James Belushi, Alan David Lee, Simon Westaway, Mark Lee, Michael Massee,Robert Wisdom, Jerome Ehlers, Julian Garner
Productora: Coproducción Australia-USA; Village Roadshow Pictures / Tristar TV
Género: Action, War
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114324/
TRAILER: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEOQiO7kUgk
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A mixture of FAKE NEWS, and one very low information Pastor that thinks President Trump is a racist.
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Nostalgia: the yearning that will continue to carry the Trump message forward
Female Pastor Jean Smith – “Am I surprised Trump won? No. Do I think he is a racist? Ha! I know he is. Am I scared of Trump? No. We here are not going to suffer because we are under the blood and the Lord is with us. You can call me stupid for thinking that for all I care.”
She continues: “As long as we stand together, we will be OK.
I have been through the Ku Klux Klan. As a child they called me a nigger, told me to get off the streets. I wasn’t scared of them then, and I didn’t lose my dignity then because I had the Lord. I can deal with the Ku Klux Klan and I can deal with Trump.”
Economic anguish after years of prosperity drove millions to Donald Trump’s nationalistic agenda, and continues to fuel resentment of an America many feel has left them behind
A congregant in Overflow Church in Battle creek. Photograph: Chris Arnade
Chris Arnade
Tuesday 14 March 2017 06.00 EDTLast modified on Tuesday 14 March 2017 06.02 EDT
In Battle Creek, Michigan, a town famous for making cereal, Sue Lunz is sitting with her husband, Jerry, 82, at the McDonald’s. They have both spent their whole lives in the town. Both retired from lifetime jobs for Kellogg’s – he in a factory, she in an office job.
Sue is soft-spoken yet firm, telling me one of the more quietly damning things I have heard from a voter: “I am 73 and I am glad I am not young now.”
I push back, suggesting everyone would like to be young and have a long future, but she is thoughtful and serious. “Me and my husband have had a good life. We could get good jobs with benefits straight out of high school. My daughter and her children cannot do that. They have to work weekends and are always anxious and worried. I wouldn’t want that life.”
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Sue Lunz: ‘People who voted for Trump didn’t do a bit of good for themselves’. Photograph: Chris Arnade
Both four and eight years ago, Battle Creek voters put their faith in Obama’s call for a hopeful and equitable future. Last November, they went for Trump’s promise to return to a past greatness.
Sue went against that shifting tide and voted for Hillary Clinton, but without enthusiasm. I ask her about Trump, and her tone shifts to frustration. “People who voted for Trump didn’t do a bit of good for themselves. But when the higher-ups see it, maybe they will wake up to what has been going on.”
In places like Battle Creek, you see and hear a lot of despair. The good jobs, ones that could be turned into careers, have been replaced with an economic version of the Hunger Games. Magnifying it is the sense that “higher-ups” – the collection of distant political, economic and thought leaders – don’t see the anguish, don’t care about it and are partly responsible for it. It has made many nostalgic for a better past.
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Gary and Joyce Kronz at a McDonald’s in Battle Creek. Photograph: Chris Arnade
At the next table are Gary and Joyce Kronz, both 74. They were born in Battle Creek, met in junior high, dated in high school and then married. Their parents worked in the cereal factories and Gary did as well, as a packing repairman, while Joyce raised their two daughters. He got laid off in 1999 with no benefits. “It is hard to live without benefits.”They both voted for Trump, despite having voted for Obama before. When asked why, they give a variation of “things had to change, we need jobs again”, then explain further, speaking as one, completing each other’s sentences.
Outside coastal cities an ‘other America’ has different values and challenges
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“You could walk into a factory job with only a high school diploma, but now Battle Creek is dying. What are people going to do when all the factories are gone?” they say. “Kellogg’s used to have 10 times the employees. They let this town down. They used it, got what they wanted and still moved jobs overseas. The factories were the backbone of this town, and they are breaking it.”
With the economic backbone broken, with hope in the future dimming, faith has become more central as a source of community, solace and hope. It is a “if you won’t value me for my work, I will find another place that values me” response.
I run into Gary and Joyce again at a weeknight service of the Overflow Church. Despite the weekday, the church is filled, with almost everyone casually dressed, some having come straight from work. The sermon is preceded by prayer requests, which brings a listing of people’s frustrations, anxieties and pains. One man, after mentioning a recent health struggle that has sapped him physically and economically, is surrounded by others offering up help.
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Alexandra Barnes: ‘The church has kept me alive.’ Photograph: Chris Arnade
In the hallway, Alexandra Barnes, 41, is sitting beneath inspirational posters. She is a single mom of two kids and is currently struggling paying the bills. “I don’t get enough child support, jobs are hard to come by, and my son is going through complications. What do I do to get by? I come to church and I pray. The church has kept me alive.”
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About 350 miles to the west, Dubuque, Iowa, also voted for Trump after having twice voted for Obama. Like Battle Creek, it is a smaller, mostly white town once reliant on manufacturing with a downtown that feels anachronistic and drained of energy.
In Dubuque, you also hear a constant refrain of nostalgia. Jerry Ehlers, 84, a lifetime resident, is quick to identify problems and solutions. “We had good-paying jobs. Then they started what I call FDL – ‘Fuck Dubuque Labor’ – and now we don’t have much. Of course I voted for Trump. I don’t like how the country is going. Tired of our jobs going overseas.”
In both cases, the nostalgia isn’t confined to elderly people. Richard Lowe, 27, is studying at the local community college to “better himself”. He didn’t vote, but he notes: “All my friends voted for Trump. We need to turn what the rest of the world thinks of America around. Be strong again. We need jobs. American people sick of being taken advantage of.”
Faith is also central in Dubuque, with Sunday given over to the churches. The Dubuque church of the Nazarene, a small congregation, is led by Pastor Leah Barker, aged 30, who only left Dubuque to study at a Bible college.
The church is simple, with music led by a man on guitar and hymns loaded from YouTube. The prayer requests become a group conversation, a Sunday morning therapy session. Some are dramatic, asking to pray for a neighbor’s death; most are mundane but no less important. A middle-aged man mentions his car getting fixed: “It only cost me $400. I had expected it to be more. Praise the Lord for that. I am on a tight budget and anything more would have broken me.” This evolves into a few minutes of conversation about who in town is the cheapest and best mechanic.
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Jerome Patterson. Photograph: Chris Arnade
While many working-class white people shifted heavily towards Trump, working-class minorities didn’t. For them, a despair brought about by inequality has long been an ugly constant. So has finding solace in faith. Yet they don’t have the luxury of being nostalgic.
In Battle Creek, Jerome Patterson, 62, is driving past as I approach a church in the black part of town. He stops to warn me of the unchained and unleashed dogs in the neighborhood. He has been living in Battle Creek since 1972, except for time in the army. He is happy to talk, but initially won’t let me take his photo. “Shit, no! Black men don’t trust pictures for good reason. The police and reporters disrespect us.”
I ask him about politics and Trump. “Most of the men I know didn’t vote. Nobody had the spirit this time. Trump or Hillary? Doesn’t make much difference. Things out here gonna stay the same. We had high hopes for Obama. But nothing changed. Blacks here didn’t end up being helped by him. I mean, he might have tried, but his hands were tied by both parties. Lots of us are just so frustrated. Nobody had the spirit.”
Am I surprised Trump won. No. Do I think he is a racist? Ha! I know he is. Am I scared of Trump? No
Pastor Jean Smith
He pauses to repeat, before leaving: “You have to understand: nobody had the spirit this time.” He points to the church. “Now, Sister Jean, she has maintained the spirit.”
Pastor Jean Smith, 80, welcomes me to a small Thursday night Bible study, where she is lecturing a few kids. Originally from Beatrice, Alabama, she has been in Battle Creek for 62 years, 21 of them “working on Kellogg’s factory floor”.
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Pastor Jean Smith. ‘As long as we stand together, we will be OK.’ Photograph: Chris Arnade
I ask her about politics and about her faith. “I supported Hillary not because she was a woman, but because her policies were for working families and children.
“Am I surprised Trump won? No. Do I think he is a racist? Ha! I know he is. Am I scared of Trump? No. We here are not going to suffer because we are under the blood and the Lord is with us. You can call me stupid for thinking that for all I care.”
She continues: “As long as we stand together, we will be OK. I have been through the Ku Klux Klan. As a child they called me a nigger, told me to get off the streets. I wasn’t scared of them then, and I didn’t lose my dignity then because I had the Lord. I can deal with the Ku Klux Klan and I can deal with Trump.”
A mixture of FAKE NEWS, and one very low information Pastor that thinks President Trump is a racist A mixture of FAKE NEWS, and one very low information Pastor that thinks President Trump is a racist.
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