To the editor:

I encourage the progressive citizens of Lawrence to vote with their dollars by seeing George Clooney’s movie “Syriana.” It is in line with Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek’s film “Missing” (1982), portraying how Henry Kissinger and the CIA used the School-of-the-Americas-trained Chilean military officers to stage a coup to kill Salvador Allende and install our dictator Augusto Pinochet.

“Syriana” attempts to explain why the bad guys not only “hate our freedom” but also resent how we use the CIA to replace their governments with people to meet our (U.S.A. or U.S. corporate) needs.

I believe that “great art” often seeks to heal our society. The role of the artist in society seems to resemble the traditional role of the canary in the coal mine. The artist desperately tries to use her words or creation to warn the miners/society of impending disaster.

In these times of madness, great numbers of artists have issued such warnings and offered solutions. Besides George Clooney in “Syriana,” J. K. Rowling uses Harry Potter and Hermione in mass popular children’s literature to imprint and teach young people that compromise is possible and each person can use a balance of masculine and feminine approaches to problem solving. Harold Pinter has used the podium of the Nobel Prize ceremonies to cry out against British and American predatory behavior hoping to empower young playwrights to get truth out to the people.

It’s important to heed such warnings and begin the healing process by seeing and discussing “Syriana” with your friends.

Rex Powell,

Lawrence