AV Geeks 16mm Lunch 10-14-2025

Hello everybody. This is Skip Alzheimer. Welcome to the AV Geeks lunchtime streaming show. We're coming to you live. I'm not on cold meds right now, but I'm I can feel it. I can still feel it in there. Um >> hello everybody. >> So hopefully this will be something that um will not turn into bronchitis. That is something I've had since the fourth grade is bronchitis and it's no fun. It's like three weeks of coughing. It's really annoying. Um anyways, uh it's so great to be back live. Uh if you didn't know, I was in uh South Carolina at the Bastard Film Encounter, which was a um festival. Was it's not really a festival. It's kind of a gathering of archavists and collectors and we kind of watch difficult things and then we talk about them and uh so I was invited to do the keynote. Um and so I did it as a bingo game. Um, and so what we did is every time a ball came up, then I would uh put up a transparency that would reflect what the ball was. So B1 film is my mcguffin and then I would talk about whatever that thing was. So I would talk about what is mcguffin and um basically if you don't know what an mc mcguffin is it is a plot device that is used to move um the plot move the people through the narrative. So uh mcguffin could be the ring in Lord of the Rings. It could be the Maltese Falcon. It could be the lost ark in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Um, and what I realized at some point in my life, um, I think it was two or three years ago, I realized that 16 millimeter films are my mcguffin in that I collect them and because of that I have met interesting people. I have done interesting things and um, so uh, I basically talked about that at bastards. all the people I had met there. It's because I collected film uh and showed it and met people at conferences and you know through emails and things like that. So anyways, that's what that whole thing was like and I might share some more cards later today. Uh some of them are silly, some of them are kind of serious, but um we're back in Raleigh and we're going to start off with some films uh from the Oregon archive right now. Greg from Orgon is downstairs scanning and maybe we'll hang out with him tomorrow. He's so busy right now. Um, we're going to start off with a film. It's missing the title, but I figured out it's Gmen at War. Enjoy. In every important city throughout the United States, horrors of men whose job is to see rather than to be seen, to listen rather than to talk, and to act when they act, with swiftness and certainty. They are the men of the FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the most widely known of all US law enforcement agencies. At the head of each of the FB1 field officers is a special agent in charge who is responsible in his district for the war against crime which the bureau is perpetually waging. Though the FBI is concerned only with offenses against federal laws, its influence is felt in every community. For it works in close cooperation and consultation with the nation's sheriffs and constables, state troopers and city police, many of whom it has helped to train. At Washington in the Department of Justice building is the center of the FBI's nationwide activities. In these busy offices, which operate on a basis of 24 hours a day, a huge staff of men and women is employed to help direct and coordinate the work of some 3,000 special agents in the field. >> FBI headquarters. >> One moment, please. I'll give you Mr. Hoover. >> Adding up this organization is the number one Gman, the famed John Edgar Hoover. As director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Mr. Hoover has built up his organization from a relatively obscure agency of the Department of Justice into one of the best known institutions of its kind in the world. In the course of a long campaign to make law enforcement a science and a profession, Director Hoover and his resourceful aids have developed crime detection methods and facilities unsurpassed anywhere. In the FBI laboratories, new scientific discoveries are constantly being applied to techniques and equipment which are employed with striking efficiency by experts in the field of criminology. In the hands of these men, a microscopic scrutiny of a speck of dirt from a gear wheel or of the fibers and a bit of fuse may be enough to solve a major crime. To provide men skilled in crime detection, the bureau maintains an academy at Quantico, Virginia, where it trains its agents. All special agents must begin by learning how to defend themselves in whatever situation they may encounter. They must become expert in the use of the firearms the bureau provides for their protection. For at any time an FBI agent in the field may have to shoot his way out of a tight corner, and under such circumstances, accurate marksmanship is a matter of self-preservation. [Music] [Applause] [Music] But in the laboratory, the student agent, coming to grips with the problem of crime detection, learns that science supplies the most potent weapons at his disposal. How spectrographic analysis of dust found in clothing may link a suspect to the scene of his crime. How by microchemical analysis, minute steel filings can be traced to their source are but a part of the agent's routine education. It was such rigorous training, such expert use of scientific techniques that helped the FBI to achieve its remarkable record in World War II during which not one major act of sabotage was successfully carried out by enemy operatives. By intercepting German microfilm, by painstakingly decoding the messages of access spies, and by countless other applications of skill and hard work, FBI agents outwitted the enemy thousands of wartime cases today on record in the bureau's files. Reconstructed from these files is the case of one August Bowmeire which reveals not only some of the methods of German agents in this country but the effectiveness of counter espionage by the FBI. As proprietor of a small restaurant catering to German Americans, August Balmire had done well but he felt no gratitude to the country of his adoption. Like other Nazis, he considered Americans to be an inferior people. Regularly, the back room at Thyers was used as the Saturday night meeting place of the local German American bund. [Applause] To one of these meetings came a young FBI agent bringing with him, concealed among groceries, a portable radio transmitter. The ties of blood that bind us to the German fatherland can never be broken. Always before our responsibilities as naturalized Americans, we must place our duties to the fatherland. Our highest mission must be to serve our great and beloved her and bring to the United States the blessings of the new order, national socialism. Z [Applause] Evans, I spent all last night going over the reports on the local Nazis. >> That's quite a job. >> How about this man, August Bombmire? >> He's the big shot in this district. All right. >> Yes, Mrs. Ba. Oh, yes sir. 5 minutes. No, no. I take a taxi. Goodbye. The investigation of August Bowmeer embodies procedures employed in countless other cases. Procedures representative of FBI methods and techniques. Surveillance soon showed that Bowmeer was in contact with a high-ranking Nazi. [Applause] [Applause] >> Sorry, gentlemen. We're closed for the night. >> I'd like to see the proprietor. Are you Mr. Balmire? >> Yes. >> Can we speak a minute? >> Come with me, gentlemen. >> I bring you greetings from Rans. >> How is he? >> Hi. >> Hi. You're supposed to keep us here until our arrangements are made. I fixed up a special room in the summer. It's not too nice. >> Anything better than prison camp? >> Watch your step going down. Honda good. [Music] >> Paul Meer is acting as though something terrible is on his mind. He's suspicious of everything. >> He's even afraid to use a phone. Yesterday he was doubling back trying to discover if he was being tailed. Miller, it may be a long shot, but if you can convince Balmire that these credentials are not forged and came straight from Germany, we'll be in on something hot. [Music] What we have, gentlemen, >> let me speak to the proprietor. >> Yes, sir. >> Yes. What can I do for you? >> You're Mr. Yes. >> I bring you greetings from Ransaw. [Music] How is he? [Music] Excuse me. Hope you'll have some word for me tomorrow. We will see. Gates. >> Fine. Fine. >> Here's been mishavin. [Music] [Applause] Once inside Balmire's establishment, Miller was in a position to pick up what evidence he needed. An important hall were rolls of microfilm containing secret information destined for Germany together with various informative documents. >> Miller's now convinced that one of the notches Bowmire is hiding has been told how to contact a big espionage group. Where? That's what we'd like to know. >> Scott, just as soon as we find out the time and location of the rendevous, we'll grab the prisoner. >> Yes, sir. [Applause] [Music] >> Hello. Just a minute, please. Mr. Balmire. [Music] Yes. immediately. Baron wants him ready now. >> Pile it up. >> Pile it up. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Heat. [Applause] Heat. Heat. Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Applause] Heat. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Stand up there now. Any [Applause] tables back here? It's full out front. >> Mr. Balmer. [Applause] No. No. [Music] [Applause] We're federal officers. Everyone remain seated. >> Come on. Hurry up. Come on out of there. You hurry up. All right. Get better. Come on. [Applause] With the arrest of August Balmire and with the roundup under similar circumstances of hundreds like him, with a seizure across the country of vast quantities of firearms, ammunition, and high explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation achieved the destruction of the spy ring Adolf Hitler had intended to be one of his potent weapons in paralyzing American democracy. [Applause] Today, the men of the FBI, whose activities extend out from Washington to the remotest corners of the land, are playing as vital a part in the nation's battle against crime as they played in the greater war against the armed forces of the Axis. Out of this war, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has emerged better equipped than ever to take the lead in coping with the lawless forces undermining the nation's internal peace and security. Through its policy of working in cooperation with local police, the FBI under its able director is helping to raise the standards of law enforcement everywhere to meet the challenge of the post-war crime wave. And in the task of leadership that lies ahead of them, the men of the FBI are determined that they shall continue to be known by their motto, fidelity, bravery, integrity. B4 popped a core. So, this was one of the other bingo cards. Uh, a core. I think I've shown them before on the our show. Little plastic hub. Um, and archally those are it's better to put films on there than it is on a reel because a reel can warp. reel can rust. Uh reels are heavier. They can put undue tension and pressure on film. And if you have a tight packed core, it's great because you can pop it out and gingerely put it on your film scanner or use split reels and put it on a projector. Excuse me. Uh, the problem is if that middle hub pops out, which I average one of those a year, basically I I lift it out and I'm not paying attention and somehow I put pressure on it and it pops out. And then what that means is you have to basically rewind the film manually. There's no way to do it automatically because it's it's now like spaghetti. Um, and so it's one of the downfalls of a film archavist, but it's also something that we all have to to deal with, you know, and that's someone who's popped a core means that they're handling film a lot. And that's what you want, right? To show the film or scan the film, inspect the film, not just keep it in a can on a shelf. All right. This next film is another one from the uh uh uh Oregon archive. And this one is fascinating and it will have people in it that you recognize. Um I'm not sure the point of this film. Uh hopefully in watching it again, we'll figure it out. But uh it features the committee, which you may or may not know, uh which I think is a late60s early '7s group, comedy troop, street theater group. I'm not sure what what the deal is, but you'll recognize people. So, uh, special report. Enjoy. >> Senseless violence shattered this quiet residential neighborhood several weeks ago as a vicious killer, or perhaps several vicious killers fatally wounded 22-year-old topless go-go dancer Candy Parabula. as the curvaceous young woman moved quietly within the privacy of her own living room. Since the tragedy occurred, police investigation, hampered by a der of clues, has been alarmingly unproductive. KCMJ's Moment news team has examined the Parabola murder in depth, hoping to turn over that last stone to answer the question that has troubled this city now for weeks. Why? Her father is an itinerant stonemason. her mother, the provocative sculpturess diaspora. Candy is dead. Candy Parabola came to this country to this apartment building from her native Paraguay three years ago when she was 19 years old. She dated a different man almost every week, but she was, according to the manager of this apartment building where she lived and died, a nice girl. Candi was a little person, the type of girl whose death, unless it was dramatic or sensational in itself, would have been noted by only a small paragraph in the obituary column. But Candy Parabola was more than just a 24year-old topless go-go dancer. She is a symptom. A symptom of a disease of violence that has gotten its death hold on this country in the last few years. If we couldn't, if we fail to understand Candy Parabola when she was alive, we must at least attempt to understand her sad, lonely, violent death. Two weeks ago, Moment News came here to question those at the scene of the tragedy. >> Well, as far as we can tell, this was no sex crime. Probably just your typical irrational killing. Do >> you have any other leads, Inspector? >> Well, it's a little hard to piece things together at this stage. Some sort of savage on horseback. Probably an American Indian. Three women saw him ride in through that gate out there, stop by the pool, shade his eyes, and stare into the victim's apartment here. >> Does that seem reasonable to you? >> Yes, I think so. The arrow on the victim's chest would suggest that possibility at least. Those boys over there are trying to determine Miss Parabola's path after the arrow hit her. She seems to have covered quite a bit of ground. >> We suspect that she was looking for something. >> Any idea what? >> No, sir. But whatever it was, she didn't find it. >> I understand that you were one of the first units responding to this call. >> I was the first. >> I see. And what happened? >> Well, I got off my machine and proceeded to the victim's apartment. I noticed this broken window, so I wrapped on a door. Then I forcibly entered the dwelling unit. >> Did you see any evidence of the killer or killers? >> Not inside the apartment. No. >> Uh, elsewhere. >> Well, I surely became aware of this error here sticking in the outside wall of the building. You'll notice it's sticking. >> This was after you discovered Miss Parabola's body. >> Yes, that's right. I was on my way back to my bike to uh request assistance and have the department notify the press photographers of a newsworthy event. >> Isn't it slightly unusual for a dentist to be called in on a crime of this nature? Not at all, Bob. I've had a year of gross anatomy. You can tell an awful lot about a man from his teeth. >> And what have you been able to tell about this one? >> Precious little. >> Apparently, Miss Parabola snapped a picture of her asalent just before the arrows struck. >> Really? >> Yes. I have the print here. Unfortunately, Candy, in her excitement after being shot, pulled the film from the camera immediately. It's badly underdeveloped. It won't be of much use to us. can barely distinguish the image of the horse and rider, much less identify either. >> Could you speculate why Candy Parabola might have decided to photograph her asalent before he struck? >> Do you think that Candy knew she was going to be murdered, Inspector? >> I wish people would be careful with the use of that word murder. You have an alarming tendency to jump to conclusions [Music] >> after what happened to Candy today. What's a woman to do? >> Oh, just stay at home and be careful, you know, especially at night. I don't go out alone at all anyway. >> What do you think is causing all this? >> I really don't know. Um, I can't say for sure what I think it is. Not unless it's a lot of the movies that you see. >> You find psychopaths everywhere. Just have to hunt them down until you find them. That's all you can do. >> You think we're it's going to things are going to get worse? We're going to have more. >> Well, it's going to get worse until it gets better. But I'm pretty sure that the police and all the agencies are doing the very best they can to catch these terrible men. >> And what do your men hope to find here in the water? >> Clues. Water's a natural catch all. If our man got within 5 ft of this pool, he left some traces of his person in the water. >> Like what, inspector? germs, seed pods indigenous to his home environment, bits of cloth, strands of hair, anything really. See down there at the bottom of the swimming pool? That's Miss Parabola's German Shepherd, Sebastian >> drowned. >> Yes, definitely. Nasty coincidence. Just confuses the issue. Here's some interesting stuff, though. We dredged this up out of off the bottom. Our lab will give it to going over tomorrow. Do you suspect you'll find a clue hidden among this rag tag assortment of floatsome and jetum? >> If there is one, I will find it in. >> You've just arrived from the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Is that right, sir? >> Oh, yes, sir. That's right. >> I wonder if we might have a few words with you, Mr. Williams. How does this killing look to you? >> Well, looks like Cheyenne to me. Uh, some might say that that looks like an Arapjo war era, but I'd say it's definitely Cheyenne. Any idea how many Indians were involved? >> Oh, well, that's hard to say. There's no hookprints around here to get your teeth into. It's all too much asphalt and concrete, you know. I'd say no more in a small war party, though. They try to keep their numbers down so as not to attract attention. >> Where could this arrow have come from? >> Well, that's hard to say. It's uh you can't buy them anymore. You have to either steal them or uh make them. Some maniac broke into one of our Indian museums and took a bunch of arrows and tomahawks and stuff not long ago. >> Could this be one of those stolen arrows? >> Well, I'd rather not say at this time. That was two weeks ago. Since then, Moment News has questioned a legion of individuals from all walks of life. Their insights and their opinions need to be heard. She worked uh a year straight next month. I hired her myself. Yeah. >> What was she like? >> Candy. She was a great girl. You know, most of the most of the girls that that work here, you couldn't care less about their private life about Candy's different. >> How so? >> She class, you know. I mean, she was just like too good for this life. And I I often told her myself, it's a candy. Why don't you get a job in a nice department store? You know, she wouldn't listen. >> Can you think of any reason why someone might have wanted to kill Candy? >> Candy? Yeah, she was nice. I'm telling you. Um, her father is like a stonemason, brickmason, something in Japan, some place like that. Her mother was a sculpturist. She told me she had uh six brothers and three sisters where she came from, you know, where she was before she was here. She was a nice kid. >> Thank you, Mr. Wyoming. >> Sure. >> Mr. Rich, how do you get the maximum kill capacity out of an arrow? >> Well, that's a little difficult to answer, but I would say basically accuracy. >> Would a uh an arrow uh provide a quicker kill than a bullet? >> No, because not on an average. Because an arrow kills by hemorrhage by severing the all the blood carrying vessels, the everything from the capillaries right up to the major arteries. And when the blood's gone, they seem as fainting. They just expire. >> Is it true that the arrow is the most silent deadly weapon around? >> You better believe it. >> When you can't hear them go off at 15 feet, they have to be silent. Maybe there's some danger in it, but it's not as much danger as a gun because gun might go off, you know, without even realizing what you really have to have the arrow in position without before it goes off, you know, without really knowing. >> Do you think that the uh parabola murder will have any effect on the sport of archery? >> I don't see how it could really because there's been too many killings otherwise with knives and guns and whatnot and it doesn't seem to affect that many. In those horrible moments after the arrow found its mark, Candy Parabola made her way to the small prince's telephone given to her just last week by one of her many admirers. And then almost miraculously, she was able to place a telephone call to the police headquarters. Policewoman Millie Lefkowitz was on duty and took Cand's call for help. Officer Lefowitz, could you tell me what Candy sounded like in those horrible moments as she spoke her last words into your headset? >> Shocked and amazed. Bob. Shocked and amazed. >> In your many years on the force, have you ever been put into a crisis situation comparable to the one in which you found yourself when Candi's feeble voice was coming over the wire? >> No, Bob. Never. >> This is a city acid with fear. He is still out there somewhere. He has struck once senselessly. He can perhaps kill again at will. These women share a single tragic quality with Candy Parabo. They are vulnerable. They move effortlessly through each day. But if one deranged individual so dictates, all of that can change in an instant. >> I lock up the house. lock up all the windows and I have chains on the doors and that's about it. >> Women my age don't like to go out at night and at one time we felt the perfect freedom in going to the theater or anywhere you want to go. >> Do you think is there hope do you think? >> Oh, of course there's hope. I've lived long enough to know that there's many many things that have uh uh have disturbed the country. It's going to all come out just great. America is a wonderful place. It's going to be wonderful. >> Thank you so much. Yes indeed. >> Do you find many women who are afraid of being molested and then for take karate? >> Oh yes. This has been a trend recently not as much so say a year or so ago. The majority of students have been men or male and the enrollment of women has been increasing in the last past few months especially with the the recent killings and so on that have been publicized in the paper. There there was another uh instance where a woman was accosted in her bedroom where she had uh prevented the asalent from attacking her by getting up out of bed and just like starting to disrobe and then she made a dash for the outside patio. >> An increasing number of these irrational attacks. Uh can you really train a woman to protect herself against this sort of maniac? >> Oh yes, definitely. Candy Parabola owned a German Shepherd. Might it have saved her life? Now, when you train a dog, uh, do you train the dog to kill or just to maim or is there a difference? We train the dog first to keep the people out to protect the property if someone should get in their wheelchair. And uh it is possible that they could uh kill a person. >> In the training of a dog, uh does a dog have to have a special type of personality before he can be a good guard dog? >> Well, yes. They have to be physically fit. They have to have courage and they have to have the natural instinct. The German Shepherd has been not trusting everybody. >> We've had a rash of public murders. What do you think is causing them? Well, I think it's a it's a dope that they're peddling from Mexico. It's got more or less got something to do with it. >> I don't like to say this to you, but I think it gets too much publicity and violence is getting too much publicity. If it weren't played up, if it weren't given so much attention, then it would pass off. >> Candy Parabola is gone now. Her passage written, her last tea crossed. The greatest challenge facing those of us she leaves behind will be to remember what she stood for, why she came here, and perhaps most importantly, what she found. It would be specious to say that we have all done this to Candi, for certainly we have not. Shakespeare once said, "Now, how do thou look now, oh illst starred wench, pale as thy smok, when we shall meet at compt, this look of thine shall hurl my soul from heaven, and fiends shall snatch at it. Cold, cold, my girl, even like thy chastity, oh cursed slave." This is Robert Banter. Moment news. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. [Music] So ultimately this was a student film which is why it went on too long and uh probably wasn't funny but it featured the committee which Richard Stall you recognized and Howard Hesman, who is credited in this film as Howard Storm. Uh both of them are were part of the committee and they actually show up in other things uh on the Smother's Brothers TV show and I remember seeing them. I was a little kid, but I remember seeing them in Billy Jack. They show up as uh one of them is like kind of a street theater, Howard Hesman, and then Richard Stall shows up as a uh a city councilman. Um so maybe that was funny. I I don't know. But it was basically some student did it to, you know, show that they knew how to make a film, I guess. Uh, and that's kind of the crapshoot with uh student films. Not not a fan always. Um, all right. So, here's another bingo card. I8 film destroying machine. So, I don't know if you noticed there's I try to rhyme. So, there's a bingo slang. There's a British bingo slang you can look up on the internet that's pretty great where there's it rhymes or it's referring to certain things. There's some cochnney stuff in this. And so I tried to make one that was related specifically to film or AV geeks. Uh so there is this is a real thing. The new made film mutilator was designed to destroy film. Uh which is fascinating. Uh the idea was that a film would be made and then it would be uh you'd run it through that once it was distributed or shown or whatever. you'd run it through that and then that would destroy it and that way it couldn't be duplicated by people who discovered it in a dumpster somewhere and that was a problem in the early 20th century. So, um it's fascinating that that exists. All right, let's see. I got what do I got for you? All right. Yeah, we'll watch this. Um, this is called Ticket to Freedom and this is I should show this in November, but yeah, we'll show it in October. Um, this is I think it's Ford Motor Company and it's about the importance of voting. Enjoy. [Music] The most important man in the world. His name, it doesn't matter. Race, nationality, religion, they're not important. What does he do for a living? That doesn't matter either. What makes him important is that he has the most precious possession in the world. for he is an American citizen and he carries in his pocket a ticket to freedom, his right to vote. That ordinaryl looking piece of paper is the symbol of his greatest privilege and his gravest responsibility. Because along with more than 90 million other citizens of this republic, men and women from all walks of life, Americans of every race, color, and creed, he holds in his hands the fate of the greatest nation on earth. Through his secret ballot, he and millions of others like him choose the men who will govern this nation, formulate its policy, and make its laws. What kind of guy is he? this most important man in the world. What does he think about his privilege and his responsibility? Well, as a matter of fact, he'd think about it much at all. He considers himself a pretty normal sort of person with a pretty normal life. The kind of guy who likes to think for himself, make up his own mind, make his own decisions. Yes, he's an individual just like his father was. He doesn't like anybody telling him what to do or how to do it. And he can get pretty tough when anybody tries. He owns his own home and a car. So do most of his friends. He figures that's the way it should be in America. Nothing unusual about it. He goes to work every day. He's satisfied with his job. If he weren't, he'd do something about it. talk it over with his boss or just leave it and find another. He feels that's his right. Nothing strange about that. He goes to church on Sunday and worships in whatever way he feels is best. This seems perfectly natural to him. It's always been this way in America. He sits in front of his television set and watches to see it work. He watches the citizens of the republic go about the job of choosing their leaders with always and color traditional to the national convention of our great political party. He finds it exciting or amusing or sometimes even annoying. But he doesn't think it unusual. Nothing to get excited about. He takes pretty much for granted this business of choosing the men who will govern him, write his laws, protect his home, educate his kids. It seldom occurs to him that all over the world enslaved millions would gladly give their lives for this precious freedom he accepts so lightly. Yes, this is the man with the priceless ballot, the most important man in the world. There are more than 100 million of us like him who share this freedom and the responsibility for preserving it. Most of us, if necessary, would fight to the death for it. But what do we do about it? Listen, in the national election of 1948, in one of the most critical periods in our history, only about 51% of the 94 million Americans eligible to vote cast their ballots. Almost half of the adult citizens of this nation were apparently not interested enough in their own political and economic future to vote. Contrast this dismal showing with the records of some of the democracies in the shadow of the Iron Curtain where liberty has perhaps taken on frightening new significance. In Italy, in the vital 1946 elections, more than 89% of the adult population turned out to vote. Remember what happened? The communists were beaten. In the French elections in 1951, 78% of the eligible voters went to the polls. The Reds were defeated there, too. And in Great Britain, a percent of the people cast their ballots in the 1951 election. And yet in this greatest and freest democracy in the world, almost half the citizens are not even interested enough to use their precious ballot. And in local elections, which concern things as vital to the family and the individual as local schools, property taxes, roads, or even garbage collection, only about 20% of the citizens bother to vote. In a recent labor union election, less than 300 workers elected unit officers to represent nearly 4,000 union members. The others just didn't bother to vote. Do you think the workers who didn't bother to vote have any real right to gripe about the way the union is run? Do you think the citizen who failed to cast his ballot has any right to complain about corruption or high taxes, inapt foreign policy or wasteful spending or any other phase of government he disagrees with? Of course he hasn't. He forfeited his right to complain when he forfeited his ticket to freedom. And almost half the citizens of the United States lost their voice in government in the 1948 national election. Nearly 80% of them in recent local elections. >> I was pretty busy around election time. Well, I I just didn't have a chance to get to the voting booth that day. >> The way the newspapers read, I thought the election was all sewed up. I didn't see what difference my one vote would make. For my dough, politics is dirty business and politicians a lot of crooks. I don't want any part of it. >> Well, those are the reasons people give or rather excuses. There can be no reason for not voting. Too busy. Busy doing what? What could the most important man in the world possibly be doing? More important than safeguarding his future, securing his liberty and that of his children, assuring his community and his nation of decent, honest, competent leadership? No, we can't accept that too busy excuse. And what of the citizen who thinks his or her one vote makes no difference? The facts tell quite a different story. Looking back at our own history, a single electoral vote made Rutherford B. Hayes president in 1876. A single vote in one county of Indiana in the 1840s elected a state legislature. The legislator single vote sent a man to the United States Senate. The senator single vote as president prom admitted Texas to the Union and set off the Mexican War. The Constitution itself was ratified by only 19 votes in Massachusetts, by 10 in Virginia, by nine in New Hampshire, and by two in Rhode Island. And an even more recent example, a single vote in each of Ohio's precincts in 1948 would have given Ohio's 25 electoral votes to the other candidate. When you believe that your one vote is unimportant, you play right into the hands of those who would usurp the power of the people. And that brings us to the final excuse. One that's heard more and more often these days. Politics is dirty and politicians are all crooks. Well, prepare yourself for a shock, friend. You're a politician. Whether you like it or not, you're a politician. You can't help it. That piece of paper in your pocket or waiting for you at your election board, makes you a politician. Your right to vote, whether you use it or not, gives you an influence in the affairs of your community and your nation. That influence can be good or bad, positive or negative. But you can't help having it. You can't help being a politician. If you choose to do nothing, you simply become the silent partner of the ward healers, machine bosses, and power seekers. Edmund Burke, the great British statesman, said it this way. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. Even the Greeks had a word for it. The classical Greek word idiotes meant those citizens who did not take part in the public voting. Our word idiot is derived from that Greek word. And it's still appropriate. Since we are politicians, our responsibility as citizens is to be good politicians, effective politicians. How do we do that? The first step, of course, is to register. Until you do that, you have no voice in your government. That ticket to freedom, your registration is your entry into the world of politics. You can do nothing without it. Find out where, when, and how to register in your community and get your name on the voting list. Then, and only then, will you be ready to function as a citizen politician. Now, what's the next step? Voting, you say? Yes, that's part of it. Probably the most important part. But wait a minute, that's not the whole story. Being an effective politician involves a great deal more than just making X's on a ballot. It requires a knowledge of the issues and the candidates. It means knowing the problems facing your community, your state, your nation, and then finding out where the parties and the candidates stand on those problems. Read a good newspaper or several of them. Listen to the radio, watch television, hear the candidates and their campaigners speak. Find out all you can about how they stand on the vital issues and compare their ideas with your own. Set your own political aims and objectives and measure the candidates against them. How are you going to use the political influence your vote gives you? What are you looking for from government and government officials? In your town, you may want better schools, better roads, more recreational facilities, or more prompt garbage collection. in Washington. Perhaps you're concerned with broad things like successful foreign policy, domestic security, competent legislation, and efficient administration. At all levels of government, you want full value received for your tax dollar, an end to corruption and grab, reduction of inefficiency and waste in any party, and most of all, you want to keep your political and economic freedom. You want the right to continue to exert political influence which is your most precious possession. >> Yeah, but what can I do about it? >> Whatever your political objectives, you can do something about them. You can look at each candidate carefully, his qualifications, his background, who supports him, where he stands on the important issues. And then when I find my man, I I get out and support him and vote for him. >> Right. Your intelligent vote is your most important action as a free citizen. But exercising your franchise goes beyond just voting. Your choice in general elections is usually limited to two candidates for each office. But there is much to be done by the citizen politician before and after he casts his ballot to ensure good government. You should not only vote in the primary, but get in on the pre- primary campaigning as well. Influencing politics at any level, whether local or national, must begin at the grassroots in your own neighborhood or precinct or town. It's there that all politics begin. So that's where you should begin, right over the back fence. Find out how your local politics work. Find out who your ward or precinct officials are and how they got that way. Find out how delegates are selected for state and county conventions, how candidates are picked, and how they get on the ball. You may be surprised at how much you, as an ordinary citizen, can do about it. You'll probably find many other citizens in your community with the same political aims and objectives that you have. Get together with them for organized action. Be a pressure group. There's nothing wrong with pressure groups as long as they're pressuring for the things you want, the things that are best for your town and your nation. A group of interested citizens can wield tremendous influence in getting good platforms and good candidates. So start at the grassroots. Get into politics in your town, in your ward or precinct, and use the power of your vote to make your voice heard for the things you believe in. Then after the election, when most of us are inclined to just sit back and wait to see what our officials are going to do, don't relax. Good government needs constant watching. The people you elect to office are your representatives. You pay them. They're responsible to you. If you don't like what they're doing, let them know about it. If enough of you speak up, they'll change what they're doing. But fast. As long as you have that powerful ballot, you're in the driver's seat. Yes, Mr. Citizen, you're a politician, too. So stand up and be counted. Let your voice be heard. Pick up your ticket to freedom by registering as a voter in your community. Get into politics in your neighborhood. Have your say about the candidates and their platforms. Vote and vote intelligently. Know the issues. Know the parties. Know the candidates. know everything there is to know about the men to whom you're entrusting your future. And after you've elected them, watch them, direct them, demand from them honesty, integrity, efficiency, and if you don't get it, throw their rascals out. That's your privilege and your duty because you're an American citizen, the most important man in the world. [Music] throw the rascals out and also vote intelligently. Not not don't just vote. find reliable sources of information about the candidates and make uh intelligent decisions. That's really important. Okay. Uh what do we got? Here's another bingo card. N33 years of film collecting glee. Yeah, I've been doing this for 33 years. 33 years. It's a long time. It's a long time to be doing something. Uh, my collection collecting habit has already has kids and has gotten married and has probably had a divorce by now. Um, so I should say that uh I got an interesting piece of mail uh the other day, a postcard from the Society of the Vanishing Point and it's addressed to Flip Eisendorfer. So, Flip Eisendorfer, 714 Tyler Road, and it says, "Save the date, dear brother Flip. The year draws to its weary close and our minds drift to the in inescapable reality of decrepitude. Set aside your idle thoughts for a few hours on the sixth estine Thursday of 1970 for the festival of the goat. Schnops and song shall flow freely. Remain vigilant brother Cecil. So, some of you who uh watch VCR Party might realize or remember that many of the people uh who have appeared on VCR Party uh have gotten these. And so, I guess I have been added to the list of this uh cult serial killers. Uh and my lifeless body will be found in a gutter somewhere. Um, just kidding. U, but, uh, it's it's interesting. Uh, and we're just adding it to the the grand puzzle of who this is. That's who these folks are that are sending these to me. But I do like Flip Eisendorfer. That is uh, probably over over the years of my life of people mispronouncing my name. It's it's possible that somebody called me Eisendorfer. Um anyways, thanks for joining us today. Uh I am feeling better, but this is what happens is I feel like crap and then I feel a little bit better. I'm like, "Oh, I'm over it." And then so hopefully tomorrow I'll be still doing okay because fall colds are miserable and I certainly have had enough in my life. Um but thanks for tuning in today. very much appreciate your eyeballs. I appreciate uh your donations. Thank you, Kevin. Uh but I also appreciate your comments and hitting thumbs up, hit the like button, subscribe. Those are great ways to support us. Um and in one of the I found it in uh for bingo card, I found this and I completely forgot about this. I29, please rewind and love each other. This was found inside of a can of uh one of our films and it was obviously a bored high school student or middle school student who drew it in there and uh it's it's something to live by. Please rewind and also love each other. Um that means you and loving yourself. All right. Uh we will see you tomorrow everybody. Have a great rest of your Tuesday and we will see you soon. Bye.