Dear Editor,
A story about optimism and resilience Little Orphan Annie has warmed our hearts for decades. And how appropriate it’d be Tim Curry who with his own ‘it’s a hard knock life’ showed up with his talents in singing and dancing and acting in the 1982 smash film hit “Annie.” Passing on the same day as Dolly Parton, Curry was talented in his own right. He played the role as Miss Hannigan’s brother and common, Rooster, performing brilliantly in the song “Easy Street” with Carol Burnett and Bernadette Peters. They were perfection! Yet Curry’s life when a young boy was anything but perfect or easy. Born to a Methodist Naval chaplain who was kind and living and nonjudgmental Curry adored his father and looked up to him. But when he died and his mother who struggled with her grief and mental health he found his solace in acting in school plays that would eventually open doors to becoming a star on the stage and screen. Curry in “Annie” will always be my favorite. My children loved the movie and with its musical album they’d put on family skits and we’d sing the songs during car rides and family chores. Our favorite was “Tomorrow.” But Curry was in multiple movies and it was “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” that made him a pop culture icon. Known for his acting diversities that could make you hysterically laugh in comedies or scare the bejesus out of you as Pennywise in “It” but, too, Curry was known like his father for being nonjudgmental, showing kindness and goodwill to everyone including working staff and his fans.
He was friendly and never let his success go to his head like some too often do. And like some do in the entertainment field when a young adult he had a bout with cocaine and alcohol. But the optimist he was since a young boy he checked himself into rehab and was able to put it behind him showing his friends and fans what you can do if you put your mind to it. Always keeping positive and upbeat even later in life after his strokes and he always showed gratitude and joy and his wit and sense of humor.
Tim Curry will always be fondly remembered for his talents and kindness and his optimism and resilience. And then there’s Gloria Steinem who passed just after the age of 92, God bless her! Born in a time with career limitations and when women couldn’t even have a credit card in their name let alone bank account without a man’s name on it. So like a woman reincarnated from the suffrage era she picked up a bullhorn, and spent her life’s work fighting for women’s rights being keenly aware of the similarities between women and those of color she walked and fought and spoke out along the side of everyone calling for their dignity and human rights. And regardless our current president is against the very essence of Steinem who she dubbed the “harasser in chief.”
She said Trump’s presidency inadvertently has raised the consciousness in renewing public attention in human rights with his own misogynies and bigotries. Bragging about his sexual assaults in the Hollywood Access tag and found liable by a federal judge or sexual abuse and defamation of character of a woman who had the courage to speak about it. Demeaning women and calling them “piggie.”
There’s just somethings some of us our conscience won’t let us overlook. Like women dying on Trump’s watch because he upended Rowe v Wage nor overlook the inhuman treatment with nonviolent immigrants and those with ethnic and political differences.
All the more it’s good to know President Obama awarded Steinem the Presidential Medal of Freedom for a lifetime of hard work and dedication that gave so many a voice and a right to be heard. All three Dolly Parton, Tim Curry and Gloria Steinem leaving just hours and a few days apart they were similar in many ways that gave them the qualities they each had. All three had souls that spoke to them that gave them meaning and purpose in life that help make the world a little better place because they cared about others. Qualities we need more than ever today in our country’s leadership.
J.M.
