Have a 'Street Fight' to wake yourself up

Have a ‘Street Fight’ to wake yourself up

Last night I went over to some friends’ place to have a dinner and hang out. We ended up watching this movie, Street Fight, about a mayoral race in Newark, New Jersey. It’s about the upstart campaign of a young city council member, Cory Booker, against Sharpe James, the man who’d been mayor of the city for 16 years.

I’m writing about it because it was just funny to see how different people respond to things. Going into the movie, I was totally beat. I’d had a late night of hard living the night before and then I’d pretty much spent the whole day hanging out with people, which isn’t exactly taxing but I’d never quite caught up with the deranged evening that had proceeded it.

So I almost didn’t stick around because I didn’t think I’d be able to stay awake to watch anything. As soon as there were images of a guy walking door-to-door, shaking hands and trying to talk to people about the issues, though — I was awake.

Late in the movie they showed a bunch of Philadelphians that the incumbent had shipped in from Philadelphia to help turn out the vote on Election Day, and I made a comment about Philly politics and the money machine Election Day is here, too. No one responded.

The documentary had woke me up and had me enraptured. My friends had all fallen asleep (and I was the only one lying down. They were sitting up on a couch and I was stretched out on a lounger). So it’s just funny to me that I can respond so strongly to a political story and other folks could barely care less. I guess it’s like people who watch fishing shows. They usually do fish, so they see things in a show like that that I don’t. Things they understand from experience that I don’t, just like I see layers and layers when I watch images of a guy walking around Newark or a campaign office trying to convince people that he has a shot.

Street Fight is worth seeing if you’re interested in electoral politics and the life of inner-cities. I felt totally engaged and, obviously, I was rooting for the young upstart the whole way (even if I did sort of admire the brass of the incumbent).