The Secret Life of Bees and Election 2008

These days the election never leaves my thoughts. I never watch any TV other than CNN and MSNBC (Oh, and Saturday Night Live). I read political articles on my computer at my desk at lunchtime. I listen to NPR in the car. I am for the most part taking a a break from my voracious reading of novels as I can't concentrate on them. Work makes a valiant effort for my attention, and I don't understand why I should be forced to go to work as if it were an ordinary day when an epic battle between good and evil is being fought.

Even when I do something relatively escapist, such as go to a movie, I view it through the lens of the 2008 election. Such was the case with The Secret Life of Bees.

Dakota Fanning plays Lily, who is 14 years old and growing up in South Carolina (red state) in 1964. She lives with her father. Her mother was killed in an accident with a gun ten years earlier, when she was trying to leave Lily's abusive father. They started fighting, and her mother got out a gun, but then dropped it in the struggle with her husband. Four-year-old Lily tried to hand it to her and it went off.

So Lily of course feels incredible guilt over this, even though it was an accident and she was only four. And of course now she's being raised by her abusive father, though really most of the raising was being done by their black housekeeper, Rosaleen (Jennifer Hudson, whose recent family tragedy with her mother, brother, and nephew being killed was the little bit of news unrelated to the election that I actually took in).

Anyway, the story really begins when Rosaleen and Lily go into town so that Rosalie can register to vote. Rosalie is accosted and beaten by three white men before she gets the chance. Then SHE is arrested for causing trouble, though she is also taken to the hospital to get treated for her injuries.

I haven't heard of anyone today getting beaten for trying to register to vote. However, I've certainly heard of HUGE problems with voter suppression--thousands of eligible voters potentially being dropped from the rolls in some states because of slight variations in the name or address, attempts to intimidate students by saying if they vote in their college towns their parents can't claim them as dependents on their income taxes (misinformation), to name just a couple of problems--how far have we come since 1964, people? It's pretty embarrassing that we hold ourselves up as an example of democracy when we can't even hold fair elections ourselves. And don't even get me started about the Diebold machines. Ask for a paper ballot if possible.

The incident causes Lily and her father to get into a huge fight, and Lily runs away. She packs a bag and leaves a note for her father, then sneaks into the hospital where Roaleen is staying and basically helps her become a fugitive.

They end up at the home of the Boatwright sisters in a nearby town. Queen Latifah is August, a successful beekeeper whose famous jars of honey have a black Madonna on the label. It was the label in a stash of her mother's things that had led Lily there. August lives in a beautiful (though violently pink) house with her two sisters, May (Sophie Okonedo), constantly sad and troubled since losing her twin sister years ago, and June (Alicia Keys, an earnest (though at times humorless) civil rights activist.

Lily learns about harvesting the honey, while Rosaleen helps out in the house. Staying in the Boatwright house is a healing experience for both of them, and Lily learns some secrets of her mother's past.

It's a heartwarming if at times a bit implausible tale. When I can read regular books again, I'll have to check out the novel by Sue Monk Kidd.

Oh, and Rosaleen does end up getting registered to vote. She tells Lily she will be casting her vote for Lyndon Johnson and Hubert Humphrey.

The Democrats ended up winning the White House by a landslide in 1964. Please, God, let the same thing happen in 2008. Let everyone who hasn't voted yet be just as excited and determined to do so as Rosaleen.

Just think how excited Rosaleen would have been to vote for an African American candidate, especially as visionary a candidate as Obama.