Two Ladies Dead, But Only One Was Great

Yesterday, I woke to the news of Lady Margaret Thatcher's passing.  A few hours later, the news scroll told of Annette Funicello's death to MS.  Both of these ladies played a significant role in American pop culture.  Annette was a Disney icon, a 60's beach movie darling, and a spokesperson for a nostalgic vision of America that no longer existed.  Thatcher was a Ronald Reagan ally, the quintessential "Iron Lady"who led Britain during the Cold War.  Both gone, but only one was great.

I grew up indoctrinated with the belief that anything associated with Ronald Reagan and the U.S., particularly during the Cold War, was good.  It was very black and white.  The USSR was bad, and if they had the chance, they would kill us with nukes.  I was 11 years old when the movie "The Day After" came on t.v., and my mother wouldn't let me watch it.  Looking back, it amazes that the U.S. can scoff at other countries' use of outrageous propaganda, while showing movies like "The Day After" on network television during the height of the Cold War.

Part of the propaganda of good vs. evil was Margaret Thatcher.  We didn't know much about her politics, but we knew she was good, because she was an ally of Reagan.  We knew she was a woman to look up to, because she was the first female Prime Minister in Britain, but we never knew her stance or work on women's issues.  Once she left office, Americans were left with a favorable view of Margaret Thatcher, mainly from their lack of knowledge about her domestic policies in Great Britain.  Let's face it, we all enjoyed Meryl Streep's performance, but were left wondering why the movie seemed like a snip-it reel that never really explored the results of her policies on the British people years later.

Much like Reagan, Thatcher was a strong-willed capitalist who believed the market was god.  She tried her best to make Britain into a capitalist system by breaking the mining and manufacturing industries, ignoring the poor, and coddling the wealthy.  Fast forward 30 years later, and the ruin and rot brought by Thatcher and Reagan's policies are evident city by city, town by town, and family by family.  The U.S. and England are no longer the powerhouses they once were, and the inability of the two countries to repair themselves, both on an infrastructure level and a cultural level, is shameful.  Thatcher may have been known to the U.S. as a great leader, but when you break it down, her "greatness" was superficial, at best.

Annette, on the other hand, did not rule a country, never had to enact policy during difficult times, or make decisions that would have long-reaching effects on the lives of millions.  Some would laugh at the comparison of Thatcher with Annette, but again, in the U.S., Thatcher was more of a pop culture figure than a politician, so it's relevant.

Annette was discovered by Walt Disney and rose to fame as one of the original Mouseketeers, she later went on to star in several quirky beach films with Frankie Avalon.  I remember Annette from Mickey Mouse Club reruns, and as the beautiful lady with the friendly smile who became synonymous with childhood, Disney, and Italian heritage.

Annette was a genuinely nice person.  In all of the commentary with her passing, the one thing everyone who ever met her talks about was how nice she was.  In a world full of snark where insults are traded as humor on a regular basis, being nice has become an anomaly.  Annette never took herself too seriously.  I loved her movie "Back to the Beach", because she basically spent 90 minutes making fun of her own persona.  There aren't too many people, particularly celebrities, who would bypass their own egos and question their own relevance the way Annette did in that movie.

I was sad to hear of her diagnosis with MS, because it's a disease that only gives you one direction to go.  I nearly cried when I saw her in her last public appearance to celebrate a milestone anniversary for Disneyland, because by then, she was wheelchair bound.  Despite her tough battle with MS, she would do a Christmas Card campaign every year where she would round up celebrities, have them create Christmas cards, and sell them online at holiday times to raise money for MS organizations.

Annette's legacy is a positive view of what America was and could be if we would all just get back to being a little nicer.  Whereas Thatcher's legacy will forever be associated with the Reagan-era policies that changed us from a culture of community to a culture of self.  Although the media is fawning over Thatcher, in this day and age, I think we need a little less iron and a little more nice.