Perspective: Mia Love, theater kids and the math lesson America needs

Yahoo

26-03-2025

This article was first published in the Right to the Point newsletter. Sign up to receive the newsletter in your inbox each week.
In a moving Deseret News essay that has been referenced globally, Mia Love memorably said that some of us have forgotten 'the math of America — whatever you divide you diminish.' But Love, the former Utah congresswoman who died Sunday of brain cancer at age 49, believed that America is better at multiplication than division.
She went on to say: 'What I know is that the goodness and compassion of the American people is a multiplier that simply cannot be measured. The goodness and greatness of our country is multiplied when neighbors help neighbors, when we reach out to those in need and build better citizens and more heroic communities.'
Her message could not have been more poignant, or timely, coming as some conservatives on social media are blaming 'theater kids' for the state of the country while others blame President Donald Trump and Elon Musk. 'Theater kids' has lately become a dismissive term for young progressives who display a certain theatrical flair in in their politics.
But before she became the first Black Republican in the House of Representatives, Love herself was a 'theater kid,' and she wasn't a garden-variety one, either. She earned a degree in fine arts at one of the most competitive schools for musical theater majors in New England, the University of Hartford in Connecticut. And she famously turned down a chance to audition for a lead role in 'Smokey Joe's Cafe' on Broadway because it would have forced her to postpone her wedding.
In other words, she was a nascent star, who chose to shine on different kinds of stages.
In her elegant essay, 'My living wish for the America I know,' Love stood between two snarling sides of the partisan divide and appealed to all of us to be better, to stand more in the overlap of our national Venn diagram and not gravitate to the bitter edges. To embrace the 'our' of America and not the 'them.'
'The America I know isn't just my story and it isn't just your story. It is our story,' Love wrote.
'It is a story of endless possibilities, human struggle, standing up and striving for more. Our story has been told for well over 200 years, punctuated by small steps and giant leaps; from a woman on a bus to a man with a dream; from the bravery of the greatest generation to the explorers, entrepreneurs, reformers and innovators of today. This is our story. This is the America we know — because we built it — together.'
Love gave us those stirring words with the passion of a theater kid, but also with the conviction of a daughter of Haitian immigrants who loved this country deeply and felt a responsibility to it, and to all of us. She often said that, as a Republican, she wanted 'bigger people and less government,' a mantra that should challenge anyone advocating only for the latter half of that equation. I didn't know Love, but I will take that to heart, as well as her call for all of us to do the math.
Another kind of theater was in the news over the weekend, as Disney's much-maligned, live-action update of 'Snow White' finally made its box-office debut. Before the movie even opened, people were posting screenshots of available seating at theaters across the country, and let's just say, no one was worried that they might not get a seat if they didn't buy in advance.
I'm not sure I've ever seen so much animosity toward a film before its opening. That's partly because there were so many aspects of the film that had made people angry during its production — from the casting to the CGI dwarves to the political statements made by the lead actresses. Then there are those of us (my hand is raised here) who simply get grumpy about beloved animated classics, whether it's 'Snow White' or 'The Lion King,' getting the live-action treatment.
The film, which some have dubbed 'Snow Woke,' earned an estimated $43 million in the U.S. last weekend, an opening that The Hollywood Reporter called 'near disastrous,' adding that 'Snow White has found itself in potential bomb territory because of its hefty production budget of $270 million before another $100 million or so in marketing costs.' That makes it sound like 'Snow White' got 'Bud-Lighted.'
But The Hollywood Reporter went on to look at movie-going habits in red and blue states and found something interesting.
Citing polling from EnTelligence, senior film writer Pamela McClintock wrote, 'Cinemas in blue states generally account for 67 percent of all ticket sales, while red states account for 33 percent. In the case of Snow White, blue states came in behind the norm at 60 percent of all sales, while red states accounted for 40 percent.'
In other words, people in red states showed up at higher rates than usual for this film, leading EnTelligence founder Steve Buck to conclude that there's no evidence of a conservative boycott.
People just had no interest in the film, generally. They did, however, have interest in the comments that have been made about the trailer and film, and these were compiled into an amusing music video making the rounds on social media. Hating on 'Snow White' is a team sport, it seems, and much of the vitriol is likely driven by people who were never the market for the film anyway.
Still, it's near impossible to hear the Wicked Queen say to Snow White, 'You know, I really don't remember you being this ... opinionated,' without thinking the same about the Walt Disney Company. (You can see the clip in the film's trailer here.)
If Elon Musk weren't so aligned with Donald Trump, there might have been more celebration about SpaceX bringing the stranded astronauts home last week. It was an extraordinary moment, particularly for those of us who remember how big a deal it was when astronauts returned to Earth in a time when people could only watch by gathering around a TV.
The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan remembers, and wrote beautifully about the aesthetics of the splashdown:
'The capsule, the uniforms—and here I must have a happiness freak-out about the parachutes that eased the capsule down. They were gorgeous as physical objects and beautifully designed, like high art, like a Christo installation, with their red and white and deep-hued, elegant markings to enhance visibility. At certain points before and during splashdown they moved like huge jellyfish in the sea. They were made with new stitching method and with a specialized polymer called Zylon, developed by researchers at Stanford. It is a hard thing in life to do something so difficult and technical, so demanding of expertise and boldness, and still pay attention to beauty. It matters that this is done. Beauty can be natural (the rings of Saturn, a baby's ear) or man-made (the rising view of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge), and we must take it where it presents itself, and enjoy. And tip our hats.'
Jay Evensen looks at what life is like for Tesla owners in the age of a partisan Musk: 'The cars are rolling metaphors for the societal ills of whichever end of the spectrum is opposite Tesla CEO Elon Musk.'
When your car changes sides in politics
Jenna Carson, the first Latter-day Saint chaplain in the federal prison system, has an inside view on the violence that takes place there, threatening not just the staff, but inmates: 'Nearly a year into my time in the prison, one guard bragged that he and other guards punished incarcerated men beyond what the courts assigned. They did this in the isolation unit, where cameras were scarce.'
Abuse in our prisons is killing our humanity
BYU's Jeremy Pope explains the hullabalo over 'executive overreach' and what's really at stake: 'What is really getting lost at this moment is that it is not possible to create an institutional check when you only care about executive overreach from the other side. Democrats who cannot be stirred to wonder if Biden really has the power to simply appropriate billions for student loan forgiveness did not leave themselves in a strong position to object to Trump's overreach today.'
The problem with calling policy disagreements 'executive overreach'
There's been a lot of anger on the right this week about the Tesla torching, with Republicans noting that they just stop shopping at, say, Target, if there's something about the company they don't like. Then there are those of us — or maybe it's just me — who make decisions about shopping based on the product, not the politics of company selling it. Which is why I've had ice cream at the Ben & Jerry's in Burlington, Vermont, and enjoyed every bite, even though it felt a bit like crossing some invisible conservative picket line to walk in the door. Here's a look at what's going on with the brand these days, and why it's in the news. As always, thank you for reading and being part of the Right to the Point community. You can reach me at [e-mail].