Blog 254 – 03.21.2016

Three very powerful black voices are quite familiar to many of us, voices for hire, that are used to sell things to us quite successfully. The first powerful black voice, and there are many others but I would like to site these three, is that of James Earl Jones. Star Wars fans know his voice as the voice of Darth Vader, “Luke I am your father.” An English actor wore the suit. James Earl only provided his marvelous voice as he did for “This is CNN” and lately for Arby’s TV commercials, “We’ve got the meat.”

Many may not know his name but you know his face and his powerful and persuasive voice, Dennis Dexter Haysbert. He is the pitchman for Allstate Insurance and has been for a number of years. I am not a great fan of insurance companies and marveled when Dennis was picked by Allstate to represent them. He is an attractive black man with a wonderful deep voice but he played mostly bad guys in the movies for many years. He was an unsympathetic FBI agent sniper in Die Hard that isn’t over concerned with in collateral damage when he is trying to take out the misunderstood good guy Bruce Willis on the top of the terrorist seized Nakatomi Buliding in L.A. And again he is a rather cold Secret Service agent in Absolute Power who when he tries a second time to kill Clint Eastwood’s daughter gets his “just desserts” and is then carried out with the trash.

The last in this short piece about Powerful Voices is that of Morgan Freeman. Morgan is a tremendous actor and mostly plays good guys in the movies. He has a voice that is trusted. While many think Barak Obama is the first black President, I have heard it said that Bill Clinton was the first black President. The first black President I remember seeing in the movies was Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact. And though some think Ronald Reagan deserves a spot on Mount Rushmore  another actor gets my vote for his portrayal of a President. You guessed it, Morgan Freeman. Why, Morgan even rather convincingly played God in two Jim Carey movies, Bruce Almighty and a second one. I forget the name.

Like many of you, I rarely watch TV commercials anymore but fast forward when I can or do other necessary things during the commercials. I was about to do that the other evening during a political spot when I recognized Morgan’s voice. My ears perked up. I wanted to hear what he had to say. He was talking about Hillary Clinton and he said some good things about her. He sounded like he meant every word. He always does. I wondered if he was paid to say those words, if a great writer had written them for him. He sounded like he meant every word. He always does. If Hillary wins the nomination and goes on to win the election in November. I wonder how many votes Morgan’s powerful and persuasive voice will have swayed to vote for her.

Your friend and fellow traveler,
David White