October 21-27, 2004

mixpicks

Tour of Duty

by Nicole Pensiero

Fahrenheit 9/11 may have polarized the nation, but most viewers can agree on this: Lila Lipscomb -- who appears for 20 minutes in the 110-minute Bush-bashing documentary -- stands at the film's center as its unflinching emotional conscience.

Lipscomb, whose 26-year-old son Michael Pedersen was killed in April 2003 when his Black Hawk helicopter was downed in Iraq, will appear at The Point on Sunday night as part of the Tour of Duty tour, being billed as an educational, nonpartisan project. Lipscomb will be joined onstage by comedian (and Philly native) Paul Lyons. There will be a Q & A session following Lipscomb's presentation.

The Flint, Mich., woman, described by event organizer Jeff Norman as "an amazingly powerful speaker," is visiting 15 cities around the country, imploring audiences to ask why we invaded Iraq -- and why we're still there.

"Maybe, if by speaking I can prevent other American sons and daughters from dying, I can find some meaning in my son's death," Lipscomb was recently quoted as saying. "I now have a duty to wake up this country."

Lipscomb, who initially appears in Fahrenheit 9/11 as a (literally) flag-waving patriot, brings things to a climactic close with her tearful pilgrimage to the White House. By then, her personal grief seems representative of something bigger and even more painful to watch: a country unsure of what to believe anymore.

Tour of Duty, with Lila Lipscomb and Paul Lyons, Sun., Oct. 24, 7 p.m., $10, The Point, 880 W. Lancaster Ave., Bryn Mawr, 866-468-7619.