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University of Minnesota School of Music
I never get tired of these! This is the kind of mob I love!
Meet the “Happy Hookers’ in Service to our Troops
During this winter season, please don’t forget that our troops who are deployed are in need of warm scarves and hats, and there is nothing they enjoy more than something hand-made by grateful Americans.
This article was written by Kyle-Anne Shiver for PJ Media
Oh, dear readers, I’ve got a really wicked treat for you to start your week. I’m introducing you to a group of women who are so generous and self-sacrificing they’re gonna make you cry. They call themselves the “Happy Hookers” and they do all their good deeds for our troops serving around the world in harm’s way.
If your mind is in the gutter, get it out of there. There are lots more ways for women to be hooking happily than the one you might be thinking of.
These particular Happy Hookers do it with crochet hooks and knitting needles, wielded by their loving hands all the year through, hand-hooking snuggly, warm, soft scarves and hats for our troops to wear in those oh-so-brutally-cold winter months in Afghanistan and Iraq. All over America these happy hookers hook with love for men and women they will most likely never see.
Hello!
I just wanted to say thank you for spending time and energy to make deployed Soldiers feel special — your beautiful scarves really made a difference for me. I have one for myself and have another to give my beautiful daughter the next time I see her. Your gesture really makes a difference.
Kindest Regards,
(a soldier in Iraq, name withheld for security reasons)
Sappy? Quite. Corny? Very. Virtuous? Definitely. Truly altruistic? Undoubtedly.
In this modern age, selfishness and egocentrism parade about in the public square with bold, painted-gaudy faces. Such humble acts of happy-hooking and generous virtuosity often get lost as this very quiet modesty hides in plain sight. But the selfless generosity for which Americans have always been known still lives and breathes — even thrives and multiplies! — right before our eyes.
Take a few moments now to see what I learned this week from a few Happy Hookers and let your own life be enriched and inspired as mine has been.
The story of our now-legion, coast-to-coast troop of Happy Hookers begins with one — yes, just one –unassuming lady: Sharon Howard. (Get your hanky handy. You’re gonna need it.)
Operation Gratitude’s [1] scarf program began in 2006 with a simple request from senior officers in the field for some type of extra-warming garment to be included in the packages. Ah, yes. It gets very, very cold — often below zero — in the winter months in Afghanistan and Iraq. Something we home-front civilians don’t seem to know.
The officers’ request fell on the able shoulders of a dedicated OpGrat volunteer, Sharon Howard, who decided that something handmade would serve two purposes at once: something warm not supplied by the military outfitters and something handmade to put the heart and soul of America into each package. So, Sharon set about to gather volunteer hookers and knitters for her new crusade.
From that first email solicitation, through years of arduous labors and donations of yarn from American retailers, through thousands and thousands of hours spent by everyday people from coast to coast, Sharon’s scarves-for-our-troops crusade has cuddled nearly 100,000 troops through Operation Gratitude care packages to the war zones. This year alone, the scarf program will send 40,000 handmade scarves and hats to our soldiers far from home.
I learned all of this from OpGrat volunteer Elaine Campbell, who graciously now co-runs Sharon’s crusade [2]. Elaine and Sharon met in their early 20s doing community theater in Burbank, California, stayed friends throughout their lives, and both worked tirelessly for Operation Gratitude. In the spring of 2010, Sharon Howard succumbed to cancer and is no longer here to spread her charitable wings. Elaine and Lorene Van Ark-Miller now carry on in Sharon’s name and memory.
When Sharon first started the scarf program, she asked all hookers and knitters to use only camouflage type colors — tan, brown, green — but then one day someone sent her a red scarf. As handmade scarves were in very high demand among our troops, Sharon sent the “wrongly” colored red one and got a letter from the soldier who received it, saying simply that it had especially touched him because it was so much like — and the same color as — one he got as a child from his grandmother.
Now, scarves of all colors are welcome — and if you’re not crying by now – well, you don’t want to meet up with Sharon Howard in heaven and have to face her, now do you?
I received a package in the mail today from Operation Gratitude and in that package was this nice hat. Receiving the package was nice, but your hat in it totally touched me. It is such a wonderful, kindhearted thing for you to do. A lot of people send us little things like some candy or stuff like that, but a hand-knitted hat is really a special thing. When I sleep it’s cold at times, so I like to sleep with a hat. This will be my official sleeping hat. I do a lot of moving around, so I can’t keep much of anything, but I’ll be keeping this for sure.
Many thanks from Iraq.
Best Regards,
(name withheld for security reasons)
Now, dear readers, these Happy Hookers will be such a shock to your jaded view of tax collectors that you may actually require smelling salts to keep your wits. Never again will you be able to think of California’s “Board of Equalization,”(BOE) aka tax-collectors, as a bunch of gnarly gnomes sitting around trying to devise ways of making Americans’ lives as miserable as possible. No, these happily-hooking, selfless women forever put the lie to that old tripe.
For the past several years, a circle of selfless women at the BOE have used their every spare moment to hook for our troops. They gather in the break room, using their nimble hands to produce genuine products of service. They come together from many departments, the Technology Services Division, Editorial Services Section, Sales and Use Tax, Investigations, and some retirees even donated time and yarn. These scarves and hats that they stitch pile up in cozy mounds through the year, warming their own hearts as they prepare to warm cold necks and heads in harm’s way.
Then, the women gather to package the fruits of their labors, attaching a note to each lovingly hooked garment, so every soldier who gets one will know it was made with real homemade care:
You fight for us…
For someone you don’t know.
We made this scarf for you in
hopes it will let you know that we
are proud of you. Protect and bless
the soldier reading this message.
The Happy Hookers, Sacramento, California
Handmade by: (Name of your happy hooker)
Linda Gross, one of the BOE’s Happy Hookers, spoke with me about her inspiration for this project. An unassuming, 60 year-old, empty-nested mother of 2, working tirelessly still, Linda tears up with the mere mention of a lonely soldier, far from home, toiling on our nation’s behalf.
In 2004, Linda befriended a single-mom co-worker whose son had just been deployed to Iraq. Knowing the family had even fewer means than members, Linda decided to “adopt” her friend’s son and start sending him “we care” packages. That one “adoption” led to many more troop “adoptions” for Linda and her husband, as they struggled in solitude to do “a little something” for a few.
Oh, what to send to a soldier in a war zone far from home? Linda was at a loss.
Until she “met” Sharon Howard through the Operation Gratitude [1] website. Sharon emailed Linda a list of things to send, as well as things not to send, and later on, suggested her own hooker’s crusade for our troops. Well, Linda didn’t even know how to knit or crochet! But she learned. And so did many of her co-workers.
The Happy Hookers at the BOE in Sacramento have as many personal stories as hands.
Supervisor Kathy Ceccato touched my heart in a special way with her own happy-hooking story. Kathy is a mother of five grown children, one of whom is now one of America’s Wounded Warriors. Shortly after 9/11, one of Kathy’s sons enlisted and was later deployed to Iraq.
Knitting the scarves and hats then took on special significance for this mom anxiously awaiting news every day. And she says that her knitting was the very best therapy as her son wrote notes from the war zone, writing that the “handmade scarves help me stay warm and the beanie hat fits right under my helmet and reminds me and my unit that we are not forgotten by the American people at home.”
Kathy’s son was wounded while on his second tour in Iraq and spent time at Walter Reed. Many operations and much convalescence later finds him just finishing grad school at Penn State and now married, but he still stays in touch with his warrior buddies and they, too, send packages to troops now in the field.
This kind of love just keeps giving and giving and giving. I shall never think of tax collectors in the same way after meeting these wonderful women and their heroic families.
Carolyn Blashek, founder of Operation Gratitude
This one, tiny woman, a “simple” homemaker, started my favorite troop-support organization from her humble living room in Encino, California. To date, Operation Gratitude [1] has mailed nearly 750,000 individually addressed care packages to our troops in the war zones.
Truly, it is amazing what this 5-foot-5-inch dynamo has done for our home-front war effort. Carolyn Blashek is living proof that even lawyers have hearts, but I am utterly convinced that hers remains intact since she never actually practiced law.
Before starting Operation Gratitude in 2003, Carolyn was a stay-at-home mom raising two teenagers. Now Carolyn’s son is a United States Marine and her mission has become more personal than ever.
Carolyn was always sending me email about her encounters with our soldiers’ families — meetings with mothers, dads, wives, husbands, children, brothers, sisters and best friends. She would cry every single time and write about their silent, heroic sacrifices for our country, keeping all of them on her shoulders whenever she traipsed off to the OpGrat headquarters at the National Guard armory to pack more packages. She carried our soldiers and their families in her heart in a way that touched everyone she met, which is how she built an army of tens of thousands of volunteers.
But then it happened.
Carolyn’s son had watched as a young teen while his mom went off to the USO to bid farewell to deploying soldiers and had seen her come home with the heartfelt burden of these young warriors on her shoulders. Carolyn’s son had observed while she went around to all the local stores, buying up things she thought the soldiers could use and filling their living room and dining room and every other room with the stuff, and all the boxes she would somehow mail to the war zones. He saw her calling everyone she knew for the names and addresses of soldiers they knew.
He watched as his mom’s mission grew and grew and grew to the ceiling and out of the house. He and his sister gave up much of their free time in high school to pack packages with their mom. The son saw his dad touched too. Carolyn’s mission just roiled and waved over all of them, and as the army of volunteers grew and the operation moved into an armory and all the letters of thanks came flooding back from the war zone, the son was changed.
He still went off to college, to Princeton, where he was supposed to prepare for a future in medicine or law. But before the ink on his diploma was dry he was accepted to Officer Candidate School of the United States Marine Corps. Semper fi, folks.
Now, Carolyn Blashek has learned to crochet. And she says it is the miracle that keeps her going. As she enters the strange world of happy hooking for our troops, she takes strength into herself with the knowledge that one of these scarves will be worn by her son, and the others will be cuddling his platoon.
All I can say is that this is the best of use of a Columbia law degree that has ever been imagined.
From a very special place in heaven, Sharon Howard is smiling. Angels are singing. Thousands upon thousands of our soldiers and Marines know we love them because an army of happy hookers don’t keep their patriotic hands over their hearts. Instead they put those hands to work and say “thank you” in a most cherished way.
Don’t you ever tell me that America isn’t one hell of an exceptional nation. Only a truly exceptional nation could produce such a real-life story as this.
If you want to say “thank you” to our troops, Operation Gratitude [1] is a tax exempt organization and welcomes monetary donations to pay for the postage/packing expenses required – about $15 per package this year. Holiday Drive is underway.
And, the more happy hookers the better! Get hooking/knitting instructions here [http://www.operationgratitude.com/2010/08/05/scarf-hat-cool-tie-project-details-materials-size-patterns/].
OPERATION GRATITUDE – We’re still here. Because they are still there.
President Obama has announced that the U.S. will pull out all of our troops from Iraq by the end of this year. Of course this is wonderful news for the families of those stationed in Iraq. But let us remember that there are still thousands of military personnel in Afghanistan, other areas in the Middle East, as well as those serving aboard ships at sea. In addition to those serving in hostile areas, there are the thousands stationed in places such as South Korea, Japan, Germany.
The stated mission of Operation Gratitude is to “put a smile on a service member’s face and express our appreciation and support.” Men and women in our military weren’t drafted — they volunteered. In this day and age of ultimate creature comforts and conveniences in America, the fact that someone would set their comfortable life aside to serve their country, being assigned to places and jobs they may never have imagined, is beyond admirable. We owe each and every one of these wonderful men and women a debt of gratitude for standing watch while we go on with our comfortable lives.
Operation Gratitude continues sending care packages to our troops. As long as we have troops far from their home, we will continue to let them know they are in our hearts. As always, our care packages contain fun items such as DVDs, CDs, books, snacks; comfort items such as chapstick, sunscreen; and always, always, letters from grateful Americans. We welcome support from people all over the country.
To see how you can support Operation Gratitude, please check our website www.operationgratitude.com.
The Spoiled Brats of OWS
This was written by my friend Leah in Los Angeles. I think people will find it interesting and thought-provoking. Leah has a unique perspective as you will see in this excellent piece.
The spoiled brats of OWS.
There is always a moment when an image is like a punch in the stomach – leaving me amazed and gasping for air. The whole phenomenon of OWS has been disgusting, the hatred, the anti-Semitism – the dirty hippies who have multiple higher education degrees but no job is up to their standards.
What really got me was the image of a gay kid hugging another man while holding up a sign that said: Gay Kids, don’t kill yourselves, kill your parents.
There in a nutshell is everything I hate about Gay Inc. As the parent of a gay young man – this hits me extra hard. Of course I know that there are parents out there that won’t accept their gay children – some literally kick them out of the house, others won’t acknowledge the gayness of their child and simply ignore that subject. But in this day and age, they are a minority and if gay kids are having an issue with their parents – maybe it’s time they looked at themselves before they rush to accuse their parents of ‘not accepting’ their lifestyle.
I haven’t met a single person who didn’t grapple with coming out. Being gay is being different, no one wants to be different, especially not teenagers. So the gay person goes through a period of soul searching, is this it? Is this just a phase? Will I grow out of this? At some point they realize that yes, this is it, they are gay, and they come to accept this fact about themselves. Usually they share this info first with close friends, then maybe a sibling. The parents are rarely the first to know.
By the time the kid or young adult comes out to his/her parents he is comfortable with himself. For most parents, it’s a bombshell. The child often demands full and complete acceptance from the parents – never giving them the luxury of time he had. Most parents want to reach that point – but it takes time – to adjust – to accept that their dreams of the future have just been shattered. Yes, we want our children to marry and give us grandchildren – despite all the hype – this is still a rarity in the gay community.
So the parents try, they do the best they can, but here is where the gay child fails. In many cases, gay= immature, narcissistic and self absorbed. The last thing the child will do is give his parents a chance – the same chance he gave himself – to gradually accept the situation. Any reservation, any sorrow at this news will be viewed as rejection.
And so the resentment gets deeper, at some point the parents give up – especially if the child no longer lives at home and there isn’t daily interaction. And the gay child builds up a wonderful narrative about the victimhood of his life because his parents don’t accept him 100%. To be honest, this is a normal adolescent stage – most people outgrow it – especially when they have children of their own and realize how difficult parenthood is. But most gays will never have children – let alone a real relationship with another human that lasts more than a month. So they are stuck in perpetual adolescence – hating their parents and of course wearing the badge of victim proudly.
The story that really sticks in my mind is the parents who graciously accept their son and his partner in their home as equals to the straight siblings. Yet this ungrateful man can only complain that his parents don’t really love him – since they are Republicans, they haven’t changed in every way to mirror him – so they are deeply flawed.
We as humans will never be perfect, as parents it is impossible. Yet most parents try their best, they acknowledge their mistakes, they are more flexible than anyone else in coming to terms with the curve balls that life throws our way. If the other side is so intractable – so demanding of perfection from others that they never expect from themselves – then the result is the poster seen at OWS. Of course I’m sure that sentiment resonated with many of the spoiled brats who are showing us the true face of anarchy – they all are the perpetual child – demanding to remain infants – with the adults taking care of all their needs – while giving them all the resources and freedoms to live like savage animals in our parks and streets.
Yes, I’m being very harsh here about the gay community. I have the luxury of coming to know many incredible gay men and women. I would love to think they are the silent majority, maybe they are. But Gay Inc (leadership, hate mail, anti Mormon protests) has done a yeoman’s job is giving us the impression that they aren’t. The hatred directed towards Mary Cheney for living her parent’s values is proof enough. I can’t think of a better example of a parent then Dick Cheney – yet the hatred towards him is legend. They have called upon Mary to renounce her family and embrace ‘the gay family’ – which to all appearances is what we see in OWS – filth, the hatred, the rapes and the violence.
The parent child relationship isn’t a one way street – calling for killing of parents just doesn’t fit in with the message of love and acceptance that Gay Inc is demanding but clearly isn’t willing to take on themselves.
Leah In Los Angeles.
Posted by Penny4HB
I do not have a gay child but my daughter has a number of wonderful close friends who are gay men. Two of these men grew up in Southern California and in both cases, their family has totally accepted and embraced their sons’ gay life. [One of them has a mother who told me she always hoped her son would be gay.] It’s possible that growing up gay in Southern California conveys an easier acceptance than other areas of our country. I don’t know. This entire OWS phenomenon is bringing back very bad memories of the 60s protests while I was in college. The only difference seems to be that in the 60s they were basically protesting the Vietnam War (though it morphed into protests against other issues, resulting in a lot of hate being exhibited then too, like today’s protests). I think those protests in the 60s ushered in the beginning of a social degradation in our country, and it seems that generation of hippies is still around, and have raised more generations of ungrateful hippies.
What do you think?
“Cain vs UnAble”
This is a bumper sticker you can get from Herman Cain’s website.
I’ve been an admirer of Herman Cain for several years, since I heard him substitute for Bill Bennett on Dr. Bennett’s radio show “Morning in America”. We are always hearing that someone “speaks from his heart”. Herman Cain speaks from his brain, and when asked a question, he answers THAT question. Several of my favorites of his responses to debate questions have begun “Let’s first define the problem”. Herman Cain is a clear thinker. He’s been very successful in the business world, and his successes are not due to affirmative action, but instead, to the hard work that Herman Cain has done to achieve those successes.
Followers and admirers of Sarah Palin should take a look at Herman Cain. I’ve liked Governor Palin since her nomination for V.P. in 2008. I saw her at an event when she was out in California, and thought she was clear, bright, focused, and genuine. She is an upbeat, happy individual who loves her life and her family, is very strong in her faith, and believes in and loves America. I thought she was much smarter than she was ever given credit for, and had a boatload of experience and positive results, all of which, I think, qualified her for the office for which she was nominated (I won’t even go into the LACK of qualifications of the man who currently occupies the White House). The hypocrisy of those on the left who decided on day one that she was to be belittled, disregarded, ridiculed, and ultimately destroyed, was staggering. They elected to the Presidency, a man who had accomplished nothing at all during his life other than being elected, while continually beating the drum about how unqualified Sarah Palin was to even occupy our planet.
Now that Governor Palin has announced that she will not be a candidate, I know there are legions of people feeling adrift. I urge them to look at Herman Cain. Go to YouTube and watch some of his recent speeches, debates, and interviews. (For those with an interest, he also has a beautiful baritone singing voice and you can find a very moving video about 9/11, with Herman Cain singing “God Bless America” in the background). He has a remarkable clarity when he speaks. Answers have a beginning, middle, and an end, and make sense. His responses do not come off as though he is addressing crowds at the coliseum (surrounded by styrofoam Greek columns), but rather as actual answers to the questions being asked, and solutions to problems that exist.
His “9-9-9” tax plan makes sense to me. He proposes to end the payroll tax, end capital gains tax, end the death tax, and replace them with a 9% Business Flat Tax, a 9% Individual Flat Tax, and a 9% National Sales Tax. (For details see http://www.hermancain.com/999plan). As a businessman, he understands that our economy thrives when businesses thrive, and that uncertainty in the economy causes businesses to be cautious, lay off workers and/or not hire, not invest in growth, and in far too many cases, relocate their companies (and thus, their jobs) overseas. This is madness, and is dragging our economy down. It will only continue under Barack Obama. Herman Cain believes we have to create conditions under which private businesses, large and small, will have the confidence that they can grow their companies without being demonized and penalized with taxes and punitive regulations. It will take a seasoned, successful businessman to dig our country out of the business-killing hole it has been thrust into. Academics who have done nothing in the business world, but have gone to school, gotten several degrees, and have been appointed to the President’s cabinet based on no real-world experience, have proven to be anathema to preserving our economic strength. Theory alone cannot replace experience.
Herman Cain proposes to bring America back to its position of strength in the world by supporting our military and ending the decimation that is currently being done to them. He believes in the strength and greatness of America and Americans, and wants to see us once again be the great, powerful, respected nation that we always have been. He sees the damage that has been done these past 20 months and vows to reverse that damage. He believes there is a total lack of leadership in the White House right now and he promises to provide that leadership.
Herman Cain is grateful to America for the opportunities he has had in his lifetime, that have enabled him to become the successful man he is. And he shows that gratitude by excelling and striving to continue to be a success. His father raised him to understand that he was not a victim. Any racial issues he was subjected to as he was growing up (and he was), did not cause him to curl up, whine, and blame everything on others. He does not have a chip on his shoulder over the discrimination his grandparents, his parents, and he and his brother may have suffered in the past. He truly overcame those issues by rising above them and working hard. He is not filled with rage, anger, bitterness, hatred for whites, or resentment for anyone more successful. Herman Cain is a happy, fulfilled man. He loves his life, loves his family, has very strong faith in God, and believes in and loves America.
Isn’t it time we had a president who reminds us what a great people we are, and what a great country America is? Not someone telling us we have “gotten soft”, or to “stop whining”, to “take off our bedroom slippers and put on our boots”, or reprimanding people for their success. Not someone telling us we can’t have our thermostats at a comfortable temperature anymore, or can’t continue to go out to dinner, or we should stop going to Las Vegas. Not someone telling us of the evils of America, telling us we aren’t and can’t be a great country, that Americans are selfish (Michelle Obama said this), that we need to strive to be like European countries, that we all need to sacrifice, that we need to “share the wealth”, and that we just don’t measure up to his standards. We don’t deserve to be treated like children who are disappointing their parents.
Americans deserve better than a dour, above-it-all scold in the White House. Herman Cain is a pleasant, upbeat, positive presence. He would bring back “Morning in America.”
I encourage Americans to stop listening to the media mantra that Herman Cain is “unelectable”. Only the voters can determine that and only on election day 2012.
I don’t know who the Republican nominee will ultimately be. I’m still doing my research on the candidates. Please do your own research. But include Herman Cain on your list of candidates that you research.
Welcome to the new civility
In January 2011 in Tucson, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot and critically wounded by what was described as a “crazed gunman.” The paramedics hadn’t even arrived before the media was out in force trying to tie the “crazed gunman” to the Tea Party, or to Sarah Palin, or at the very least, to conservatives.
Six people died in that shooting. They were innocent people who had come to hear Congresswoman Giffords speak. A few days after the shootings, President Obama addressed the nation and expressed his concern over a “lack of civility” : “If, as has been discussed in recent days, their deaths help usher in more civility in our public discourse,” Mr. Obama said, “let us remember that it is not because a simple lack of civility caused this tragedy — it did not — but rather because only a more civil and honest public discourse can help us face up to our challenges as a nation, in a way that would make them proud.”
Pundits and commentators far and wide picked up the mantle and called for a “new civility”, expressing or implying that the Tea Party and angry conservatives are guilty of incivility, hateful rhetoric, intolerance, racism, homophobia, islamophobia, and the most laughable, violence. There has been no violence at any Tea Party event since the Tea Party began in the spring of 2009, with the exception of the beating of Kenneth Gladney, a conservative African American who was beaten by SEIU thugs who attacked him and called him “the ‘N’ word” for being a black conservative.
Tea Partiers are, for the most part, middle-aged Americans who are angry with the out-of-control spending going on in Washington, the increase in taxes, the increase in punitive regulations, the class warfare, and the mandates, rules and restrictions being forced upon everyday Americans. We just want to be left alone to raise our families, pay our bills, earn our livings, and worship as we choose. We want the America that our founding fathers gave us. We sing the National Anthem and recite the Pledge of Allegiance at all of our meetings. This is apparently the “hateful rhetoric” of which we are guilty. We aren’t violent, we aren’t profane. We are Americans who love our country and want it back.
Welcome to the new civility. In the past couple of weeks, we have seen the following:
Michael Moore on Keith Olbermann’s show:
“…and the smart rich know, they can only build the gates so high, and, and, sooner or later, history proves that people, when they’ve had enough, aren’t going to take it anymore, and [it's] much better to deal with it non-violently now, through the political system, than what could possibly happen in the future, which nobody wants to see…”
Morgan Freeman on Piers Morgan’s show said the Tea Party’s goal is “screw the country, we’re going to do whatever we can to get this black man out of here.” Freeman concluded: “It is a racist thing.”
Maxine Waters addressed the unemployed during a forum in Inglewood. A day after new statistics were released showing that California’s jobless rate last month went up to 12%, from 11.8%, Waters vowed to push Congress to focus on creating more jobs. “I’m not afraid of anybody,” said Waters. “This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned, the ‘tea party’ can go straight to hell.”
Yes, it’s clear that the Tea Party and conservatives have to learn to be more civil.
How the left remembers and forgets
The 10th anniversary of 9/11 is coming up this weekend. Others have written about how this specific event has been hijacked by political correctness. I will discuss how the left nitpicks what is worthy of remembrance and what is not.
I am a docent at LACMA, the largest art museum in Los Angeles. Like Kevin life in Boystown – it’s very lonely there. There are a handful of GOP voters but although we acknowledge one another, we stay under the radar.
LACMA, a proud far left institution, has purchased a very disturbing ‘artwork’; it is basically a full size display of a black man being castrated by 5 masked white men – after being accused of raping a white woman. (I won’t publicize this work. If you must, go to LACMA’s website for details). 50 years ago the artist couldn’t sell or display it here in America. Of course Europe and Japan have been thrilled to shame America by displaying this travesty for years.
The museum, the LA Times, and NPR are all celebrating this most important event – a way to shame and insult America. They who claim to be beyond race are stoking the racial flames, because to be honest, we as a society have moved beyond those awful days of lynching. Today more violent evil crimes are perpetrated by black against themselves or white people. Just look at the murders in Chicago or the black flashmobs. I am not suggesting we create art to teach and inform the public about these events – that is what news media is for.
Which brings me to the whitewashing of 9/11 — within a month of the event, we no longer saw or heard the news reels of the towers falling. The images of 200 people hurling themselves out of the windows of the towers, the awful sounds of their bodies hitting the pavement, have been erased from our memories.
The left is doing its best to erase the evil of 9/11, because they and the Islamists share a common enemy – us. On the other hand, we as a nation have progressed far in race relations – real true honest progress. That dismays the left, they hate that to such a degree that they will go out of their way to shove it back down our throats. They will see to it that although this mythic event in the mind of the artist 50 years ago, the image is shoved into our faces as if this was the news headline of today. Of course in doing so they once again show us who the real racists are.
I will be vocal about my opposition to this ‘exhibit’. I have my response to my horrified fellow docents who will call me narrow and closed minded. I will ask them why we don’t have a piece of artwork displaying the thousands of gay men being hung today in Iran? Why is this issue less worthy of art? Is it because slamming white racists from 50 years ago is so much easier than dealing with real issues that affect people today?
Leah, a tea party, American Jewish mom in Los Angeles
