Kathleen Parker has had enough.

For a long time she manifested a superhuman self discipline in the face of a continuous barrage of provocation from the demented screams and visceral howls of rabid demagogues. She has shuddered in distaste as multitudes of America’s unwashed crashed into the salons of the great and the good DEMANDING explanations from their congressional representatives about why they were going to vote for certain measures. Then this same hoi polloi, now calling themselves the Tea Party, flooded out of their urban hovels and rural shacks onto the pristine boulevards surrounding state capitols clutching crude banners upon which were scrawled vicious threats and bloodthirsty slogans.

Finally they trooped to Washington, goggle eyed, initially, at discovering as they watched their betters going in and out of 1150 15th Street that not all women wore micro skirts and cowboy boots or that some men wore suits and ties rather than T shirts and baseball caps. But they soon forgot their place – and their manners. Orchestrated by the devious and sinister figure of Redstate’s Erick Erickson, the Huey Long of Georgia, they began to grunt and drool in anticipation as they waited for the object of their hate and derision – Kathleen Parker herself.

For Parker, in the twisted and psychotic minds of Erickson and his minions, has committed the cardinal sin – she has dared to consistently, albeit mildly, and politely, criticise their Warrior Queen, Sarah Palin, for cultivating a political atmosphere of anger and hatred.

The courage displayed by Parker in following this lonely path is immeasurable. While a timid and compliant media, bullied into subservience by Erickson’s militias, fawns obsequiously before this ignorant and ill educated hick from Alaska, Parker has made it her life’s work to break the hold of the Erickson/Palin mujahideen.

Thusly do hyperpartisans become mainstream.
It’s fine to be angry about bad policies; it’s fine to hold politicians’ (and journalists’) feet to the fire. But it is not fine to demonize dissent and cultivate rage. We should know by now where demagoguery leads.

Neanderthal nitpickers, doubtless clutching Murdoch’s silver in their grubby fingers, asked Parker to provide evidence of Palin’s encouragement of mob rule. This only serves to display their crass ignorance of world of the enlightened. The presence of Parker’s disdain is sufficient in itself. After all the lady won the H.L. Mencken writing award presented by “The Baltimore Sun” in 1993 and she is a regular guest of Chris Matthews – who on earth needs facts with a pedigree like that?

But now Parker has discovered that she is not alone.

Independents as a group outnumber either party, in other words. Yet, given the hyperpartisanship that began under George W. Bush — and has accelerated during President Obama’s first year, thanks in large part to the enabling mechanism of the Internet — one would think that America were divided into hard left and hard right.
We’re not. We’re a vast middle, slightly right-of-center nation. How is it that so many feel so disenfranchised by so few?

Parker has the answer – they need a leader and they are looking for their own Sarah Palin – a beautiful strong willed mother figure with long hair and flashing eyes. But she also needs to be intelligent and articulate and properly educated and, above all, experienced in politics – and that means real politics. Being mayor of a tiny village on the edge of some frozen mountain or governor of what is essentially a huge National Park containing about three hundred people and half a million caribou isn’t real politics – but writing about politics and meeting proper politicians is the real deal.

Parker at first couldn’t think of a candidate who would fit that profile – so she decided to reach out to those everyday, ordinary Americans who were maxed out by hyperpartisanship but cold with fear about challenging the Palin/Erickson reign of terror….and she found them.

I run into the politically homeless everywhere I go. Meet two South Carolina men named Joe with whom I chatted over the Christmas holiday. Neither plumbers nor six-packs, both are successful businessmen and lifelong Republicans now wandering the political desert. Fiscal conservatives alienated by the GOP excesses, they’re equally loath to identify themselves as Democrats.

Just two ordinary, everyday Americans, chatting over martinis in an ordinary, everyday country club….

Fast forward to the University of Pennsylvania, where I spoke to a journalism class a couple of weeks ago. I talked a bit about the wingnuttery that has hijacked politics and how some of us who consider ourselves moderates (otherwise known as apostates) have decided it’s time to denounce the harsh partisans who feed on polarization. It’s time to give independents a voice.

Those ordinary, everyday students of the media who will one day be going into proper, useful jobs (unlike plumbers or builders or flight attendants) were hypnotised by Parker’s message as she quietly deconstructed the ludicrous claims of Fox to be anything more than a propaganda machine.

Exhausted by her forays out of South Carolina and into Pennsylvania she returned, nevertheless, with a happy heart. For when she asked her two businessmen (and six media students) who could be the Sarah Palin of the Independents they cried out, in unison, KATHLEEN – KATHLEEN – KATHLEEN…” you are a beautiful strong willed mother figure with long hair and flashing eyes. But you are also intelligent and articulate and properly educated and, above all, experienced in politics – and that means real politics – and you won the H.L. Mencken writing award presented by “The Baltimore Sun” in 1993 and you are a regular guest of Chris Matthews!”

That’s why, very soon, Kathleen Parker will hold the inaugural meeting of the Arugula Party at the Camden Country Club in South Carolina (no plumbers, builders or flight attendants allowed) and, within weeks, millions of independents will be picketing Tea Party events waving their arugula leaves at the angry, contorted faces of Palin/Erickson sans-culottes in every corner of America. By the end of the year Palin will be driven back into the icy wastes of the north with her whole hillbilly tribe, Fox will have become a mere shopping channel for rednecks and, in a grand ceremony at the White house, Kathleen Parker will throw a collection of captured Tea Party banners at the feet of President Obama and crown him with an Arugula wreath…

“Independents of America unite – you have nothing to lose but your arugula!”

Cross posted at Conservatives4Palin

On a freezing December day family and friends trudge through snow carrying a coffin to the edge of a bleak graveyard. Ten other coffins follow behind. Eleven men are being buried on that wintry morning, eleven miners shot by police and soldiers, crushed by a brutal regime for daring to demand the right to strike in defiance of a decree promulgated by the ruling elite.

It is an iconic image of working class families beaten but unbowed by the vicious and ruthless security apparatus of an authoritarian government. Off camera hard eyed riot police ensure that the funeral does not transform into an anti government rally. Plain clothes security officers and police informers mingle with the crowd listening out for any whispered manifestation of discontent. Wives, mothers and children of the slaughtered strikers sob quietly for their lost ones. Grieving fathers, brothers, sons and fellow miners mourn in bitter silence, fearful of saying anything that would bring police batons smashing onto their heads….

It would seem a natural scenario for a Hollywood film or a BBC play or a Bruce Springsteen album cover….brave strikers…..brutal police……the proud but silent funeral…..but it is highly unlikely you would ever see this story win an Oscar, a BAFTA or a Grammy. For the striking miners were Polish, the year was 1981 and the regime that ordered the shooting down of defiant miners was a Marxist/Leninist dictatorship struggling to crush a peaceful mass movement  demanding basic human rights – and that sits uncomfortably on the shoulders of many writers and directors and musicians who, though immensely rich, perceive themselves as radical activists of the left using their undoubted artistic talents and skills fighting for the underprivileged in support of Marx’s electrifying slogan

Workers of the world unite – you have nothing to lose but your chains

But if those chains have been hung on you by Communist rulers – that doesn’t fit too easily into the world view of some on the left. So the Chomskys  and the Redgraves and the Fondas tend to put it outside their vision – they ignore it…..and thus what appears to be one of the major seismic events of the Twentieth Century, the political and intellectual and moral collapse of Marxism in Europe has never been  the theme of any major western movie or music album. Nor has there been any artistic declaration of regret or plea for redemption from those in America and Western Europe who for decades prostituted their intellect and values by acting as cheerleaders and apologists for the bullies, thieves and torturers who ruled the Soviet empire and it’s lackey states.

The miners at Wujek were striking as an act of defiance against General Jaruzelski’s declaration of Martial Law in December 1981. The General  had become Prime Minister determined to crush all resistance to the Communist regime after several months of strikes and demonstrations. Unofficial trade union activities were banned, thousands of people were arrested and dragged before military tribunals and strict censorship was imposed on all forms of media and communication. Tanks and heavily armed soldiers and special police units patrolled the streets in an aggressive and confrontational manner and the government decided to deal with the miners of Wujek in a way that would send a lesson of fear and terror to all its opponents.

The miners had occupied the mine as a demonstration of defiance against the regime. A huge force of soldiers and riot police, accompanied by tanks and armoured cars, broke into the mining complex. The miners resisted fiercely, fighting back with picks, shovels and bricks. Finally an officer commanding a special police unit ordered his men to open fire on the miners, killing eleven of them and wounding many more. This broke the strikers resistance and the mine was brought back under government control.

There were critical comments in the west but the Marxist/Leninist regimes had long ago discounted western “opinion” as empty rhetoric. Jaruzelski , like all communists, believed that bullets were more effective than words when resistance needed crushing. He even solicited advice from Hungarian colleagues who had organised the repression of the 1956 anti communist uprising. He also took heart from western communists like the British miners union leader Arthur Scargill who remained silent over the fate of his fellow miners in Poland.

One day, perhaps, the implosion of the Marxist/Leninist charade will attract some future Victor Hugo or Charles Dickens to chart it’s ignominious collapse in soaring prose and golden epithets.

For the time being, unfortunately, we shall have to put up with Sean Penn…..

Footnote #1

At least it might be claimed that those eleven Wujek miners and others killed by Poland’s communist security forces did not die in vain. Poland is now a lively democracy and a member of NATO and the EU, free at last from Marxism’s iron grip. The remnants of the Jaruzeski regime are mostly mouldering away in ignominious retirement. Even better, some former members of the security apparatus have been brought to book for their actions at Wujek and elsewhere. Outside the Wujek mine is a stark memorial for the victims of repression.

Who knows, perhaps one day similar monuments will rise up to the sky in Beijing and Tehran….

Footnote #2

For an intensely moving pictorial and personal review of Polish resistance to Communist dictatorship go here…..

I haven’t posted so much recently because, as “David Copperfield” at The Archway Theatre Horley gets closer our rehearsal schedule intensifies. Last Sunday we did our first run through the two acts (previously we just rehearsed each act separately) and all this week we have a succession of dress rehearsals culminating with the final dress rehearsal next Sunday which will also be recorded on video for sale as a DVD – then we open on the evening of Tuesday March 23rd. We do ten performances, Tuesday to Saturday, over two weeks then strike set on the final Sunday – and that is it!!

We are all amateurs so we do it for love but we will probably fill our small auditorium (95 seats) to capacity for almost every performance. We do ten shows a year plus a pantomime and attendance rarely dips below 90% making us probably one of the most successful amateur theatres in the country.

Gary Andrews, one of our members, regularly writes and directs a big cast blockbuster based on the classics every 2/3 years (Henry V/VI, Les Miserables, A Christmas Carol). The dialogue is always true to the original but obviously stripped down to tell the story on stage over 150 minutes – a tall order but he hits the spot every time. I certainly would recommend his scripts to any group willing to undertake something a little more ambitious.

I became involved in amateur theatre almost by accident early in the 1980s. My wife had joined a group attached to the local church (to help backstage) but when she suggested I might like to get involved I wasn’t too keen. I had this image of amdram being full of frustrated “luvvies” thinking they were west end material and being very pretentious and bitchy.  A few weeks before their first show, however, an actor dropped out so I said I would do a one off just to get them out of a hole – the result? I was absolutely hooked – and it did me good….I had just been appointed to a senior post in a London school, things weren’t going too well (students were fine but many of the staff were neanderthal) and I was getting obsessed – amdram gave me an outlet from difficult times at work – and also brought my wife and I close together in a shared, and very sociable hobby.

We are both very much involved at The Archway, both onstage and helping with the less glamorous but vital administration and it helps to keep us busy in retirement. As teachers we also appreciate mixing with all age groups from nine to ninety – retirement can so often mean you’re surrounded by a bunch of greyheads forever moaning about how wonderful it was in the “old days”…never liked that when I was young and hate it even more in the evening of life!!!!

So, for the next three weeks or so I shall be Barkis, carrying young Copperfield to and from school in his cart and falling in love with Peggotty and always being willin’…………

“You don’t know what freedom is if you have never lost it.”

This lovely young lady was running a beauty salon in France in 1940. After the German invasion she could have sat tight and carried on with her business and waited to see how things turned out. Instead she risked her life distributing anti German pamphlets and, within months, had become an organiser with the Resistance, helping escaped Allied airmen, reporting German troop movements and supervising improvised landing strips.

In 1944 she was arrested and spent the rest of the war in concentration camps, ending up in Buchenwald. She was scheduled to be put before a firing squad on the very day that US soldiers liberated the camp.

After the war she met and married an Englishman and, a few years later, moved to Britain, settling in Bristol where she spent the rest of her life. This week she died, aged 105, in an old people’s home.

She was interviewed a year ago, still bright as a button, and she wore her medals with pride.  They included France’s highest award for bravery, the Legion d’Honneur, the War Cross with palm, the War Cross with purple star, the American Medal of Freedom, the Medal of the Resistance and the Liberation Cross.

“I was born with courage. I did not allow cruel people to find in me a person they could torture,” she said, as she marked her birthday with chocolates and flowers with friends on Monday.

 “I saved 102 pilots before being arrested, interrogated and tortured. I suffer still from that. I still have the pain.”

A lot of us talk about freedom because it’s easy to talk the talk. We also tend to slip rather too easily into using words like fascist and communist and dictatorship when the only unpleasant reaction would be a dirty look or an unflattering vocal response. Andree Peel spent five years of her life living within a real world of terror where the price of resistance was torture and death.

In our heart of hearts how many of us could be absolutely sure that we would react as bravely and selflessly as did the tiny beautician from France?

Bethan Myfanwy Hughes is a 28 year old professional harpist and singer from Wales. She has also been called an “Angel of the Battlefield” by battle hardened, tough as nails British and American soldiers. Why? Because she spends a lot of time in the UK and USA visiting wounded troops in hospitals and soothing their minds and bodies with her music.

There is evidence that the music of the harp – it’s unique vibration frequency and resonance tones –  eases pain and helps stressed patients to relax.

Bethan also works with cancer patients in hospices as well as the mentally ill but the soldiers are so special for her that she hopes to raise £25,000 for the charity Help for Heroes, supporting soldiers injured in Iraq and Afghanistan by playing for customers in supermarkets all over Wales.

 “Through my voluntary compassionate care work with the British forces, I have seen a lot of badly injured soldiers.

“Seeing how brave they are and the courage they have, like the amputees and double amputees who still wanted to serve in the forces, has made me want to do this for them.”

From the military comments on her website her work is much appreciated

From OP Herrick 2008, Thank you so much for your support and your music. You truly are an ‘angel of the Battlefield’…WE WANT BETHAN IN THE MIDDLE EAST !! 

Hi Bethan, just wanted to say Thank you for adopting me through my deployment. Your letters,parcels and music helped me through the tough times. You are truly a forces angel and we are lucky to have you xxx 

Diolch or galon am yr cacennau cymreig!!
With fondest love from the field hosp, loving our welsh cakes and cd’s… xxxxx 

‘Our spirits will never be the same, by sharing your gift of music with us, you are truly and angel of the battlefield’  –  Capt Mendoza, US Army, Kuwait, 2005

‘I take care of many soldiers emotional and spiritual wounds, your harp music will help to ease the pain from here. Bethan words cannot describe how much you mean to my soldiers, you are truly their angel’ – US Military Chaplain, Iraq, 2006

…and this from a gruff British squaddie

Ha ha, Yeah Oli is miffed.We ate all his sweets, that you sent!!..
Cheers Beth for being our adopted angel.
Gazza
P.S you still need boots?? 

 In fact her soldiers have made such an impression on Bethan that she plans to switch career and go into nursing

It is for this reason that she hopes to join Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps. In preparation for his change of career, Bethan has become a reservist of the A Squadron, 203 Welsh Field Hospital in Swansea and is studying nursing at Swansea University.

Explaining her move from musician to nurse, she said: “Having seen so many injuries and the impact these have had on the soldiers and their families made me feel that I wasn’t doing enough. I felt I wanted to nurse them as well.”

Dedication to UK & US Armed Forces- Bethan Myfanwy Hughes

Bethan was recently interviewed on BBC Radio about her work – go into the clip at 8.33 and run it until 19.55 and hear more about this amazing young lady

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00r323s

Then finally listen to her playing “Fields of Gold”……