Just Ranting this time

The letter below is a copy of one that I sent to the publisher, photographer, editor, any name that I could find in the book. As I came across all the innuendos and sly comments throughout the book, I got progressively madder to the point that had one of those people been standing in front of me I probably would have throttled him! I had written in an earlier blog post that I am NOT a lover of most things of french origin. A year or so ago I had received a book of photographs of various places around the planet. It is called, "Earth from above:365 days". It was photographed,written and published by all french people.Here I'll put in the letter and continue at the end of this bit of vitriolic and vituperative discourse on my part!

The Letter;

Greetings, I have just recently come into possession of your book, Earth from above"365 days. I have looked at every picture in it and with growing dismay, read every caption attached to each of the photographs. For the most part, the captions are enlightening, informative and also disquieting in that you do bring to the readers attention the very visible rape of the planet and its long history of ecological abuse at the hands of its inhabitants. I must say at the outset, that I agree almost totally with all of the information presented.

Throughout the book, whenever there was a photograph of a location within the United States, you managed to convey a feeling to the reader that there was something amiss with how that particular site was managed or had come into existence. Each ensuing photo caption increased the feeling that you were portraying us as though we had no idea how to manage or protect our assets and that we were an unfeeling, uneducated group of "clods". I continued on though because the photos were spectacular. Then I came to the photo and the caption for the 19th of October, and my sense of outrage knew no bounds!

I must ask you here, of what generation you are?Were you alive during World War I? How about WWII,? Korea?, The french Vietnam era?, The US Vietnam era? Or are you a "recent" entrant onto the world stage? What do you use as your frame of reference for the outrageous claim that the bombing of Hiroshima/Nagasaki was a "Barbaric Act"? Personal experience? or have you been reading from some form of "revisionist history" written by someone who wasn't even born at the time of the event?

Apparently you are only one more of and un-informed and ungrateful member of french society. You all seem to have collectively erased from your memory just who it was that came to your aid on two separate occasions to save your country from the Germanic hordes in the 1st half of the last century. Take a ride down to the cemeteries at Flanders and Normandy, and you just might get an inkling of what sacrifices were made by the young American soldiers that came too you in your time of need. Was your family one of the Vichy government? Or did they run off too England, or North Africa to escape the wrath of Hitler and his minions? Most of the "intelligentsia"fled the country under different pretexts and left the lower class and the peasants to do the fighting for them. Then when the war was virtually won, back they came with the haughty and pompous monsieur DeGaulle at their head to lead you in your hour of Freedom! He, having you all believing he did it all by himself! Paid for with the lives of thousands of American lives and not so many french one eh? By the way, just which countries was it that opened their pocketbooks and handed over billions of dollars to England, france, Germany, Italy, Japan and countless others to rebuild your infrastructure and your economies after the fighting was over? I think it was called, The Marshall Plan. Was it your government? I don't think so! And how much of it ever got paid back to us? Check and you will find that is was virtually an insignificant amount compared to what was doled out!

Now I ask you, how many "gallant" frenchmen were involved in the retaking of the Islands of the Pacific in the drive to liberate the Pacific from the grasp of those poor, downtrodden, Japanese? How many people were going to be killed in the horrific fighting that was going to ensue when the invasion of the Japanese homeland began? If you recall, it was the Japanese who initiated this whole response by us with the "barbaric" attack on the unsuspecting people of Hawaii, who you can by no stretch of your warped view, be called "warmongers"! This attack followed after ten to twelve years of Japanese imperialism in which time they managed to brutally kill over 13 million, Chinese, Burmese, Korean,Filipinos and countless other people of the South East Asian realm! Now that was truly an act of unparalleled barbarism, committed by a pack of slavering animals! What makes you think that they would be any less vicious in the defense of their own home Islands? We were not willing to just give a gallic shrug of our shoulders, say " Cest La Vie" and go on and let a million or more of OUR people die needlessly in the invasion of Japan. That was why the two bombs were dropped on the two cities. I might add that the Japanese were given ample time and opportunity to surrender, but chose not to,but rather chose to stick with their mis-begotten code of "Bushido" and with that decision they condemned those hundreds of thousands to die! Don't blame us for their action. That you would equate the American people as a whole, with a group of thugs like that is the act of a totally reprehensible,and or, at the least, a criminally misinformed individual!

You have taken it on yourself to condemn a whole society and their moral values for some personal reason. It is apparent in your writing that you hate the American people as a whole. Could it be because the English language has supplanted what your culture perceived to be the language of the diplomatic and business entities world wide? Times change and we should be willing and able to change with them or be left behind. You condemn us for our actions as a "people", but we are a conglomeration of practically every race on the face of this earth! There is NO OTHER country like this one on this planet. I'll be the first to admit that we are not perfect, but we are about as good as it gets for now. Perhaps you could direct some of your vitriolic diatribes toward someone who really deserves it the next time you venture into the literary/photographic arena.

I am a 65 year old man who lives on a very small island off the East coast of the United States. I spent 20 years of my life in the US Navy, defending my countries freedoms as well as others, like yours! I have one Uncle who survived 37 missions in a B-17 over france and Germany, in order that we, as well as you, should not have to suffer under the domination of dictators, the likes of which infested the world at that time. I honor him and all the others who GAVE UP THEIR LIVES for that ideal and so should you. Engage in a little more forethought the next time you decide to vilify someone incorrectly. End of letter.

So now I have to say that I don't dislike ALL French speaking people and descendants of same. I even have a son-in-law who is one! My fondest wish for this country is that we could stop referring to ourselves as , French , Italian, Irish, Black Americans etc., and just be plain old Americans!
I see on the boob tube that as President Bush makes his way around Europe "mending" fences as the MSM boys assert, that he stopped in to see Jacque Charich (sp) and the German president. What the hell for? WE don't need them for a whole hell of a lot. I think the shoe is on the other foot and I for the life of me can't figure out why they aren't licking our boots. If they couldn't send most of their exports to us, they would be belly up in a short time. Then it was on to Belgium where the Socialist party is in control. In all the government, and public "loo's" there is a picture of the US flag and of President Bush placed INSIDE each of the urinals with an invitation for all to come and p*** on Georges head and that hated American flag! While out on the stage where the speeches are going on, this bunch of Social rectum orifice's are sucking up to Mr. Bush for all the "aid" they can get out of him! I think it is time for the US Government to sit down and do a hard evaluation of just exactly which countries it is who are our ACTUAL friends and those who have two faces! Stop giving any money to them and let them make it on their own if we are so hated by them. Well, I feel much better now! But after a few days I'll be all cranked up again after reading about some other double dealing that has gone on! TIFN Everett