| August 11, 2004
This was one of those e-mail forward things that I usually hate, but felt like it was well-written and needed to be put on here.
From Here to Eternity
Tora, Tora, Tora
In Harm's Way
These are three films made about Pearl Harbor. There have been more than 20 films made about Pearl Harbor, and over 200 films made about World War II. These films inspire patriotism, courage, and nationalism. They tell us about the honor and bravery of the soldiers and the nation that supported them.
Two and a half years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the world watched American forces fight on D-Day. Two and a half years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the world is watching Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."
Moore's film is the first major motion picture about Sept. 11, 2001. This bears repeating. When future generations look back on the Sept. 11 massacre, their first impression, through the medium of film, will be a work in which the president and the government are blamed for the attacks, and the soldiers who are protecting this country are defamed. Instead of a film version of Lisa Beamer's book, "Let's Roll," or Richard Picciotto's "Last Man Down," we are presented with this fallacy.
How could this happen?
It would be a colossal insult to insinuate that Franklin D. Roosevelt or the U.S. government were in any way responsible for the attacks on Pearl Harbor.
Can you imagine the indignation of the men and women who lived during that period?
"Fahrenheit 9/11" is indicative of a nation that has become too apathetic, ignorant or deceived to face the enemy at the gate.
America ... where is your fury?
On Sept. 11, 2001, I stood across the Hudson River, watching the Twin Towers burn, knowing that if the plane had struck at 9:46 a.m. instead of 8:46 a.m., I would be dead. As a survivor and witness to the attack on the World Trade Center, I am more than insulted by this film. I am outraged.
This film is based on conjecture, hearsay and propaganda. At a time when this country desperately needs to rally in support of our brave soldiers and our strong leaders, Moore is content to spread discord and divisiveness. The base of his argument is that the Bush administration had strong ties with the bin Laden family. However, sound facts are conspicuously absent from this "documentary."
The 9/11 commission did not indict President Bush. According to the report, the president's actions before, during and after the attacks are fully justified, including the military action in Iraq. The commission did not find a direct link between Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. A similar commission in the 1940s would not have found a direct link between Hitler's Germany and the attack on Pearl Harbor. In both instances, the threat was imminent; the president and the military acted decisively.
Could we have been more prepared for a terrorist attack on Sept. 10, 2001?
Certainly.
Could we have been more prepared for an attack on Dec. 6, 1941?
Most definitely.
In the weeks and months following Pearl Harbor, there were reports and criticisms that the government and military should have been more prepared. The difference is that the people of the nation did not waste a lot of time pointing fingers at each other. Rather, they unified and engaged the enemy head-on. I guess that is why we call them "The Greatest Generation."
How will future generations refer to us?
So, how do we explain Moore's film to future generations? I wonder.
More than that, I wonder how I would explain this film to Nancy D., Jerome N. or Heather H. I am sure you don't know their names, but their faces haunt me day and night. How would I explain to them that a film was made accusing the president and vilifying the soldiers ... the same president and soldiers who are attempting to avenge their murders and protect other citizens.
Moore has not only insulted the nation, he has insulted the victims of the terrorist attacks.
During his acceptance speech at the Oscars, Moore said,
"Shame on you, Mr. Bush."
Well, I say,
"Shame on you, Michael Moore."
Shame on everyone who supports this travesty of a film. Shame on a society that allows this shame of a film. You have weakened the nation.
Remember September 11th!
|
August 11, 2004
I don't really have a good "story from the road" believe it or not. We went to Michigan and came back with no real stories to tell. I'll give you a brief review of the trip. We base all our out of town trips around disc golf. We left on Wednesday night at around 8:00 so that we would arrive in Michigan around 8:00 or 9:00 in the morning and get to a disc golf course around noon or so. Well, that's exactly what we did.
We played at Tittabawassee Park in Freeland, MI. It's a pretty tough course. Of course, it's always a little tougher when it's the first time you've ever played the course. We were gonna play two rounds, but since we had been driving for about 15 hours and just played 2 hours worth of disc golf, we only played like one and a half rounds. The scores weren't very good. I (Juno) finished something like 6 over, Travis was 7 over, Joey & Roy were 11 over and Donnie uhh. . .he didn't try very hard.
After that, we probably went to eat again (I spent about $100 on food for the trip-that's NOT good). Then we finished the drive up there and got to our destination at about 8:45, which was exactly 24 hours from the minute we pulled out of the driveway. It's only about an 18-hour trip, but we stopped for the disc golf and all that. Plus, we have to fill up the van every 250 miles and since it's about 1200 miles (the way we go) up there, we had to stop about 5 times to get gas (each stop about $50 for gas). So, the gas alone to get up there and back was about $500. Bummer.
So, this is getting boring real fast, so I'll speed up. We got there and hung out that night at the place we played (The Islander), and we decided to set up the next day at about 3:00, so we did that, went and took showers, and played that night and those are the pictures that I recently added to the web page. After the gig, we (Me, Travis, and Roy) hung out with Kurt, Tammy, and Donna (a girl that works at The Islander) down at Kurt's boat. Nice boat by the way. Anyways, Donna left at a fairly decent hour. . .3 or 4:00. . .as the sun came up, I remembered that we had a tee time for golf at Les Cheneaux Golf Club at 1:40 that afternoon. So, I suggested that we go play a round as soon as the sun comes up so that we'll be good and warmed up and ready to play at 1:40. Bad idea. We tee'd off at about 7:00 or maybe 7:30. The course was beautiful, the temperature was perfect, everything was perfect except for the fact that Travis and Roy were drunk, and none of us had been to sleep yet. Needless to say, the scores weren't too good. Roy The Crybaby quit before we even got finished and I shot like a 102 and Travis shot close to a 90 or something. Not good for either one of us. I'd love to shoot a 90, but that's not good for Travis.
So, instead of playing at 1:40, we slept as best we could for a few hours. Travis said he never went to sleep b/c Donnie was sick and coughing the whole time Travis was trying to sleep. After a few hours of sleep, we played that night (Saturday night) and it was good. We were very tired (Me, Travis, & Roy were anyway), but the people there had a good time.
We finished playing at like 2:00, had to break down, and ended up hangin' out for quite a while that night too. After a few hours of sleep, we got up and drove the 17 hours home. It usually takes 18. I'm surprised it didn't take 20 b/c we stopped so many times to eat. I think I gained 15 pounds during the trip. It was fun though. . .we sold lots of CDs and T-shirts, so we're excited about that. We're gonna try to spend 2 weeks up there next year.
|
January 29, 2004
I can't express enough how much we need to pray for our troops. Please please please keep them in your prayers. It's easy to forget if you don't have a loved one that's over there, but for the sake of those that have loved ones fighting every day, please pray for them. There are wives over here that haven't seen their husbands in months and months and months. They don't even get to talk on the telephone for months at a time. I dread the thought of not being able to see my family for a few weeks when we (the band) have to go play in Key West. At least I get to call them. Please pray for the brave, proud, heroic, fearless, courageous men and women fighting in our name, whether you agree with it or not. I don't agree that homosexuality is okay, but I don't start riots protesting the Noggin Channel when they come out with a cartoon (aimed at children) involving a young child realizing he's gay. That's part of being an American. Tolerance. Forbearance. If you don't agree, that's fine, you won't get killed for it like some other countries. But just because you don't pray to God doesn't mean that this country wasn't founded on christian principles and you don't love to spend our money (even though it says, "In God We Trust"). I don't speak Portuguese. If I go to Brazil, I'm not gonna say they're not being fair to me by not speaking English. They don't speak English. They speak Portuguese. That's what they do. You don't start crying because they don't speak English when you go over there. That makes no sense. People in Spain kill bulls at bullfights. It's just like us killing cows for hamburgers. They're raised to die. You don't go to Spain and protest against killing bulls at bullfights. This may sound like a stupid analogy, but it's perfect. Protesting bulls being killed in bullfights in Spain would be like protesting bulls being killed here to make the leather for the cover of a baseball, football, etc.
Okay, I've got off track, sorry about that. Went a little too far maybe. Anyways, pray for our troops!!!
Also, there are people here right now training to go overseas if need be. Let's take Shaker Turner for example. He's a faithful fan of Gabby Johnson. Right now he is in Fort Knox, KY training for the reserves, which means that if they need him, he'll be ready to go. This is probably similar to enlisting yourself for the Vietnam War if you were 18 years old in 1969. You knew the draft would get you, so instead of letting them pick you, you picked yourself and voluntarily enlisted yourself in one of the armed forces. Shaker took it upon himself to be away from his family (no phone calls whatsoever) for 4 months (with 2 weeks off) to train in case America needs him. What a noble thing to do. We should pray for people like Shaker. And his family who's only correspondence is letters if he has time to write them. Pray!! If you need help praying, I invite you to come to my church, Calvary Baptist
|
| January 6, 2004
I just want to say a little something about this Steve Irwin bit goin' through the news. I know opinions are like buttholes (everybody's got one), but I saw an interview with him on TV and it sorta got me pumped up. If you don't know who Steve Irwin is, ignore this; if you didn't hear about what he did a few days ago with his 1-month old baby, ignore this
I should open by saying that I love Steve Irwin. I like the Discovery Channel and Animal Planet anyway, but I love watchin' him b/c he's generally more entertaining than your typical host of shows like that
Having said that, I don't see a problem with what he did. I mean, if some regular guy over here in the states did it, it would be different. You don't get on to African women who don't triple-buckle and lock their kids into their backpacks or whatever. Okay that's a bad analogy. This is the way I see it. . .everybody's different. Steve Irwin's defense (if it should be called that) is that he has alligators in his backyard. We don't see how it's possible or even reasonable to have alligators in our backyards. Well, in Australia, evidently where he lives, it's very necessary to get used to and learn to live with wild animals like alligators. Especially with Steve Irwin as your Dad
The person interviewing him was trying to get him to say that he had done something wrong and what if he would've fallen, blah frickin' blah. Steve Irwin is a seasoned veteran with alligators. He knows what they're gonna do. Yeah, they're wild, but the ones that he feeds everyday at the zoo have a personality that Steve knows. He sees things in their eyes when me & you can't even get the nerve to look an alligator in their eyes. Steve replied by saying that he is a professional and that every move was choreographed, but if he had fallen, he has a 12-member professionally trained staff all around the cameras waiting for something like that to happen. Do we think Steve Irwin is an idiot? Well, for kissing alligators and stuff like that, yes, but he knows what he's doing. Steve, if you're out there, I'm with ya' mate!!
|
January 6, 2004
I just want to make sure that everybody out there knows that we, Gabby Johnson, will be building a Disc Golf Course here in DeSoto County. It will actually be in Southaven, in Central Park (between Tchulahoma & Swinnea a few blocks North of Goodman Road). If you still don't know what disc golf is, you need to figure it out b/c we're gonna be throwing a grand opening party for the course at some point (not a clue when that'll be)
Visit pdga.com for all kinds of links and information about Disc Golf. There's a course directory on there, but I can tell you right now there's only about 5 courses within an hour of here (Memphis). I can give you more details about that if you want. Just e-mail me with any questions
None of the course is up right now, but I think we'll be starting construction soon. Actually we just designed the course, the City of Southaven will probably do most, if not all, of the building and stuff. It will be an 18-hole course with the longest hole being 500 feet and the shortest being about 150. I don't know yet how difficult it will be because I haven't played it with the baskets yet, but I know there are a few holes that are gonna be really tough. Check back here often to make sure you know when it's comin'!!
|
|
