Posted on 04/20/2005 4:55:39 PM PDT by presidio9
A man spit tobacco juice into the face of actress Jane Fonda after waiting in line to have her sign her new book, police said. The man ran off but was quickly caught by police Tuesday night and charged with disorderly conduct.
Fonda has been on tour and doing interviews to promote her just-published memoir, "My Life So Far." The thrice-married, two-time Academy Award winner covers a wide array of topics, including her 1972 visit to Hanoi to protest the Vietnam War, during which she was photographed on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun. She has apologized for that photo, but not for opposing the war.
Capt. Rich Lockhart of the Kansas City Police Department said that although Fonda did not want to press charges against Michael A. Smith, 54, of Kansas City, he was arrested on a municipal charge of disorderly conduct after off-duty officers caught him just outside Unity Temple, where Fonda was signing books.
Lockhart said Smith was released on bond late Tuesday night and is due to appear in municipal court on May 27.
Smith, a Vietnam veteran, told The Kansas City Star on Wednesday that Fonda was a "traitor" and that her protests against the war were unforgivable. He said he normally does not chew tobacco but did so Tuesday solely to spit juice on the actress.
"I consider it a debt of honor," he told The Star for a story on its Web site, www.kansascity.com. "She spit in our faces for 37 years. It was absolutely worth it. There are a lot of veterans who would love to do what I did."
Fonda drew a crowd of about 900 for her appearance, said Vivian Jennings, whose Rainy Day Books of suburban Fairway, Kan., sponsored the event at Unity Temple in Kansas City. Fonda, 67, spoke for about 15 minutes, answered questions for another 15, then began signing copies of her book.
Jennings said Fonda received a standing ovation when she came out and when she finished speaking. Alan Tilson, one of those who had his book signed but left before the incident, said the crowd was very "warm and supportive" to Fonda and he was surprised to learn what had happened.
Jennings said the actress never got up from her seat and continued autographing books after the tobacco juice was wiped off.
"The important thing is that she was so calm and so gracious about it," Jennings said of Fonda. "She was wonderful."
Jennings said that the man had a book to which the name "Jody" had been affixed as he approached to have it autographed. She said that when Fonda got the book, she looked up and said, "You're not Jody."
"At that moment, he turned his head quickly and spit a trail of tobacco juice," Jennings said. "He immediately jumped off the stage and started running down the aisle."
Fonda, who flew to Minneapolis Wednesday for another appearance on the book tour she began April 5, issued a statement through Jynne Martin of Random House, which published her book.
"In spite of the incident, my experience in Kansas City was wonderful and I thank all the warm and supportive people, including so many veterans, who came to welcome me last night," Fonda said.
oh-my.
That veteran deserves a Medal of Honor.
I am going to go buy a can of Skoal just to honor him and then I will spit on the photo of Traitor Fonda published in this thread.
My thoughts exactly. Vietnam is making steady progress towards reforms but the people in Laos are still suffering the effects of the communist victory in their country.
The story keeps popping up so who knows. The individual I talked to knows some of the people involved and they claim it didn't. She did get some of them beat I think for other reasons.
Of course they were. I am refering to the 50's and 60's where Vietnam was the confluence of a power struggle of indidual agendas for influence between The Soviet Union, China, and USA.
Africa is and was a mere sideshow compared to that. Communists have been at work virtually everywhere around the globe. But Vietnam was the place where a stand was taken by the major powers. Not Africa. Just look at Angola for example.
And the Royal Thai Air Force had some great pilots flying there.
Great thread. It's good to learn from the vets who walked the walk. I believe in taking the high road most of the time, but I think those who disagree with spitting on her haven't fully considered what her actions were, and the repurcussions of those actions.
Thanks to all the vets on this post who served our country - anywhere. As far as judging the guy who spit - I'll leave the judging to those who earned the right.
I'd like a picture.
=====
Me too. I would be priceless -- I would put it in a $1000 frame with an inscribed brass plate on it that says "Viet Nam Vets Revenge".
What she did violated the Constitution:
Article III Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the life of the person attainted.
There was no backbone to prosecute those who fought against this nation in Vietnam (protestors, agitators, draft dodgers...). Put this in the past. Except here we are and one of those turkeys came awfully close to taking the top office in the nation.
He still has not signed the form to release his military records.
Well put. Thanks.
A few years back, however, I was listening to a radio station when the announcer said it's Jane Fonda night at the movies. Will you attend? I thought to myself, when it's Jane Fonda night at the gallows I'll attend.
I still feel the same way, but that's just me.
I had a roommate that chewed tobacco. He used to spit it into an empty pop can. One day, he took a drink from the wrong can...you can guess the rest. He really shoulda replaced her pop can with some sweet Carolina backwash.
Thank you for posting the truth. There was a U.S. postage stamp with SEATO (Southeast Asian Treaty Organization--please correct me if I am wrong) on it. The ignorant liberal trolls don't have a clue and to them all is same and same is all. Liberals don't know right from wrong and lack the ability to differentiate between malevolent and benevolent people and countries.
I remember my 4 family members in Vietnam at the time Jane appeared on the scene. The pictures of the traitorous dimwit will forever be in my mind's eye.
She wasn't "Young"...she was 34. Dumb, I will give to you.
But, you don't seem to swift either; or how could you have said this: "how would any of us feel if we lost a father/brother/sister in that crap-hole country and now our government wants to cozy up for geographical/monetary gain." ?
Many of us DID have relatives and friends who died there! And JANES FRIENDS KILLED THEM!
My question to you is did you serve your country in A time of war? If you did I will respect your choice to forgive her. But if you did not you have no clue how these VETERANS feel. As A MARINE and A Desert Storm VETERAN I have no clue why she is A aloud to stay in this country and prosper the way she is after what she has done.
>>>Except here we are and one of those turkeys came awfully close to taking the top office in the nation.
Clinton had top office. AND he was part of the Anti War/Pro Commie crowd.
From below:
>>>>I have written and spoken and marched against the war. One of the national organizers of the Vietnam Moratorium is a close friend of mine <-(Kerry's sister? Who?). After I left Arkansas last summer, I went to Washington to work in the national headquarters of the Moratorium, then to England to organize the Americans here for demonstrations October 15 and November 16.<<<<<
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1209454/posts?page=1#1
Clinton's ROTC Letter As Entered in Congressional Record (Page: H5550) 7/30/93
Dear Col. Holmes,
I am sorry to be so long in writing. I know I promised to let you hear from me at least once a month, and from now on you will, but I have to have some time to think about this first letter. Almost daily since my return to England I have thought about writing, about what I want to and ought to say.
First, I want to thank you, not only for saving me from the draft, but for being so kind to me last summer, when I was as low as I have ever been. One thing that made the bond we struck in good faith somewhat palatable to me was my high regard for you personally. In retrospect, it seems that the admiration might not have been mutual had you known a little more about me, about my political beliefs and activities. At least you might have thought me more fit for the draft than for ROTC.
Let me try to explain. As you know, I worked in a very minor position on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. I did it for the experience and the salary but also for the opportunity, however small, of working every day against a war I opposed and despised with a depth of feeling I had reserved solely for racism in America before Vietnam. I did not take the matter lightly but studied it carefully, and there was a time when not many people had more information about Vietnam at hand than I did.
I have written and spoken and marched against the war. One of the national organizers of the Vietnam Moratorium is a close friend of mine. After I left Arkansas last summer, I went to Washington to work in the national headquarters of the Moratorium, then to England to organize the Americans here for demonstrations October 15 and November 16.
Interlocked with the war is the draft issue, which I did not begin to consider separately until early 1968. For a law seminar at Georgetown I wrote a paper on the legal arguments for and against allowing, within the Selective Service System, the classification of selective conscientious objection, for those opposed to participation in a particular war, not simply to "participation in war in any form."
From my work, I came to believe that the draft system itself is illegitimate. No government really rooted in limited, parliamentary democracy should have the power to make its citizens fight and kill and die in a war they may oppose, a war which even possibly may be wrong, a war, which in any case, does not involve immediately the peace and freedom of the nation. The draft was justified in World War II because the life of the people collectively was at stake.
Individuals had to fight, if the nation was to survive, for the lives of their country and their way of life. Vietnam is no such case. Nor was Korea an example where, in my opinion, certain military action was justified but the draft was not, for the reasons stated above.
Because of my opposition to the draft and the war, I am in great sympathy with those who are not willing to fight, kill, and maybe die for their country (i.e. the particular policy of a particular government) right or wrong. Two of my friends at Oxford are conscientious objectors. I wrote a letter of recommendation for one of them to his Mississippi draft board, a letter I am more proud of than anything else I wrote at Oxford last year. One of my roommates is a draft resister who is possibly under indictment and may never be able to go home again. He is one of the bravest, best men I know. His country needs men like him more than they know. That he is considered a criminal is an obscenity.
The decision not to be a resister and the related subsequent decisions were the most difficult of my life. I decided to accept the draft in spite of my beliefs for one reason only, to maintain my political viability within the system. For years I have worked to prepare myself for a political life characterized by both practical political ability and concern for rapid social progress. It is a life I still feel compelled to try to lead. I do not think our system of government is by definition corrupt, however dangerous and inadequate it has been in recent years. (The society may be corrupt, but that is not the same thing, and if that is true we are all finished anyway.)
When the draft came, despite political convictions, I was having a hard time facing the prospect of fighting a war I had been fighting against, and that is why I contacted you. ROTC was the one way in which I could possibly, but not positively, avoid both Vietnam and the resistance. Going on with my education, even coming back to England, played no part in my decision to join ROTC. I am back here, and would have been at Arkansas Law School because there is nothing else I can do. I would like to have been able to take a year out perhaps to teach in a small college or work on some community action project and in the process to decide whether to attend law school or graduate school and how to begin putting what I have learned to use.
But the particulars of my personal life are not near as important to me as the principles involved. After I signed the ROTC letter of intent I began to wonder whether the compromise I had made with myself was not more objectionable than the draft would have been, because I had no interest in the ROTC program itself and all I seem to have done was to protect myself from physical harm. Also, I had begun to think that I had deceived you, not by lies--there were none--but by failing to tell you all of the things I'm telling you now. I doubt I had the mental coherence to articulate them then.
At that time, after we had made our agreement and you had sent my 1D deferment to my draft board, the anguish and loss of my self regard and self confidence really set in. I hardly slept for weeks and kept going by eating compulsively and reading until exhaustion brought sleep. Finally, on September 12 I stayed up all night writing a letter to the chairman of my draft board, saying basically what is in the preceding paragraph, thanking him for trying to help in a case where he really couldn't, and stating that I couldn't do the ROTC after all and would he please draft me as soon as possible.
I never mailed the letter, but I did carry it with me every day until I got on the plane to return to England. I didn't mail the letter because I didn't see, in the end, how my going in the army and maybe going to Vietnam would achieve anything except a feeling that I had punished myself and gotten what I deserved. So I came back to England to try to make something of the second year of my Rhodes scholarship.
And that is where I am now, writing to you because you have been good to me and have a right to know what I think and feel. I am writing too in the hope that my telling this one story will help you understand more clearly how so many fine people have come to find themselves loving their country but loathing the military, to which you and other good men have devoted years, lifetimes and the best service you could give. To many of us, it is no longer clear what is service and what is dis-service, or if it is clear, the conclusion is likely to be illegal.
Forgive the length of this letter. There was much to say. There is still a lot to be said, but it can wait. Please say hello to Colonel Jones for me. Merry Christmas.
Sincerely,
Bill Clinton
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