Posted on 04/20/2005 7:15:10 PM PDT by Chieftain
.
Jane Fonda in Connecticut:
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Oh my gosh. That mug shot of her....that's the real shot isn't it, it isn't a photo-shop? The pix with her fist in the air?
Seems I'm remembering that's what she did when they snapped it, but maybe I'm thinking of something else.....?
Was that the dumbest thing you could think of to write?
For a real apology (and I suggest that any of you who speak to the media make this request) Jane should donate some of her millions to...
Programs for veterans.
Scholarship programs for the children of Boat People.
Voice of the Martyrs' efforts to help her fellow born-again Christians suffering under massive persecution in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
A startup fund for an international museum to commemorate the deaths of those who suffered in the killing fields and other atrocities visited by the North Vietnamese and their fellow travellers.
A startup fund for a Vietnam War museum, similar to the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans. Ditto for a Cold War museum, and a Cold War monument similar to the WWII, Korea and Vietnam monuments in D.C.
Just recently International Christian Concern ran an article describing the torture and murder of Montagnard Christians by the Vietnamese government. As weak and self-serving as her apologies to Vietnam vets have been, I have yet to hear her apologize in any way to all the people who have suffered and died under the regime she gave her unquestioning allegiance to.
Roll on, baby!
If I can, I'll try and meet you in Santa Fe for a little visit during her appearance there.
As far as I know, that's an authentic photo.
DC FReepers ping alert!
Yes, she has made such a claim, and that's why I think (no offense to you Vietnam Vets, you guys are my heroes) that it would be especially appropriate if she called up Voice of The Martyrs or ICC and said, "How would you boys like to get a couple of million dollars for the persecuted Church in Southeast Asia?" Now that would say "I was wrong, and I mean it this time."
The only worthwhile thing she ever did
The only worthwhile thing she ever did
I've always been fascinated by that shi////teatín grin that Hanoi Jane was wearing in that pic---whatthehell was she happy about?
Reading Jane Fonda's autobiography is similar to watching one of those Roomba robotic vacuums clean a floor. Like the little machine, which careers off in a new direction after each object it hits, the woman at the center of "My Life So Far" seems to be guided mostly by the actions and ideas of others. It makes for a sad story in Ms. Fonda's case, full of emotional drama and addiction demons. In an earlier era, her self-searching (and the grisly details it calls forth) might have been called brave and celebrated as an inspiration. So far, however, that hasn't happened. After years of witnessing public confessionals, have we finally reached the point of revelation fatigue?
Certainly Ms. Fonda's tale is full of woe: a distant mother who died by slashing her own throat; a cold father; three cheating husbands, one of whom demanded threesomes; decades of bulimia; substance abuse; difficult pregnancies; cruel or misguided medical treatment; all the harassment over her anti-Vietnam War activism. This is a partial list, in a volume that gives new meaning to the old song "Everything Happens to Me." If only half of what Ms. Fonda has been through, or subjected herself to, had occurred, it would still sound pitiably horrendous.
So why has the reaction to her story been less than gushing? It's not because the book is badly written, although it thuds with lines like "My daughter's home had become a womb in which I was pregnant with myself." It's not because reading it is often a slog, as Ms. Fonda lurches grimly from personal tragedy to political agony. There are some accidental laughs--the author reports straight-faced that she got involved with the Black Panthers at the suggestion of the actor who played Grandpa on the "Munsters." The section of the book where Ms. Fonda regrets the 1972 picture of her sitting at a North Vietnamese antiaircraft gun is tinged with unintended black comedy. Ms. Fonda explains that she sat there distractedly: Vietnamese soldiers had just saluted "Uncle Ho" with a song that went, "All men are created equal. They are given certain rights; among those are life, liberty, and happiness" and Ms. Fonda was dazzled with joy. "I began to cry and clap," she writes. "These young men . . . celebrate the same words Americans do."
Mainly, though, reviewers and interviewers have fixated on the intimate sexual, marital and body-image tidbits--the goo that holds the book together. Whether Ms. Fonda spilled all to get publicity or to perform a public act of personal exorcism is impossible to say. Yet many thank-yous for sharing have been sarcastic. Even ABC's Diane Sawyer couldn't help asking Ms. Fonda: "Were there things you left out? I'm trying to imagine what you left out here because of what you put in." New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin dubbed Ms. Fonda a "soap opera queen."
Harsh. But maybe Ms. Fonda is simply unlucky. Many of the traumas and self-destructive behaviors she describes have been before us for years, on "Jerry Springer" and in other memoirs. At some point, the outpouring genre was bound to get tiresome, and perhaps that point has been reached. If her book sells, Ms. Fonda can celebrate. But if it is validation she was seeking, the lesson here may be that the best place to find it is in private circles.
I've always been fascinated by that shi////teatín grin that Hanoi Jane was wearing in that pic---whatthehell was she happy about?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.