Posted on 07/24/2005 8:52:35 PM PDT by RDTF
Fonda promotes book in Santa Fe
NATALIE STOREY | The New Mexican July 24, 2005
As actress Jane Fonda explained her troubles with intimacy and cheating husbands, Charles Powell, a tall man, stood in the shade behind the crowd and watched her intently.
Fonda was at Garcia Street Books in downtown Santa Fe on Saturday morning to sign her book, My Life So Far.
Powells U.S. Air Force cap towered above the hundred eager, largely female faces. He did not carry a copy of the book like many of the others.
But he didnt show up to protest. Instead, he said he was here to prove that some veterans were not angry about Fondas Vietnam War activism.
We understand what she was trying to do in Hanoi, said Powell, a member of the Albuquerque chapter of Veterans for Peace.
She herself has even admitted that some of her actions werent that well thought out. We accept her apology and feel that she should be treated like a human being.
Fonda incited controversy in July 1972 when she was photographed sitting on a North Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun while on a tour of the country to drum up support to end the war. She has repeatedly said she did not mean any harm by the photos.
Earlier this year, a Vietnam veteran spat in her face at a signing. But there was none of that in Santa Fe.
Edward Borins, owner of Garcia Street Books, said he was concerned at first because a number of people had called the store before Fondas appearance, threatening to boycott the business.
In response, there were a number of security personnel and police roaming through the crowd Saturday. But the only disruptions they ended up dealing with were disputes over who was first in line to have his or her book signed.
Except for these squabbles, everything went smoothly Saturday, Borins said, especially the book sales.
He said the store sold about 500 copies of Fondas memoir.
In the book, Fonda writes that she was confused about becoming a woman and desperately seeking the love of her father.
Her mother committed suicide when she was only 12.
The book follows her film career, dealing with her roles in such movies as Barbarella and On Golden Pond, and her love life, including her relationships with her three former husbands Roger Vadim, Tom Hayden and Ted Turner.
Vadim was an avant-garde director who is best known for his 1956 film, And God Created Women; Hayden was a political activist in the 60s and 70s who became a California state senator; and Turner is a media mogul who started CNN.
One member of the crowd occasionally booed when Fonda talked about Vietnam.
But other members of the audience called for her to be forgiven and cheered loudly when Fonda announced her intentions to join the anti-Iraq war movement.
I have not taken a stand on any war since Vietnam, she said. I carry a lot of baggage from that.
Because so many people had asked her to join the protests, she said, she was finally deciding to come out.
Prompted by a question from the audience, Fonda said she should be ready by next March to board a bus, fueled by vegetable oil, that she plans to drive across the country calling for an end to military operations in Iraq.
DLesli Davis and Adrienne Dominguez bought their copies of My Life So Far on Friday night and arrived at the bookstore at 7:30 a.m. Saturday to get front-row seats.
For the two women, who were visiting from Dallas, the morning was more nostalgic than anything. Fonda is a role model for both of them. Davis, now 39, recalled sneaking into Fondas 1978 movie, Coming Home, when she was in the fourth grade.
Attending the signing Saturday and reading the book made Davis want to watch the movies again.
And that was what she was thinking about doing when she got home.
She is one of our greatest actresses, Davis said. When I was younger, she made me very aware of activism and politics.
'Does anyone actually pay any attention to this dried up old hag any longer?'
I guess not. "Monster In Law" was a huge flop at the box office.
I think that she is mentally trapped in the 1960s. She and her ilk do not really realise that we have a volunteer military and that the war, for the most prt, is over in Iraq. The folks who are causing problems are terrorists, not "insurgents." She should hock something and buy a bloody clue.
This actually doesn't surprise me.
While out on an errand to the local Navy Exhcange the other day, I saw a car with an Air Force decal and John Kerry sticker on the bumper. In fact, I've spotted quite a few Kerry-Edwards stickers on some Navy veterans' cars, too.
Whenever I see this, I roll my eyes and shake my head in pure disgust.
To wit, Hayden traveled many times to North Vietnam to advise them and consult with them and was pretty much their man in America -- not their "most trusted man in America," that was Walter Cronkite.
[The comment about Cronkite was mine.]
The pukette got personal about ex-husband Turner's pee-pees I wonder if she talked about that Hayden pig vomit.
I almost fell for her deathrowesque 'I found God' crapole but came to my senses.
My favorite poet saw this, and immediately sat down and wrote this:
Hi Soldier
Hi soldier, let me sign my book,
And Ill personalize it too.
Well pardon me, why that hard look?
That stare that goes clear through.
My word youd think Id done some wrong,
To merit such disfavor,
Oh come now, thats all gone so long,
Its future fame I savor.Whats that thingie there upon your breast,
That rifle with the wreath?
And those wings upon your shriveled chest,
All those ribbons underneath?
Oh, I get it now, your one of them,
Crazy vet just filled with hate
Well, you can just forget it, Slim,
Im the medias hottest date.Oh yeah, you peasant warrior twit,
You think your country cares,
That I once played the traitor bit?
Go stuff your dead-eyed stares.
Relax old-timer, youre dismissed,
Theyve turned the cameras on,
Wouldnt want the folks to see you pissed,
To see Ive finally won.Hold on Sarge! What do you mean,
This is for the fallens glory?
Wait! Stop! My scrawny butts too lean
For a book suppository.
I knew you grunts were crazy,
Just peasants without class
So now Im upsy-daisy
A book and jump boot up my ass.SSGT Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66
I'll have to stand in line to piss on The Hanoi Whore's grave, just like Jean Fraud Kerry's, but I'll be glad to wait my turn.
Click here to see my entire Russ Vaughn collection. (You'll be glad you did.)
Ping
Wish she'd just go somewhere and die
Just to set the mood for Russ's latest, don't miss Hanoi Jane Rides Again, and don't forget to follow the link to Michelle's latest column.
Forever Green
Jane Fonda seeks exoneration,
Forgiveness from her traitored nation.
What say you warriors fought that war?
Is forgiveness due that wartime whore?
So rich, so smart, she thought she knew
Much more than us, we bloodied few.
So smug, self-serving, seeking fame,
The rich bitch played her seditious game.A game that cost me many friends,
Many, thanks to Jane, came to bad ends.
Ive borne scars forty years or more,
From lies laid on me by this whore.
Self-serving now she sells her tale,
This traitor who should be in jail.
Is it within our souls to grant her grace?
Our souls shout, No spit in her face!So self assured, she played high stakes,
Telling American prisoners, Thats the breaks.
She accused brave men of heinous crimes,
Which were disproved in future times.
And now our country knows the truth
Jane Fonda betrayed us in our youth.
She asks us now to read her book,
Americans, the folks this bitch forsook.So now she crawls, her conscience bare,
To tell us she screwed up back there.
Well, hell, we knew that way back then,
This Hanoi Jane who helped them win.
It was glory then for this airhead star,
But forever now shell bear the scar
A scarlet letter shell now wear,
A stench forever in her hair.So Jane, dear, you must realize,
Youre the devil in a helmet in our eyes.
When Vietnam vets raise up their toasts
Its to damn your soul, to salute our ghosts.
We swear, we living, to our long-dead brave,
Well live to piss upon your grave.
So Jane, good fortune, unforeseen,
Your traitors grave will be forever green.Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66
That's brutal (but accurate!)...thanks ;'}
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