Posted on 05/11/2010 4:54:02 PM PDT by 70times7
The impression is spreading that I have drawn an equation between the American flag and the hammer and the sickle. I'm currently serving for target practice on some right-wing websites, and a group of Tweeters are having jolly fun portraying me as an America hater and worse.
This is the result of one single Twitter of mine, and those who were eager to misunderstand it. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, and here is what I tweeted:
@ebertchicago Kids who wear American Flag t-shirts on 5 May should have to share a lunchroom table with those who wear a hammer and sickle on 4 July.
Now what do you suppose I meant by that? It was tweeted at the height of the discussion over five white California kids who wore matching t-shirts to school on Cinco de Mayo, and were sent home by their school. This inspired predictable outrage in the usual circles.
(Excerpt) Read more at rogerebert.suntimes.com ...
Dear Mr. Ebert,
First and foremost, I want to wish you all the best in your fight against cancer. I am praying for your full recovery and many more years of you doing what you enjoy.
I read of the controversy you generated on twitter. I also read your clarification Hey! Dont call ME a dirty Commie! on your Chicago Sun Times web site. I accepted you invitation to the thought experiments, and I think I learned more about your position; specifically the problems with it.
In your clarification you equated the wearing of an American flag during Cinco de Mayo, (in America mind you) with:
1. wearing Union Jack t-shirts in Boston at the St. Patrick's Day parade.
2. wearing a Joseph Stalin t-shirt in Chicago on Pulaski Day.
3. wearing a My granddad was at the Rape of Nanking and all I got was this lousy t-shirt." t-shirt in San Francisco's Chinatown parade.
4. wearing a Confederate flag t-shirt In Chicago for the Bud Billiken Parade.
5. wearing the hammer and sickle on the Fourth of July at a NASCAR race.
Did you really intend to suggest this? Do you actually think that wearing an American flag in America can be equated to a Rape of Nanking t-shirt? Do you truly expect to persuade anyone with such rhetoric or are you just playing to anti-American bigots?
It seems to me that you are very quick to judge the intentions and thoughts of students who wore American flags. Why were you not as quick to negatively assess the thoughts and intentions of any Hispanic students who were angered by the display of an American flag?
Quite a number of years ago I worked with an outstanding individual. He was Intelligent and thoughtful, a tall good looking guy; a family man. It was my enjoyable privilege to be his coworker. He also happened to be black. I never gave it much thought until Martin Luther Kings birthday came around. He told me he was being pressured by other black professionals. It was not a day off where we worked but they were planning on skipping work that day. His reply spoke volumes. He told them;You dont understand. What Dr. King worked for, stood for and died for were the principles that made it possible for me to BE HERE in the first place. Why would I celebrate that by using it as an excuse to avoid a day of work?
So I ask you: what does it say about the attitude and intentions of those Hispanic students if they bristle at the very symbol of the country that has provided them the opportunity to excel? My friend could have focused on the possibility that management harbored racist attitudes regarding MLK day. He didnt. He chose to celebrate the freedom that Dr. Kings struggle provided by continuing to work hard. Yet you and other thought police focus on what you have decided are negative intentions, saying that the American symbol of freedom that is for African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Native Americans, indeed for all Americans is offensive. Shame on you.
There is nothing wrong with celebrating Cinco de Mayo. But there is something very wrong with the idea that symbols of the very country that provides such freedom need to be obscured.
I urge you to rethink your untenable position.
Ebert foolishly thinks our conclusion that hes a dirty commie were drawn from this one single comment.
Keep talking, Roger. It tickles.
STOP EATING OUR OWN!!! GET RID OF DEMOCRATS FIRST!!!!!! IDIOCY
Ooh! Great letter, great message. Methinks Roger just might ‘get it’. You were very eloquent.
Ping for later.
Ebert is a moron. Just. doesn’t. get. it.
From the L. A. Times
1. 40% of all workers in L. A.. County ( L. A. County has 10.2 million people) are working for cash and not paying taxes.
This is because they are predominantly illegal immigrants working without a green card.
2. 95% of warrants for murder in Los Angeles are for illegal aliens.
3. 75% of people on the most wanted list in Los Angeles are illegal aliens.
4. Over 2/3 of all births in Los Angeles County are to illegal alien Mexicans on Medi-Cal, whose births were paid for by taxpayers.
5. Nearly 35% of all inmates in California detention centersare Mexican nationals here illegally.
6. Over 300,000 illegal aliens in Los Angeles County are living in garages.
7... The FBI reports half of all gang members in Los Angeles are most likely illegal aliens from south of the border.
8 Nearly 60% of all occupants of HUD properties are illegal.
9. 21 radio stations in L. A. are Spanish speaking.
10. In L.. A. County 5.1 million people speak English, 3.9 million speak Spanish.. (There are 10.2 million people in L. A. County .)
(All 10 of the above facts were published in the Los Angeles Times)
Less than 2% of illegal aliens are picking our crops, but 29% are on welfare. Over 70% of the United States annual population growth(and over 90% of California , Florida , and New York ) results from immigration. 29% of inmates in federal prisons are illegal aliens .
Look at this:
http://www.fbi.gov/wanted/fugitives/vc/murders/vc_murders.htm
Ebert is no commie. Rather, he’s what Josef Stalin termed a “useful idiot”.
Hmmm. Denying one the right to where a Pro-U.S. T-shirt in the U.S. any day of the year is kinda like denying an individual in Mexico the right to where a Pro-Mexico T-shirt in Mexico on any day of the year.
Ebert also conveniently forgets the context of the controversy - the fact that the entire southwest is undergoing a dramatic demographic transformation due to illegal immigrantion while hispanic academics are calling for succession along racial lines.
Are his movie reviews equally devoid of intelligence?
OK, you’re not a commie. You are a waste of humanity and a loser with an addled brain.
Ebert’s a filthy Commie.
Twitter is gay.
Matching? It appears Mr. Ebert has something wrong with his eyes, in addition to his other problems.
I call it like it is, Ebert. You are a dirty commie who thinks you will be immune in the future.
You will be one of the first to be exterminated. That happens to useful idiots, idiot.
He’s like so many....ANTI-American....and he cannot DENY it.
Well done, 70times7!
Instead of thanking God that any shred of patriotism has survived the relentlessly anti-American marxist public school “curriculum”, Ebert has the gall to chastise these guys for proudly wearing their own flag no matter whose foreign “holiday” it is. I think Roger has forgotten to what he owes his right to exercise his freedom of speech, something the subjects of the Mexican government most definitely do not enjoy.
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