They Don't Call It Pixie Dust for Nothin'

Roy Disney wrote back today -
Dear Supporter:

I enormously appreciate your support and offer to be of help. Our opposition to both an entrenched CEO and directors at Disney has clearly touched a nerve. Letters similar to yours are arriving by the truckload.

We are deeply committed to restoring the Disney magic and want to ensure that the Company honors its heritage and stands for quality and integrity of its products and services for future generations to come.

Please stay in touch with us via our website - www.savedisney.com - - and we will begin to communicate with you regularly regarding our collective efforts to restore the magic.

Again, thanks for your continuing support and remember, it all started with a mouse!

Sincerely,
Roy Disney

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes....

I'm a big Disney fan. Let me rephrase that. I'm a BIG BIG BIG BIG BIG Disney fan. I have embarressed people with my enthusiasm. Today a friend gave me the link to Roy Disney's Save Disney site. I sent Mr. Disney a letter that I thought I would share with you. To me this is right up there with the Dean vs. Bush show-down.

Dear Mr. Disney -

I have been a Disney enthusiast as long as I can remember. I was grief-striken when I heard that you were leaving the Board and extremely angry when I found out why. For my senior project at Mary Baldwin College in 1994 I focused on the Disney Company, researching the company history and analyzing five years of annual reports (plus those of three competitors). My report was a 90 page review of accounting, management, and marketing. The comparisons were easy - they were all basically, "Disney does it better and here's why..."

When President Frank Wells died in that helicopter crash and Eisner took over it worried me. I thought that a good bit of the quality that the Disney Company was experiencing in its management came from the differences between them. As the years wore on I became more and more disappointed with Eisner. Now, well, now we've got a fight on our hands.

You have my complete support. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask. By trade I'm an accountant who specializes in enterprise reporting and project management. I can analyze issues, write reports, do presentations, set up databases - all the sorts of things you might expect. Disney is number one on my "Top Ten Things That Make Me Insanely Enthusiastic" list. It is at heart a dream sprinkled in pixie dust and topped with mouse ears - as fragile and strong as a child's sense of wonder. If that's not worth saving, I don't know what is.

If you want to help you can email Mr. Disney at roydisney@savedisney.com.

Will We Still Be America?

Below is an email that I recently received and my response to it. I get a little snippy about this sort of thing.

Will we still be the Country of choice and still be America if we continue to make the changes forced on us by the people from other countries that came to live in America because it is the Country of Choice???????? Think about it........

All I have to say is, when will they do something about MY RIGHTS? I celebrate Christmas, but because it isn't celebrated by everyone, we can no longer say Merry Christmas. Now it has to be Season's Greetings. It's not Christmas vacation, it's Winter Break. Isn't it amazing how this winter break ALWAYS occurs over the Christmas holiday?? We've gone so far the other way, bent over backwards to not offend anyone, that I am now being offended. But it seems that no one has a problem with that.

This says it all!

After hearing that the state of Florida changed its opinion and let a Muslim woman have her picture on her driver's license with her face covered this is an editorial written by an American citizen, published in a Tampa newspaper. He did quite a job; didn't he? Read on, please!

IMMIGRANTS, NOT AMERICANS, MUST ADAPT. I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture. Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans. However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct" crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.
I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America. Our population is almost entirely made up of descendants of immigrants. However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand. This idea of America being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty and our national identity. As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle. This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women who have sought freedom.

We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language. Therefore, if you wish to become part of our society, learn the language!

"In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools. If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.

If Stars and Stripes offend you, or you don't like Uncle Sam, then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from. This is OUR COUNTRY, our land, and our lifestyle. Our First Amendment gives every! citizen the right to express his opinion and we will allow you every opportunity to do so. But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto, or our way of life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great American freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.

If you agree -- pass this along; if you don't agree -- delete it!

AMEN
I figure if we all keep passing this to our friends (and enemies) it will also, sooner or later get back to the complainers, lets all try, please

Interesting. Did you know that America's official language was only narrowly voted to be English? It won over German by one vote. I'd heard that before, but for this response I found a reference. Personally, I've always used "Happy Holidays" in the Christmas season. I did it way before 'politically correct' was a phrase in the English language - because I'm polite and and considerate, because I have friends of various religions and opinions, because I never like to make anyone feel uncomfortable or left out. Truthfully, the only thing I can't tolerate is intolerance.

I can't criticize too much because I think that defining and defending one's values is one of the most important and human things that we do. But my values may look familiar - faith, hope, charity, fortitude, justice, temperance, and prudence. And my basic political values can be found here: the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and Declaration of Independence.

Oh, and about "In God We Trust"? I pulled citation for this one, too. "...the regular use of "In God We Trust" on US coins did not begin until 1908, "In God We Trust" was not made an official motto of the United States until 1956, and the motto did not appear on paper money until 1957...the Declaration of Independence, and quite deliberately, the Constitution of the United States contains not a single reference to a deity or to divine inspiration. This was, of course, due to the genius of the founding fathers who saw in Europe and elsewhere the strife that had been engendered by the adoption of official religions in nearly all Old World countries. Yet we frequently see in letters to the editor and elsewhere the claim that the US was created and remains a Christian nation..." This is quoted from In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash but you can find this bit of history almost anywhere. We were founded on the principle of religious tolerance, remember? Maybe the founding fathers and I have a little bit in common...

Dean for prez, definitely. Clark for Veep? Now THAT's the stuff.

For some reason, probably a by-product of dissertation-producing adrenaline (yeah, CmdrSue, I'll get right back on it after this), I've become convinced that the best way to get Dubya Q. Cokesniffer out of office is to go with a Dean/Clark ticket.

Why, do you ask? Well, the news that Clark's going to accept matching funds will mean that he's not going to have the bankroll to take on Bush in the pre-convention electoral season, and probably will be outspent 4-1. But why don't I just reprint what I entered in the Dean blog:

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Re: Clark as VP

Of course, I'm a committed Deaniac, and if Dean is banana ice cream with whipped cream and hot fudge, then Clark is the cherry, but let me make a few pitches for Clark as Veep.

First of all, I think Clark as Dem nominee wouldn't work, because he hasn't shown strength outside the South, his campaign his been woefully underperforming, and his acceptance of matching funds means that if he is the nominee he going to get crushed by Bush's 3-1 spending advantage (could end up being 4-1).

But Clark has been the best Dem since Graham to go after Bush on the national security issue; he's been hammering that Bush's lack of leadership has hurt us on the war of terror, and he's gotten in some great lines. When Bush blamed the "Mission Accomplished" banner on the sailors, his response was "Did the sailors tell him to wear that flight suit and prance around on the aircraft carrier?"

As Dean's veep, he bolsters Dean in the South, he gets to hammer Bush and Cheney with the benefit of our grassroots, and he won't be giving Cheney a footrub at their debate like a certain senator whose name rhymes with Schmoe Bleiberman.

Dean's got the best shot at beating Bush of all the Dems, but the addition of Clark as wingman would make Dean an even more potent force. And since Clark/Dean have been very light on each other during this campaign season to date I'm thinking they realize they fit together as well...
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Fine, you say, what about Clark/Dean? Doesn't work as well, Dean just brings his negatives as veep, so if Clark does win it, he'll have to choose someone else (Gephardt?)

Of course, if Clark DOES manage to win the Dem primary, to me it'll be like getting a Gamecube for Christmas. Slightly disappointed it's not an Xbox, but it won't stop from playing into the morning...

BTW, I'm in my thirties, I'm just very, very immature.

OK, Justice Scalia, you're gay...

I mean, we get it already. Sheesh, it's not like there's anything wrong with that...