In an unbelievably elitist column in the Chicago Tribune column, Garrison Keillor shows very clearly the contempt with which many liberals hold mainstream America. Inconvenienced by having to wait for a veterans’ motorcycle parade to pass (on a street that had been closed off for their event) so that he could cross their route to visit the National Gallery, Keillor had this to say:

You don't quite see the connection between that and these fat men with ponytails on Harleys. After hearing a few thousand bikes go by, you think maybe we could airlift these gentlemen to Baghdad to show their support of the troops in a more tangible way. It took 20 minutes until a gap appeared and then a mob of us pedestrians flooded across the street and the parade of bikes had to stop for us, and on we went to show our patriotism by looking at exhibits at the Smithsonian or, in my case, hiking around the National Gallery, which, after you've watched a few thousand Harleys pass, seems like an outpost of civilization.

There stood Renoir's ballerina in pale blue chiffon and Monet's children in the garden of sunflowers. And Mary Cassatt's "The Boating Party," which I stood and stared at for a long time. A lady in a white bonnet sits in a green sailboat, holding a contented baby in pink, as a man rows the boat toward a distant shore. (Perhaps the boat is becalmed.) The man wears a navy blue shirt, he is preoccupied with his rowing, and the lady looks wan and mildly anxious, as well a mother should be. The baby is looking dreamily over the gunwales. Is the man a hired hand or is he the husband and father?

A work of art can lift you up from the mishmash of life, the weight of the unintelligible world, and the situations where vulgarity squats on you like an enormous toad and won't get off. You stroll down past the World War II Memorial, which looks like something ordered out of a catalog, a bland insult to the memory of all who served, and thousands of motorcycles roar by disturbing the Sabbath, and it depresses you for hours.

Poor baby, had to stand there and wait while all these fat men with ponytails demonstrated their support of our troops in the field. Do you suppose it might have occurred to this snotty jerk that many of those riders had once been lean and wiry with white sidewall haircuts when they were in uniform serving their country, many of them in combat? As far as the WWII memorial which he also desecrates as a bland insult, I can personally testify from having taken my octogenarian father-in-law there, it is certainly not perceived as such by the veterans in whose honor it was built. 

But, then, poor, put upon Garrison did finally get his chance to stand before great works of art and muse about the people depicted in them, people obviously of far greater consequence to his sensitivities than the real people outside on their motorcycles whose past service and personal sacrifices make it possible for pretentious twits like him to stand in national art galleries and rhapsodize inanely. I do think Keillor’s imagery regarding vulgarity and squatting toads is apt: I’ve always thought that over-sized head of his with those bulging eyes behind thick glasses had a rather toad-like aspect. And in this situation it looks like that squatting toad just dumped something rather smelly down Mr. Keillor’s stiff, snooty neck.

Russ Vaughn, Vietnam Veteran

Contributed by Russ Vaughn on May 31, 2008 at 08:31 PM in Caring about our troops, Russ Vaughn, Unclear on the concept | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Charles Smith

Seems like more and more of these types are pervading our media these days. I personally believe it is the result of no draft to make them respect those in the past who have allowed them to speak. Only the good die young, the rest of us are here to make sure they are remembered for what they did. The Keillor's of this world are here to remind us that some should not have the rights of others, even though many died to allow them too.

Posted by: Charles Smith | May 31, 2008 9:14:00 PM

Posted by: Rosemary

Right on! Very good post, keep up the great work. ;)

Posted by: Rosemary | Jun 23, 2008 5:32:32 PM