Horse Blog
Ruben Navarette is not the sharpest tool in the toolshed... - "Duster"
He is an editorial columnist which is basically a glorified blogger who gets paid to put his useless opinion to print. I can't stand humans like this. I mean, c'mon man!
So he writes this column: http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/14/navarrette/index.html
I read said column and think to myself two things. First, I'm really thankful for this swell MacBook that Lee and Michelle got us as a reward for working so hard lately. It is complete with the iHorse peripheral which enables me to use it dispite my lack of thumbs. Second, I think to myself that this is a person with very little sense. Here is what I wrote him in an email after reading his column:
Mr. Navarette,
This mail is in response to your column which appeared on CNN.com:
http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/05/14/navarrette/index.html
I find it interesting that in the name of "civil rights" the memories of good men can be so leveraged. The "white male" reader who pointed out that no "latino's" fought in WWII, only Americans was dead on accurate and yet you bashed his sincere and quite accurate observation with cynicism. I think this is the point where a civil rights movement becomes racist: when you begin twisting history to suit your own needs much like you accuse the oppressors of doing. In essence, the oppressed become the oppressors. As a student of history, and in particular of the brave men and women who fought in WWII, I can tell you with some authority that I seriously doubt any of those estimated 500k hispanic warriors would have been proud to be used in this manner. They fought to protect the freedom of speech and the other rights which Ms. Rivas-Rodriguez now abuses to impose her will on someone who is trying to create a documentary to honor their memory as US combatants. Will the Native Americans start trying to do the same next? After all it was their native language which helped protect some of our most vital secrets during the war and into the fifties. How about the Canadians who went ashore on D-Day? Do they need to pipe up and interfere with every WWII documentary to make sure they are represented like they want to be? Should we rewrite the library of Stephen Ambrose or Ryan to include their own version of their people's stories now as well? How about the myriad of computer simulations or encyclopedias?
For the record, the number of Hispanics that served during WWII is estimated at between 250,000 to 500,000. The data is not for sure because it was not specifically recorded. The only Latino related number we know for sure is that 53k Puerto Ricans served between 1940 and 1946. At the generous end of the spectrum this is 2.5 to 5% of the total number of participants from the US. By the way, any idea as to why we didn't specifically track the number of Hispanic Americans? I might venture a guess and say that at the time, none of those people cared. What mattered was, as the "white male reader" pointed out, that they were Americans fighting to defend their country. They would never have placed a Mexican flag above the US flag on US soil or condoned that action, or even have ignored such a disgraceful act in their editorial column.
Lets be honest here. Ms. Rivas-Rodriguez is working over a publicity stunt during a hot-topic period of Hispanic related debates. She is using something that is honestly not attempting in any way to be racist or offensive and interfering with a film artist at work to push her agenda and raise more ire. I think we all have better things to do, including the Hispanics. If you can't think of anything better, let me know and I'll see if I can't push some things your way.
Best regards,
Duster the Horse
The event I am referring to in paragraph number two actually did take place in California in 2006. Protesting Latino students pulled down the US flag at a high school, flipped it upside down and then put the Mexican flag above it and raise them. Mr. Navarette failed to write a column about that little incident. So I get a response in my inbox the next day. I was really hopeful that maybe he actually read my email and had something - anything - intelligent to say. Here is his response:
Dear Lee -
Thanks for the note. Glad the piece stirred you.
best,
Ruben Navarrette
That's it? Are you kidding me? His piece "stirred" me like a bad bowl of chili or a flake of poopy hay. I just don't get humans most of the time. What really ticks me off is that we are never represented in those documentaries dispite the fact that tens of thousands of horses served and died during WWII. We bravely carried men into and out of battle, moved supplies through impossible to navigate terrain and jungles, and yet we are never given our fair due. However, do you ever hear about some horse out there trying to block a lame documentary because of that? Heck no, if it were really that important to us to be in a documentary we'd just make our own. Didn't you watch Seabiscuit? Yeah, horses were totally behind that movie. Maybe Navarette and Rivas-Rodrigues should consider that option rather than butting in to everyone else's project.
-Duster "out"
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