President George W. Bush at Grace Episcopal Church, Plainfield, NJ, March 14, 2001.
Bush is greeting Tina Otte, director of the church's GirlSpace program.
Behind Bush (from the left) are Rev. 'Buster' Soaries, New Jersey Secretary of State,
Acting Gov. Donald DeFrancesco and Rep. Mike Ferguson (partly obscured by Bush).
(Photo by Dan Damon.)
The Plainfield Today post about the racist flyers portraying President Obama in whiteface (see here) has drawn a couple of strange comments, which I posted without hesitation, though with some puzzlement.
However, it seems the anonymous poster (I am guessing it is one person) has an axe to grind, which is OK until they start MAKING UP HISTORY.
The following was posted early on Sunday morning --
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Obama fearmongers hit Plainfield":
Bush came to Plainfield in 2001, brought by then-mayor Al McWilliams. I didn't call Bush a Nazi but I was disappointed that our "Democratic" mayor invited him and welcomed him with open arms. And where was Dan? Doing the mayor's PR as "public information officer" but the public got no real information from him then. If he's so devoted to Obama now he should vote for Corzine and all the Democrats--yes, even Jerry Green--and say so. Otherwise he will just continue to be known as another shill for the crowd that wants to get rid of Green no matter what kind of idiot replaces him. (Emphasis added --DD).
Posted by Anonymous to PLAINFIELD TODAY at October 4, 2009 6:39 AM
What's wrong with this little piece of 'history'?
Only that it never happened that way.
When President George W. Bush visited Plainfield, it was at the invitation of Martin Cox (through then U.S. Representative Mike Ferguson, Republican), who was then heading up a grant-funded youth program for which Rose of Sharon Community Church was the fiscal agent, which has since gone defunct. (Yes, the same Martin Cox who ran for mayor in this year's Democratic primary.)
The program rented space in the basement of Grace Episcopal Church, and that is the site that President Bush visited.
I had a connection with that visit, but it had nothing to do with my being a City employee.
At the time, I was a Warden of Grace Church (a lay officer of the parish) and had to interact with the Secret Service in making security arrangements for the President's visit.
In the first place, the parish was not approached about WHETHER we wanted the visit, but merely informed that it was SCHEDULED AND HAPPENING, which meant that it would interfere with regular parish activities.
The Secret Service, which is responsible for the President's safety, was very thorough in their inspection of the premises and their arrangements for security during his visit.
However, they wanted Grace Church to CANCEL its weekly Wednesday morning Mass and healing service, which would involve parishioners entering the chapel for the service shortly before the President's scheduled arrival.
The Secret Service did not like the idea of having people who they could not screen in advance come into a building which they had to make secure.
The demand to cancel the service came as a shock to us, as the parish had held the service without interruption for probably a hundred years or more.
As Warden, I told the Secret Service we could not cancel the Eucharist.
When they insisted, I said there was one thing we COULD DO, and that would be to REFUSE PERMISSION for the President's visit to the church premises.
That got their attention.
A compromise was worked out, the parish held its Eucharist, and President George W. Bush made his visit.
As I recall, there was a throng of politicians there (the invitee list was controlled by Martin Cox) -- including Mayor Al McWilliams and Assemblyman Jerry Green, both of whom (graciously, of course) welcomed the President to the city of Plainfield.
Sometimes, those in political leadership have to show good manners and good sense, and be in the company of people for whom they have no personal liking.
After all, the Mayor and the Assemblyman represented the City and its residents, and were welcoming the President of the United States as the president, not as a drinking buddy.
Scores of people showed up to protest the President's visit, and were allowed to gather at the intersection of East 7th Street and Cleveland Avenue, where they would not be able to directly confront the President. That crowd included many Plainfield activists from a variety of organizations, as well as folks from other area communities, and even a few Grace Church parishioners.
And that is the TRUE history of President George W. Bush's visit to Plainfield, New Jersey.
- Plainfield Today: "Obama fearmongers hit Plainfield"
Posts
7 comments:
Did anyone at the time call those protestors un-American? Probably not. It's only when they are protesting Obama.
An anonymous poster shilling for Jerry??? TRY THIS: Jerry and his puppet Sharon anonymously shilling for Jerry... that or one of their fellow trough feeders.
I'm not so sure why bringing any President to town, even a Republican President, is a bad thing? Besides, the fact that anyone managed to get George W. Bush to Plainfield in his second month in office is impressive. You'd think President Bush would want to speak to his base in South and Midwest first. One thing's certain; Jerry Green and the Democratic organization haven't managed to get President Obama to come to Plainfield.
Who's using the term 'un-American'?
I said the flyer was racist, and its ilk is funded by a wealthy right-wingnut.
Obama was elected by a larger majority than GWB got in 2000 (unless you're one who believes GWB was elected by a vote of 5-4).
He's been in office not yet 10 months. What's to protest?
Besides, are you calling yourself a racist?
Why don't you pick a 'handle' and sign with it so other readers won't confuse you with non-racist commenters?
Anon 11:04. As a matter of fact I was confronted by a borderline violent supporter of GWB that day. I held a sign that said "Not My President". I was aggressively encountered by a male person who said "Who's your president? Putin??"
Ah the invigorating thrill of intelligent debate.
Why Dan, when anyone agrees with Jerry or Sharon, are they "shilling"? Can't we just agree with them because we do?
To 2:00 PM --
Where were you when I suggested Jerry should be Assembly Speaker, shilling for someone else?
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