I'm off to have dinner tonight with an old friend

[DFW]

Like 90 years old.

This will be the first time I've visited with Helen Thomas since she took the job with the Falls Church (Virginia)
News-Press.

I talked with her briefly a few minutes ago on the phone about Obama's speech, which she read, but did not hear.
I think she would have been somewhat more forgiving if she had heard his voice deliver it. She said it sounded
good, but asked why he didn't take on the gun lobby in it. I said I thought Obama made the right choice not to
be confrontational on the issue at this particular venue, with so many of the families of the victims present.

Helen retorted, "if not now, when?" She is feisty as ever, and even if I disagree with her on this point, I love
her fighting spirit as much as ever. This, as always with Helen, will not be boring.

I will be sure to say from her DU fans to her.


*to those who still harbor her ill will, don't bother slamming her, or me. You'll be wasting your breath. She has
been a friend for many decades, since I was a kid, and I won't change my dinner plans (leaving in 5 minutes anyway),
or my friendship with her due to negative posts about her, even if they happen to contain arguments I may agree with.

[Botany]

1. Give her my best!

n/t

[Pathwalker]

2. Would you tell her I adore and admire her and her courage?

And longevity? :hi:

Have a GREAT dinner and visit!

[sabrina 1]

3. Love her. Feisty is what we need. If you get to read this

before you leave, ask her what she thinks of Az. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik. I have a feeling she would be happy with him being that he is one of the few Democrats to tell the truth about the right.

Anyhow, say hi to her, so glad she is back writing and the naysayers are by far in the minority.

[uppityperson]

4. Hi to Helen, hoping she is doing well.

[malaise]

5. Give her a hug for me

Enjoy.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. My dear DFW!

Have a wonderful time!

Ah, you lucky dog, you...

Wish I could be there.

Yes, do tell her we send our love...

Report back if you can, OK?

Hope you got the card...

[DFW]

31. My wife, who is back in Germany, says it got there

If we still have the return address, we'll return the favor when I get back. Otherwise, you'll
have to get it to me again.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

40. I'm so glad to hear it!

The return address is on the envelope, but if you don't have that, let me know, and I"ll PM it to you.

[DFW]

42. Please do

She doesn't know everyone who sends cards, and doesn't keep the envelopes (even when the return
address says "The White House," so you're in good company! lol).

[DCKit]

7. Give her ALL of our best.

She's my heroine.

[madmax]

8. Give her a hug! nt

[kath]

9. A great woman!

I had the great fortune to hear her speak in OKC back in 2003 at Oklahoma City University. Hub & I took our two daughters along so they could see a tough, feisty, trailblazing woman.

Tell her hi from a DU fan out in red-state hell!

[scarletwoman]

10. Please give her my love and best wishes and unconditional respect.

I'm delighted to know that she's working again.

Thanks for letting us know you're going to be seeing her and have a lovely dinner!

sw

[onethatcares]

11. I hope she's doing well,

give her a hug from me.:hi:

[onecent]

12. I love her. We need more Helen Thomas's n/t

[DrDan]

13. saw her in Daytona a year or so back - while she was on her book tour with Craig

"Feisty" is the perfect word to describe her.

And I agree with her completely - "if not now, when"?

I envy you the opportunity to share thoughts with her over dinner. She is one of a kind.

[underseasurveyor]

14. Better than having an old friend for dinner >:-)

Please give Helen ALL our best.

HELEN XXOOXX :hug: :grouphug: :loveya:

[catabryna]

15. I've been around long enough

to remember when DU got together and sent her lots and lots of roses. It was a pretty cool pic. I wonder if that picture is still around here somewhere.

[Change has come]

26. Here we go!

That seems like so long ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x799674

[catabryna]

37. Wow, that was quite a while ago...

Thanks for digging through the archives.:hi:

[EFerrari]

16. Inviting a Friend to Supper

"Nor shall our cups make any guiltie men :
But, at our parting, we will be, as when
We innocently met. No simple word
That shall be utter’d at our mirthfull board
Shall make us sad next morning : or affright
The libertie, that we’ll enjoy to-night."

[derby378]

17. This pro-gun Democrat asks you to give Helen my best

And also the best from my dear wife, ChickMagic, who strongly supported gun control. Hey, if we could make our marriage work, there's got to be some hope for this world. :hi:

[bigwillq]

18. Cool.

Have fun. :hi:

[inna]

19. give her my love

[Raine]

20. I LOVE Helen

PLEASE let her know that she is loved very much by many many people and give her a BIG :hug:

[Dappleganger]

21. Thanks for the story--please update us later on!

A friend is a friend, right? Enjoy your time together!

[rosesaylavee]

22. I love that woman!

Give her my best!

[DFW]

23. Back now from Washington with a report

I left immediately after posting, so I saw no one's post before I got back.

She is most upset about what she calls "the lack of humanity" in our Republican opposition:
the not caring about what happens to those Americans who can't take care of themselves.

On firearms, my nephew came up with the best suggestion--he may be the Democrats' counter
to Frank Luntz if he keeps coming up with suggestions like this: don't call any bills
designed to stop the unfettered spread of handguns "gun control." The radical right
reacts negatively to anything containing "control (never mind that Rupert Murdoch is
already controlling their minds)." Instead call any such legislation an "Anti-Murder
Act." After all, the Republicans won't get far saying they're "pro-murder," will they?
(on second thought, don't answer that!)

Helen also recounted, at my request, some episodes with JFK. She said he had the quickest
mind of any of the presidents under which she had served--and a wicked sense of humor as
well. Secret Service security wasn't the huge net it is now, and she sometimes got to stroll
with Kennedy on the way to some function or other. Once, it was on the way to a Saint Patrick's
Day function, and she told him, "it's a great day to be Irish, isn't it, Mr. President?" He
smiled and came back with, "Yes, so what are YOU doing here?" Another time, JFK asked her if
she was coming with him on some trip overseas? She said no, she would only be accompanying him
to church some Sunday. Kennedy immediately said, "Ah, so you get all the really choice assignments!"
Helen said that no other president matched Kennedy's quick wit and humor.

We even talked a little about the Middle East. There was one incident at which none of us was
present: the 1993 Oslo accords. Someone noticed that Rabin and King Hussein seemed a little too
comfortable with each other for two men who had supposedly just met, and asked how long they had
known each other. Both ducked the question, so as not to be assassinated by their own people for
having communicated with the "enemy" for so long.

We also talked about personal stuff, as she is of a generation with my parents, whom she knew
for practically fifty years (!!). We talked about Howard, her new posting, and other stuff.

Oh, yeah, and she says "Hi right back at ya!" to DU.

[hootinholler]

24. Good to hear her in good spirits! n/t

[DFW]

38. The more I think about it....

You have a point. Although Helen was distressed as all hell over the state the country is in,
she was in far better spirits than she was last fall, when she was still in "banishment" from
the public scene. Last year, you would have thought she was thinking I was the last friend she
had in the world. This time, she has the backing of the Falls Church paper, was being interviewed
by CNN, was regaining a portion of the relevance she once enjoyed.

She recounted with glee the moments when she was hounding Bush about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
She said that the other reporters in the room used to raise their eyebrows in exasperation that she
wouldn't let the subject drop. She is very proud that she didn't. She despises war. I told her how
my father-in-law was drafted off his farm during World War II at age 17, and returned from Stalingrad
at age 18, minus one leg (he was the lucky one--the others in his unit, city boys, all froze to death).

She is glad to be back writing, and with an audience. Maybe I should post a link to her new paper?

[hootinholler]

44. If you don't post it

I would certainly like it, but I'm sure I can find it on the google.

-Hoot

[DFW]

46. I'm sure the moderators wouldn't object

www.fcnp.com

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. Thanks for the update!

I knew you'd both have a great time, and I'm so glad you did.

She is a treasure!

:hi:

[lpbk2713]

32. An evening well spent.

Thanks for sharing. Helen is missed and thought of often.

[RainDog]

27. A story about Helen that meant a lot to me

but, I'm sure, is not something she would remember.

before I ever found DU, I was reading places that I knew of, like Slate, trying to make some sense of the 2000 election - not the election itself as much as the aftermath and the Supreme Court 5 decision.

I had been reading Slate and Salon since their inceptions, but had never made comments at either site. I was just a reader. However, the horrific ruling by the Supreme Court had infuriated me, and finally, on Kausfiles, I spoke up about the injustice of that moment.

In reply to my comment that the election had been stolen by the Supreme Court for Bush in a one-time ruling, the first reply I EVER got was from a right winger who told me that it was just as well that Gore hadn't been elected because, if so, he would've been shot. The guy said they would have shot Gore if the extremists had not been allowed to steal the election.

I was shocked. Yeah, I was naive.

I thought about that moment again this weekend.

Thomas had written an article - I don't even remember what it was about, around that same time. I sent her an email thanking her for her long career and her continued willingness to challenge the powerful. Again, I was shocked - but in a nice way - because she responded to my email. Her reply was the antidote to the hate I read from the right wing - and she gave me some hope that there were still journalists out there who were willing to ask questions that the powerful did not want asked - in spite of the wall of hatred the right wing had already been building to shut out democracy solutions to issues.

I appreciated that moment a lot. So, thank you again, Helen.

[Joe Fields]

28. I will always hold Helen Thomas in very high esteem.

:toast:

[cliffordu]

29. Tell her I sez howdy and I fuck up and talk shit once and a while, too.

no human has ever been immune from it.

[DFW]

30. Something else Helen mentioned

She said that she had been interviewed this afternoon by CNN's Soledad O'Brien. O'Brien kept
asking how Helen "felt" when Hearst dropped her last year. Helen thought it was such a ridiculous
question that she just kept turning the question back on O'Brien. If the MSM wants to keep on
trying to hold on to relevance, they should explain to their reporters that it is not a wise
stance to assume that the person you are interviewing is far less intelligent than you are. In
this case, quite the opposite is true. I think Helen said the segment will air tomorrow some time.

[lpbk2713]

33. I find Soleded comical.

She takes herself much too seriously.

[Rhiannon12866]

34. K&R! Still love and admire Helen, an amazing lady, and reporter.

Glad to hear that she's still out and about and I know that you'll have a wonderful time, as always. What a way to spend an evening! Thanks for sharing this with us... :D

[DFW]

35. Helen still has a lot of admirers here

So I post when we get together. Two others who were planning to join us had to bow out for
unfortunate medical reasons, so it was just me, my brother, my nephew and Helen. We had a
LOT to talk about, as usual, and the parts I could relate online, I am always happy to pass
on. Helen has never forgotten who sent her those roses a few years back.

[Liberal In Texas]

36. Way cool. n/t

[Cass]

39. Please give her my warmest regards. I 'm so happy that she is back - I think the world of that lady.

[DFW]

41. I let her know in no uncertain terms

She still has a lot of admirers on DU.

Her new paper is a small regional paper that is blasted for daring to be a "liberal" bastion in Virginia.
Falls Church, Virginia is also, by coincidence, the place where I grew up.

The website of the Falls Church News-Press is simply www.fcnp.com if anyone wants to follow Helen's
writing again, and post comments. I'm sure she'll get her share of hate comments, so if DUers wish
to counter them with some positive ones, please do. I wrote a LTTE for their print version welcoming
their decision to have her, and she was very appreciative (it ran in the print version).

[Robyn66]

43. Wonderful woman!

I agree she may have felt differently if she heard the speech. I personally dont feel it was an appropriate time to address gun control but Helen is an amazing woman and I love her and her spirit!
I am sure you will have a wonderful time!

[DFW]

47. Oh, we did.

We always do. Helen is never boring, as you can well imagine.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

45. All my best to Helen!

:loveya:

[DFW]

48. I always say from DU to her

She has never forgotten the roses.

[arthritisR_US]

49. the only thing I have for Helen Thomas is

love and admiration. Have a wonderful time and may there be many, many more of them! :-)

[dembotoz]

50. give her my best

we owe her a great deal

[mdmc]

51. ..