Kirk Douglas - Wishes On His 97th Birthday

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

(a week old - but still a good read)


Today is my 97th birthday. I am a lucky man. I've been married to my wife, Anne, for 60 years and she continues to captivate me.

When you get to be 97, you can reflect on the lessons you've learned in almost a century of life. Mark Twain said, "Age is an issue of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter."

(...)

But have you ever tried to put 97 candles on a cake? You can't. So I put 10 candles to represent the 10 decades of my life. Here are my birthday wishes:

A world where weapons, big and small, are symbols of weakness, not strength
A world where religion informs values, not governments
A world where the air is breathable, the water drinkable and the food is healthy and plentiful
A world where poor people are the smallest percentage of the population
A world where education and health care are available to everyone
A world where prejudice based on race, religion and nationality is non-existent
A world where smoking tobacco is considered a ridiculous practice from a bygone era
A world where all diseases are curable and physical pain is no longer a part of life
A world where we control technology, not the other way around
A world where greed is never considered good

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kirk-douglas/kirk-douglas-birthday_b_4411817.html?utm_hp_ref=celebrity&ir=Celebrity

[Aristus]

1. Great actor. Great man.

And a series of beautiful birthday wishes I hope we may all someday bring to reality...

Happy Birthday, Kirk!

[spanone]

2. k&r...

[SummerSnow]

3. sounds good to me Mr. Douglas

[Tx4obama]

4. Would have been perfect IF he had left out the part about tobacco

[nomorenomore08]

39. Meh, nobody (except those already addicted) needs that shit anyway. Smoke weed instead!

[freshwest]

5. Excellent thoughts. Thanks. nt

[Journeyman]

6. He broke the Hollywood Blacklist with the simple decision to give Dalton Trumbo credit. . .

for writing Spartacus.

It would have been nice had he been able to give Trumbo back his lost years, but that's maybe too much to ask of a ragman's son. Good enough that he freed a generation of talent from its exile.

Wonder how many playgrounds he and his wife have built and restored so far? Last I heard, they'd finished their 401st. But that was two or three years ago.

[colorado_ufo]

14. Come visit Grand Juncton, Colorado and see the terrific bronze statue of Dalton Trumbo.

It sits outside the historic, restored Avalon Theater on Main Street and portrays him as he usually wrote - in a bathtub!

[Journeyman]

16. I've been there, taken many photos of the statue. . .

Lots of good artwork on that walk. Some quite funny, many quite profound.

I named my son after Dalton Trumbo.

[Archae]

7. Even this movie?

But he was a GEM in this one:

[Kelvin Mace]

8. Damn.

Just damn.

If only we could get more people to see life this way.

Rock on Mr. Douglas!

[darkangel218]

9. Oh wow, Happy Bday Kirk!

For some odd weird reason I thought he had passed?



Glad he's still alive and kicking!! What a great actor!

[TeeYiYi]

10. Wishes worth repeating...

A world where weapons, big and small, are symbols of weakness, not strength
A world where religion informs values, not governments
A world where the air is breathable, the water drinkable and the food is healthy and plentiful
A world where poor people are the smallest percentage of the population
A world where education and health care are available to everyone
A world where prejudice based on race, religion and nationality is non-existent
A world where smoking tobacco is considered a ridiculous practice from a bygone era
A world where all diseases are curable and physical pain is no longer a part of life
A world where we control technology, not the other way around
A world where greed is never considered good

Happy 97th Birthday Mr. Douglas.

TYY

[loudsue]

11. Beautiful wishes. Reflects a good person and a life well lived.

Rock on Mr. Douglas!

[seabeyond]

12. heard about natalie wood and this man disgusts me now... nt

[Hassin Bin Sober]

19. You are a real piece of work.

[seabeyond]

25. i know it is hands off polanski, dsk, and assange. i did not know we hero worshipped this man

and i was not allowed to say anything. didnt think much of the man either way. read about him not long ago. disgusted me. saw the thread. said disgusted. didnt know we were suppose to overlook the shit with douglas.

[Sheldon Cooper]

20. He disgusts me too, sea.

Because of Natalie Wood.

[whathehell]

24. What did he do to Natalie Wood?

[seabeyond]

26. google kirk douglas and natalie wood. i do not know how we pretend to unknow things. nt

[whathehell]

27. Yeah, I guess I could have done that in the first place

That being said, I do hope you are not accusing me of pretending " to unknow things".

[seabeyond]

28. absolutely not. you asked. others are not only not asking, but telling me to shut the fuck up. lol

no. that reference to "unknowing" had to do with the ones on this thread telling me not to say anything poorly about the man. and honestly. i did not know we were suppose to blindly worship him. since we are suppose to, i did not want to drag an article in here, cause it is totally sick.

[polly7]

29. Because, no one ........... ever

has changed for the better. We MUST judge every man/woman by their worst act rather than the totality of good they've accomplished, even for the benefit of others. Not only MUST we judge and despise them ...... we MUST do it until the second they die!

And nobody told you to stfu.

[seabeyond]

30. do you know he changed for the better? does he even acknowledge or apologize for a brutal rape?

any ownership at all? do you know shit about the man? or just a hollywood illusion to create to idolizing someone undeserving. wow. that even her you try to validate a behavior. wow. i am sure the victim would feel all warm and fuzzy with your defense of the man. a defense you are totally clueless if he deserves.

[seabeyond]

31. "And nobody told you to stfu." so, i am allowed to be disgusted by the man? thank you. nt

[whathehell]

32. Okay, thanks...I read the story, and yes, it's hideously sickening..

the only problem I have with it (and believe me, I'm no apologist for the stars) is that no one -- not she, not her family -- NO one it seems, reported him...I know all the "but he's a big star" thing, but after awhile SHE was a bigger star than he...Shouldn't she or SOMEONE -- Robert Wagner, maybe, who supposedly really loved her, go public or legal at least, with this?.

I read, for instance, that her sister Lana, confirmed the rape story and that it was perpetrated by some honcho in Hollywood, but was willing to go public with it only "after he died"...What's with that?...Natalie's dead...Why doesn't she just rain down on the old bastard, whoever he was, who did this?

FWIW, I once did read -- with no accompanying explanation -- that he was "the most hated man in Hollywood".

[seabeyond]

33. it was also a time when men raping had the right, privilege, entitlement to rape. girls and women

did nto go to the cops. and certainly did not rock the boat of hollywood powers. even today, there is that atmosphere in hollywood.

my thought though, with the description of that rape, there is no way it was a one time thing. just pulled the vilence out of his ass for a moment. with that brutal rape, this is indicative of his character. hence, my complete turn off of the man.

[whathehell]

34. -----

It was certainly harder to prosecute it, but I wouldn't go so far as to say they had the "right" -- It was still a crime,

and things got better in the seventies when she was still a star, and I guess my question is, why didn't her loved

ones do something to the guy, enact some vengeance (I'm not talking murder) for her?...I'm not saying that this

necessarily equates to "doubt" about his actions on my part (I'll never look at him the same way again) on my part, but if it

is true, I'm very disappointed in the people around her, who had to be powerful enough to exact SOME justice on the POS

Just my take.

[seabeyond]

35. all kinds of reasons i can think of. but mostly, she was really messed up. look at today,

when we are so progressed on rape issues. a girl raped by a football star was told to go home. she was investigated not accused rapist. and they dismissed the case ignoring evidence. 62k cheered adn he won a trophy.

[whathehell]

36. I'm actually talking about her family members, the people around her...They say "never say never"

but I can't imagine that happening to someone I loved and allowing it to remain unaddressed.

Yes, I certainly know how appallingly unresponsive some still are about rape, and I keep tabs,

as does "Anonymous" it seems, thank God, when stuff like Steubenville happens.

Who was the bastard that was cheered on by 62K while he won a trophy?...Has this happened lately?

Did you read the Natalie Wood biography, Natasha?...As I recall, her mother was the stage mother from

Hell....I remember flipping through it years ago, and I did remember a claim of rape by someone,

but for some reason, I thought it Frank Sinatra.

All this discussion is getting me interested in it again...Thinking of getting it on kindle, or something.

[seabeyond]

37. a football player in florida.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4143044

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

41. Bullshit story - Don't believe everything you read in tabloids or the Internet

zero evidence to that story, and Wood never made the claim. It's an urban legend.

Next, you'll be saying we should hate JFK because he killed Marilyn Monroe.

[The Wizard]

13. This is a man.(NT)

[malaise]

15. Wonderful

Happy Birthday to a great human being

[NBachers]

17. I'm glad Kirk Douglas is still with us. Kirk Douglas does not disgust me.

Make your own anti-Kirk Douglas thread somewhere else, will you?

I saw him as Ned Land in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea when I was just a kid, and he's been a hero of mine ever since. It's still my favorite movie.

[Sheldon Cooper]

21. lol

[Kablooie]

18. God, his mind at 97 is sharper than mine.

I doubt I could come up with all those thoughts in a coherent way.

[GreenEyedLefty]

22. I saw Lust for Life for the first time not too long ago.

Amazing.

[Berlum]

23. I am Kirk Douglas

[Systematic Chaos]

38. My parents named me after this man.

First name Kirk, middle name Patrick for 3/17.

[Auntie Bush]

40. He must be a Democrat!

ReThugs don't have those kind of thoughts and wishes. Good for Kirk!