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In reply to the discussion: Dinner with Helen Thomas, for dmr, lpbk2713 and others who asked [View all]KoKo
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GOPFighter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Journal Click to send private message to this author Click to view this author's profile Click to add this author to your buddy list Click to add this author to your Ignore list Thu Mar-30-06 07:55 PM
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More pictures - Roses for Helen Thomas
What a thrill it was to meet Helen Thomas today. She was so gracious. She was visbly moved when she walked in the room and saw the roses.
As you know a few days ago DUer Helderheid posted a suggestion that we send roses to Helen Thomas to show our appreciation for her gutsy questioning of the President last week. The suggestion soon became action and dozens of DUers opened their hearts (and wallets/purses), and the money started rolling in. Before she knew it she had enough money to buy 100 dozen roses for Helen Thomas! Be sure to give a standing O to Helderheid - she worked her butt off to make this happen!
The roses were delivered to a conference room near her office. Six volunteers: Rainer, Paula, Malissa (DUer MiniMe), Chris, Neal, and Skip (GOPFighter) spent the afternoon cutting and arrainging them in vases (A big THANK YOU goes to Kristen Collie, Hearst Bureau Manager, who made sure we had everything we needed!).
Rainer has worked in a florist shop and did a great job showing us how to trin, cut and arrainge the flowers.
The highlight of the day came at 6:15 when Kristen led Helen into the conference room filled with roses. Helen couldn't beleive it and she kept saying "Thank You, Thank You" and we kept saying "No, Thank YOU!" Then to our delight, Helen stayed and talked to us for almost an hour (talking to Helen is like talking to another DUer. She knows all the issues we discuss here and feels the same as we do. Her heart goes out to all those who have been killed - it really bothers her. I love that woman!
Here are a few pictures...
Malissa (MiniMe), Rainer, and Paula
More at......
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x799674
AND THEN THERE'S THIS!
Roses for Helen
Posted: March 31, 2006 10:34 PM
Al Eisele / Editor at Large of "The Hill"
The roses kept coming - and coming - and coming - to the Hearst Newspapers office in downtown Washington Thursday, until they filled a large conference room to overflowing.
By the time the Federal Express delivery was complete, there were a hundred and eight dozen roses, nearly 1,300 in every color. they were the result of an email campaign to show support for Hearst columnist Helen Thomas after she grilled President Bush about his Iraq policy at last week's White House news conference.
The campaign was the brainchild of Clarity Sanderson, a 31-year-old Democratic activist from Sandy, Utah, a suburb of Salt Lake City, who was motivated by the sharp exchange between Thomas and Bush, and an op-ed article Thomas wrote about the exchange in the Salt Lake Tribune.
"Those two things set me off," Sanderson said in a telephone interview Friday.
Sanderson, a work-at-home web designer and mother of two who is co-chair of the Utah Democratic Progressive Caucus, said she saw a note on the website , suggesting that people email Thomas to thank her for asking Bush "the questions all Americans want answered about Iraq."
"I thought, 'Let's take it a step farther," she said, and sent an email asking people to donate to her PayPal account to send roses to Thomas.
That was last Friday and by Monday, she'd received more than $2,200. She ordered the roses and a hundred glass vases from an on-line floral service in San Francisco, Organic Bouquet, and they were delivered on Thursday.
Thomas, the 85-year-old veteran White House journalist whose outspoken criticism of the Bush administration has drawn much hate mail from Bush supporters in recent years, said Friday she was "overwhelmed" by the avalanche of roses.
"It sure beats the brickbats," she said, referring to hundreds of vitriolic emails she's received since last week's encounter with Bush. "Some of them attack you ad hominem and call you a traitor and ask if you're ever been to Iraq," she said. "I think it's the frustration of those who are angry with me and take it out in email. I think there should be a logical debate, but maybe that's not possible during an on-going war."
Thomas shared her roses with Hearst bureau chief Charles Lewis and other colleagues, but sent the bulk of them to wounded military personnel at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
Asked about Bush's response to her pointed question about his Iraq policy, she said, "He could not answer my question. He kept referring to Afghanistan. He never articulated the reasons we're in Iraq. I don't think there's any justification for an unprovoked war against somebody who did nothing against us."
Thomas had received hundreds of supportive email by Friday afternoon, bearing such messages as, "O-M-G...I LOVE THAT LADY!", "We all owe her so much more than roses", "Her little finger has more class than George Bush does", and "Helen Thomas kick ass!"
Sanderson said she's never spoken with Thomas, but received an email from her via Hearst office manager Kristen Collie, who wrote that "Helen asked me to send you the following note:
"Blessed are the peacemakers. The bounty of beautiful roses from such wonderful people has lifted my heart and will remain in my memory for the rest of my life. Thank you for caring that others may live."
MORE at.........
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-eisele/roses-for-helen_b_18270.html