In the January edition of Vanity Fair magazine Christopher Hitchens becomes the latest in a seemingly endless parade of name callers and reputation-smudgers intent on spreading lies about Tea Partiers, Glenn Beck, and just about anyone else he doesn’t agree with politically. I will not bother to address these shallow, baseless, and fact-free attacks on Beck and the Tea Parties. They are quite capable of defending themselves. My concerns are Hitchens’ inaccurate characterizations of the 9/12 Project.
The opening line of the piece contains a smear against the non-Beck affiliated 9/12 Project referring to the group as:
“the most hateful kind of populist claptrap, (e.g. the fetid weirdness of GlennBeck’s 912 Project.)”
Really? Fetid?
Mr. Hitchens did you even look into the 9/12 Project? Have you any idea of what it stands for and what 9/12 members are doing? I seriously doubt that you did, as I am a founding member, part of the Advisory Board and the editor-at-large of the web site. All email inquiries come directly to me. Nothing was received from you, ever. Checking with the other Board members, I can verify that none of them were contacted by you or by anyone with Vanity Fair. Therefore, we can only assume that your statements about the 912 Project have not been vetted with any reasonable degree of journalistic standards.
For the record, the 9/12 Project is not now and has never been a Tea Party. It is not politically affiliated. Yes, it was started by Mr. Beck in early 2009, but Beck’s involvement ended in the Fall of ’09, as he handed the controls over to volunteers who have created a genuine grass-roots organization.
The Mission of the 912 Project was to build a non-political group of like-minded folks who wanted to return America to the united feeling we shared after the attacks of 9/11/2001. Starting on September 12, 2001 most of us were frightened, but we were in fact, united as a nation. So the group was named the 912 Project.
Additionally, at the foundation of the 912 Project was a commitment to Principles and Values. 9 Principles and 12 Values. AND one did not need to endorse all 9 of the Principles, if you agreed with 7 of the 9, we accepted you.
| 1. | America Is Good. |
| 2. | I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life. |
| 3. | I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday. |
| 4. | The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government. |
| 5. | If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it. |
| 6. | I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results. |
| 7. | I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable. |
| 8. | It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion. |
| 9. | The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me. |
I realize that some of the Principles may seem a bit outrageous, especially when you start with radical thinking like Principle #1. America is good. So many Americans feel the need to apologize for the success of our Republic. 912ers are not so inclined. We love our country and are proud to be Americans, never apologizing for being the beacon of freedom recognized around the world as a place where everyone has the opportunity to make it if they apply themselves.
Principle #2 mentions God. But this group is not limited to those scary people who believe in a higher power (like myself and most of America – NPR stats quoted here). Remember, if you only support 7 of the 9 Principles, we welcome you. So there are atheists among us!
From these humble beginnings, local 912 groups were started all across the country, in virtually every state. They built upon the principles and values while creating additional programs that taught things like the Constitution and the Founding Fathers.
These radicals did very strange things like, reading about the Founding Fathers and the formation of this great country. They shared common ideals on things like a strong work ethic and self-reliance. And these dangerous freedom-loving free thinkers also did something that Thomas Jefferson suggested. . . They asked questions of their elected officials. They “questioned with boldness.” And what did they get for this exercise in Free Speech? They were mocked and ridiculed by the Liberal dominated media.
Then you charge the 912 Project with “canalizing old racist and clerical toxic waste material.” How so, sir? By trying to connect us to books that we have never mentioned on the site? (W. Cleon Skousen’s Cleansing of America and The Making of America?) Kind of a stretch isn’t it?
Where did you stand on West Virginia’s late Senator Robert Byrd and his KKK Membership? Did you vilify West Virginians for repeatedly electing a man who joined the Klan in order to secure elected office? Bill Clinton explains Robert Byrd’s Klan Membership:
What about Volkswagen?
The Beetle was the inspiration of a genocidal dictator. Why aren’t you calling for all VWs to be removed from the streets?
As stated above, I will let Beck and the Tea Party directly address questions about your flimsy arguments. It is obvious to most logical readers that you make broad statements but seem to support these without even the most basic facts. What I will challenge is your accusation in the final paragraph of the piece stating:
“a large, volatile constituency has been created…” and that; “Some of the gun brandishing next time might be for real.”
Mr. Hitchens, the violent riots seen on TV are not from any 912 meetings or even Tea Party events. And Glenn Beck’s massive 828 gathering in DC was more focused on prayer, peace and God than anything else. (I should know, I was in the second row.)
If you are worried about violence and “poisonous propaganda” then look to your Left. This past weekend a Chicago holiday party organized by Tea Party people was cut short by a bomb scare and a vulgar threat posted in the mens room… and then there is Tuesday’s School Board shooter in Florida, an obviously disturbed man who posted links on his Facebook page to places like the George Soros supported Media Matters and something called the Progressive Mind. Do you still believe as you wrote in the end of the piece?
“There was no need for this offense to come, but woe all the same to those by whom it came and woe above all to those who whitewashed and rationalized it.”
Mr. Hitchens, I await your reply.