I sincerely apologize to all for this, given the circumstances I have no choice but to pull the plug on this project. My deepest apologies to the community.
If you have any nominees you would like to share with us, please do. I’m thinking of Chris Matthews among others.
We – at www.Miquelon.org – the web’s only website dedicated to denouncing French Bashing, had planned to nominate Bill Maher for the French Legion of Honour.
We thought this would be a great way to write a final chapter after four years of French Bashing under the previous Administration. French expatriates around the world and in the USA had appreciated Bill Maher’s vocal denouncing of Republican led Anti-French attitudes (Talking points, April 2007).
We had gathered many signatures and were about to ramp up our campaign when we saw last night’s episode of Real Time.
Jokes about French non-cleanliness are not only offensive to us, they perpetuate the worst kind of Anti-French stereotypes that flourished since 2003.
Unfortunately, we have no choice but to shut down our endeavour.
Yours sincerely,
…
I disagree with you on this one. Bill was insensetive and should have known better, but, it remains in his style to make his oneliners outrageous enough to be obvious that he is making a joke. Besides, his writers undoubtedly wrote the “joke” line anyway. Besides, I’ve heard make the same slanting jest about Southerners, Native Americans,Russians, Arabs, and Chinese. He always doubles back later with loving appreciation (except for Southerners). Let’s give him a break.
I really like Chris Mathews. He is very smart and does have a positive attitude towards France. The problem is that Chris seems short on knowledge about the facts when it comes to foreind issues like why France did not support the US invasion of Iraq. Until Chris can stand up to conservative and British “experts” who come on his show and outright lie, I would leave him off your list.
I keep thinking about “WHO” and the years leading up to Iraq through today. I keep concluding that a lot of normally pro-French persons were silenced by the radical right in the US. The couldn’t respond because the French Embassy didn’t supply people to the CNN, MSNBC, PBS circut who could provide answers. I only saw the French make its’ presence felt on C-SPAN! I guess that you can not blame Chris Mathews if the French made no effort to get on his, and others’, shows. If they did, and they were rejected, we should know about it.
Onced provided some ammo, Chris Mathews could make an excellent choice. But then, if Bill Maher already has regreated his comments, he will and be still a good choice too.
Give Bill Maher a chance. His original commentary during the height of French-bashing in Washington when it really mattered, is what counts, not his stereotype routine jokes (admittedly that one sucked) that are part of his act. Another American journalist who should be given credit for is Mark Shields. In an episode of CNN’s”Capital Gang”, commentators were asked their views of whether France deserved the flurry of French-bashing that was raging at the time, he simply answered “The French came to our aid when we needed them, and for me that’s good enough”.
Miquelon is a great webbsite with easy fonts to reference information. It needs to be used more and word of mouth is not enough. Maybe an ad in the NYT or LAT or on CNN or MSNBC. All these and, of course, the Canadian Networks.
Anyway, Miquelon should receive recognition for being a pioneer with a lot of courage and common sense.
Off subject, you need to add to your list of French-bashing resturants the following:
Brownies
Tulsa, OK
Owner detests France and all things French. Still uses “freedom fries” on his menu. For years he played bashing statements on the resturant’s window.
You could place the Rogers County (OK) chief judge who stiil wants to “Nuke” Paris on your nut list.
Congratulations for an EXCELLENT response! I am SOOO.. tired of idiots, particularily American, and their “comments” about WWII. I do wish these prople would get educated.
Marc, French-bashing may be down a bit, but, ignorance of France remains rampet. SuperFrenchie and you represent some blog effort but I doubt that it reaches much more than the “choir”. Academia seems mostly ambivelent or even relitively pro-French. The problem is that conservative, rightwing types tend to be rather ignorant in history, particularily non-American.
I think that your efforts on Leno and other “hollywood” types may be the only way we can penetrate closed minds. I might ask you to consider reaching out to other actors and actresses with French conections to work on the troublesome comics. Marc, you’ve got a lot of material and I think that there are a lot of potentially friendly people who would be impressed and persuaded.
Vive la France!! and God’s blessings and thanks to the Free French and those who also gave the ultimate sacrifice in taking their country back. Besides the Brits, I still consider France our allied and true friend!
Please find below a thoughtful and eloquent response by M Barry Farber. With kind permission.
==================================================
Dear Mr. Cormier,
Normally I wouldn’t respond to a complaint regarding one of my commentaries, but yours is so heartfelt and well-written and important I don’t dare let the sun come up again without getting back to you.
You left out the heroic French attempt along with their British allies above the Arctic Circle to prevent the Nazis from taking Northern Norway in April of 1940 and you gave only fleeting and indirect mention to my boyhood hero, General Jacques LeClerc who marched his forces north from Lake Chad in time to be useful in destroying the Nazi presence in North Africa.
If your mission is to fight anti-French feeling, you needn’t waste ammunition on me. You correctly diagnosed my quarrel as being with our president and not with France. During the war the British in their home island used to complain that the only trouble with the American soldiers is that they were overpaid, oversexed and over here. The Americans responded that the only thing wrong with the English soldiers was they were underpaid, undersexed and under Eisenhower. A nasty line, yes, but indicative of zero “anti-British feeling” just as my jape indicates no anti-French feeling.
France and America have one thing in common. We’re both so big that anything you say is probably true, and so is its opposite. We can’t live long enough to cite every act of heroism committed by Frenchmen during the occupation. Yet it’s true that within ten days of the fall of Paris a group of French businessmen approached the German command with a well-sculpted presentation on how the two parties could “cooperate” going forward! Many downed British and American fliers, resistance heroes and Jewish children were saved at the risk of the lives of their rescuers. Others were handed over to the Nazis for petty rewards.
I’ve never blamed the French for not extending the Maginot Line across the southern border of Belgium to the sea. Had I been in the French Parliament I’d probably have voted against the expense on grounds that if war came again, it would take the Germans months to take Belgium and that would give us plenty of time to put something in place. And I can’t swear I’d have stood up and excoriated Gen. Maurice Gamelin for banning “radio” and relying on the good old World War 1 technique of having two motorcycle couriers zoom back and
forth to Paris from the front daily!
I choose not to dispute your contention that France owed its liberation, not to the Americans, but to the Allies! That’s a question of taste, and I respect yours. I remain proud of America’s contribution to the liberation of all western Europe, and your tribute to the French Underground and their usefulness if making D-Day successful are quite correct. You’re also correct that the Soviets were the major sacrificers and the major contributors to Nazi Germany’s destruction. If there’d never been “World War 11; only Germany against the Soviet Union, it would easily have been the biggest war in history. Too bad our Soviet ally so soon had to emulate our common enemy.
Your population featured heroes AND collaborateurs. So would ours, if fortune had placed America under the Nazi heel. Cowardice and opportunism know no nationality or ethnicity.
It always rankled me a little (but not much!) that Norway, Denmark and Holland; maybe Belgium, too, instinctively thought and think of the British as their liberators. They had no hesitation thanking the British in word, deed, lyric and melody. And something tells me that if an editor as sentient as you had been in charge of that famous sixtieth anniversary commemoration booklet of the Liberation of Paris, then “Paris se libere” might not have been the dominant mantra and the Allies might have been mentioned by name prior to page 50.
Certainly I apologize for using the phrase “rag-tag” to describe the Free French forces. You’re correct; anyone who stepped forward to fight Hitler deserves better. Having apologized, let me tell you how prim, trim and “regular” those Free French forces were compared to our American revolutionaries who (with your help!) gave us an independent nation. And I’ll never quit praising the REALLY rag-tag Partisans AND Chetniks of wartime Yugoslavia who may have done more to beat Hitler than D-Day in causing the Germans so much trouble in the Balkans in early 1941 that Hitler’s attack on the Soviet Union, originally planned for March of that year, was launched, against the advice of Hitler’s generals who wanted to wait a year, in late June — too late to guarantee the fall of Moscow before the Great Ally Russian Winter came to the rescue.
By the way, I’ve given up trying to convince my only-normally-interested American friends, that St. Pierre and Michelon are NOT “French-Canadian” but FRANCE ITSELF, real and incarnate. I love it. It makes me feel comfortably closer to the great nation whence you came.
Congratulations for an excellent rebuttal Miquelon!
Indeed, some people need to go back to school to re-learn or be re-taught history.
I agree with Fred Orth — French bashing may no longer be at its peak but ignorance or wilfull ignorance of France still abounds.
How extraordinary that there are individuals like Farber who are prepared to revise historical facts to justify their bigotted existence.
I agree. If anyone here deserves the Légion d’Honneur, it’s Marc. I’ll gladly sign a petition, or send a letter to the government myself.
Sadly though, I doubt they’d give a Legion of Honor for actions against French-bashing. Sarko is too busy sucking up to the United States, he’d be afraid to piss them off.
Hello. If you want more Hollywood stars to help educate the American people about France, then you should ask Salma Hayek and her husband to help you out. Even though Salma Hayek is from Mexico and a naturalized American citizen, her husband is a citizen of France. He should know plenty about the history of his own country. Why don’t you contact his company and ask them to do this?
Great reply from Miquelon.org
Do you have any link to this source “Published in Paris in 1945 by the ‘Information & Education Division’ of the US Occupation Forces.”? so i can use that as well. Thanks.
Elaine, that would be a great idea, there are many Hollywood celebrities who are pro-French, but unfortunately they are already typecast by the right-wing French haters.
Miquelon (13), typecasting is inevitable but getting the word out there again and again can only help get the truth out. Having some highly recognized actors and journalists actively proclaiming the positives about France and the French can uplift the dialogue.
Johnny Depp lives in France with his girlfriend and their two children. He also has French ancestry. Richard Belzer who is on the television show Law And Order SVU lives in France part-time and he also speaks French. His co-worker Christopher Meloni is half French-Canadian on his mother’s side and half Italian on his father’s side. Have you thought about Ellen DeGeneres? She is part French. Raquel Welch was married to a French citizen for ten years before they were divorced in 1990. Perhaps she still knows him and her former in-laws and has friends living in France. Celine Dion is in the music business and she is very popular. Since she is from Quebec, Canada she might also be able to help change people’s ignorant opinions.
Here is another suggestion that may be of help to you. Wikipedia has a huge list of Franco-Americans and the people on this list could help out. Angelina Jolie is on it and you know how popular she is. Charlize Theron, Brett Favre, Shia Lebouf, Jessica Alba, Anthony Bourdain, Minka Kelly and Jessica Biel are on it. Alec Baldwin and his brothers are on it and so are the Quaid brothers. Please take a look at it.
Now now now … I’d rather not say anything about that last post, except that I could never accept anything without having SuperFrenchie nominated as well.
Yes Elaine, the old version of the site had a “famous” Franco-Americans listed, I’m sorry I didn’t add that content on the new site. I’ll see if I can locate this data on a backup drive.
I must agree that, despite strongly disagreeing at many levels with SF and his views, his work against French-bashing has been unique, excellent, selfless, and devoted. I would gladly endorse him.
SuperFrenchie and Miquelon both bring a smile to my face. Obvious devotion to a just cause. Long, hard hours maintaining the highest ethics. Really makes you feel that there is hope for humanity. Don’t know either one, but, you have to love them for their sacrifice.
American security and American foreign policy have always rested on this hard fact: we cannot permit a hostile power on the Atlantic Ocean. We can not be secure if we are threatened on the Atlantic. That’s why we went to war in 1917; that’s why we had to fight in 1944. And that’s why, as a matter of common sense and the national interest, President Roosevelt declared (November 11, 1941): “The defense of any territory under the control of the French Volunteer Forces (the Free French) is vital to the defense of the United States.”
If we apply this today then we come up with two scenarios:
Firstly the Atlantic – Now we can see why the USA will always support NATO and why it is prepared to spend to keep European military capability alive. It does this by paying some 22% for NATO. Thus the attack from the East will be defended in Europe and not allowed to arrive in the USA.
Secondly in the Pacific. Now we can see the absolute need for a weak and US influenced in some areas in Asia-Pacific, and foremost is in the Philippines as this gives them an entry point and secure base in Asia. Also the need for Taiwan becomes apparent as iot focusses Chinese aspirations on an island in Asia and reduces the USA to a secondary issue.
This is forward defence with a vengeance and now we can trace it back over many years. I have always believed there is absolutely nothing stupid about the USA. They are not the dominant power in the world because they lack strategic thinking and intelligence.
One week after French commandos took action rescuing hostages from Somalian pirates, the French navy surrendered to Somalian pirates and children on a South Park episode titled Fatbeard that aired on April, 22.
The glorious Americans of course killed all the pirates at the end of the episode at the behest of the cowardly Europeans.
Quote from the episode (they were French so of course they surrendered immediately)
Americans really live in a fantasy world. Purely by choice apparently.
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