Thursday, November 5, 2009
Loretta Ross’s article “Birthers and Birchers: Hiding Behind Stars and Stripes” is a malicious caricature of the John Birch Society and it contains malicious innuendo that the JBS is an organization with “nativist, racist tendencies.”
It is obvious that Ms. Ross has no genuine factual knowledge about JBS beliefs or its membership characteristics.
For example:
(1) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that hundreds of JBS members are African-American (or other minorities)?
(2) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that the JBS Speakers Bureau has included such members of African-American OR latino descent as Rev. Steven L. Craft, Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson, Andy Ramirez, Wilton Alston, Sam Antonio, Julia Brown, Lola Belle Holmes and Gerald Kirk?
(3) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that JBS member Rev. Delmar Dennis infiltrated the White Knights of the KKK of Mississippi and Rev. Dennis played a major role in the convictions of several Klan members. After Rev. Dennis surfaced as an FBI informant and testified, he was hired by the JBS as a Coordinator for the Society.
(4) And how does Ms. Ross explain the fact that the famous African-American writer and intellectual, George S. Schuyler, was a JBS member?
(5) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that the former Senior Editor of the Birch Society magazine, William Norman Grigg, is of Mexican ancestry. Why would he be interested in working for a “nativist” or “racist” organization?
(6) How does Ms. Ross explain the fact that over the past 50 years the JBS has been endorsed by such prominent Americans as shown on the list appearing below? Does Ms. Ross think these individuals would be receptive to “racist” or “nativist” appeals?
*lawyers and legal scholars such as M.T. Phelps (former Chief Justice of the AZ Supreme Court; Clarence E. Manion, former Dean of the Notre Dame Law School)
*Hollywood actors like Walter Brennan, John Wayne, Zasu Pitts, and Adolphe Menjou
*famous novelists, authors, columnists, such as Taylor Caldwell and George Schuyler
*prominent politicians such as Charles Edison (former Gov. of New Jersey), Meldrim Thompson (former Gov. of NH), J. B. Lee (former Gov. of UT), and, Congressmen John Rousselot, Edgar W. Hiestand, Thomas H. Werdel, and James B. Utt (CA), Ron Paul (TX), Howard Buffet (NE), James Simpson Jr. (IL), Kit Clardy (MI)
*CEO’s of major corporations and prominent officials of the National Association of Manufacturers
*former FBI Special Agents such as Dan Smoot and W. Cleon Skousen
*former FBI informants such as Matt Cvetic, Delmar Dennis, Julia Brown, Lola Belle Holmes, Gerald W. Kirk, and Ruth Gordienko
*former high-ranking military officers such as Brig. Gen. Bonner Fellers, Brig. Gen. Richard B. Moran; Lt. Gen. Edward M. Almond, Brig. Gen. William L. Lee, Lt. Gen. George E. Stratemeyer, Maj. Gen. Robert Blake, Lt. Gen. Sumter L. Lowry, Maj. Gen. Charles A. Willoughby, and Lt. Gen. Charles B. Stone; Col Laurence E. Bunker; Vice Admiral C.S. Freeman, Rear Admiral Paulus P. Powell, and Vice Admiral T.G.W. Settle.
*prominent U.S. diplomats and government officials including: U.S. Ambassador Spruille Braden, U.S. State Department historian Bryton Barron, and IRS Commissioner T. Coleman Andrews
*religious figures and editors of religious journals including Cardinal Cushing of Boston, Richard Ginter, Francis E. Fenton, and Mormon Church leader Ezra Taft Benson
So — in view of all this data, I am curious how Ms. Ross arrived at her conclusion that the JBS has “racist” or “nativist” tendencies?
Posted by: Ernie Lazar