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Saturday, August 28
Connie Wilson: Andre Heinz Speaks in Bettendorf
by
Linda Thieman
on Sat 28 Aug 2004 05:56 AM CDT
Andre Heinz Speaks in Bettendorf
Andre Heinz in Bettendorf
By Connie Wilson
Andre Heinz, the thirty-four-year-old step-son of John Kerry came to town on Wednesday night, August 25, at 7:00 p.m., and addressed a crowd of about 100 citizens gathered in the upstairs meeting room of the Bettendorf Public Library. His opening remarks were that his mother always felt “grounded” when she returned to Iowa, and that there was a rainbow outside that matched the building’s color scheme: observant statements, but not particularly political statements. The rainbow was caused by the all-day off-and-on rain the area experienced on this overcast August day.
Andre’s 31-year-old brother, Chris, was not present, and the oldest Heinz son, John IV, has steadfastly refused to have anything to do with the Kerry campaign. He lives a quiet life with his wife and daughter in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, working as a blacksmith and iron worker artisan (he trained, for a while, at Colonial Williamsburg) and as the founder of the private Buddhist Tinicum Art and Science School, in Ottsville, Pennsylvania, which has, among its student enrollment, some troubled youths. John IV is the father of Teresa Kerry’s only grandchild, but Mrs. Kerry has been quoted as saying that it was soon after her grand-daughter’s birth in 1996 that her eldest son “began to hate me.” There is little information available beyond that, and John IV isn’t giving interviews.
Andre Heinz graduated from Georgetown with a degree in English and then studied at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Science. Therefore, many of his remarks concerned the environment. He works as an environmental consultant in Stockholm for NaturalStep. It had been announced that, upon arrival, Andre, would first tour the assembled crowd, meeting and greeting, but that turned out to be wrong, as he took the podium (after a brief introduction) and, with a combination of insouciance and savoir faire said that his speech would be addressing three basic topics:
1) The Kerry/Edwards plan for jobs for the middle class.
2) The Kerry/Edwards plan for sensible, affordable health care.
3) How our country can better invest in science and technology.
It was probably just as well that young Andre meandered off-topic with humorous asides, as, while certainly important topics, the three outlined above - which he intermittently addressed - can certainly be yawners when voters meet late on a week-night after a long day on the job.
After announcing this three-pronged speech plan, however, he wandered a bit (by his own admission) and became bogged-down in the details of the Kerry/Edwards Health Care plan. (This sort of thing usually does not play well to assembled masses; it reminded me a bit of the O.J. trial, that smothered its audience with facts to the point that they could not absorb any more DNA evidence and acquitted a man the nation still thinks is guilty.)
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Monday, August 9
Connie Wilson: Intrepid Reporter Covers Dubuque Rally for Blog for Iowa (Aug. 3, 2004)
by
Linda Thieman
on Mon 09 Aug 2004 04:35 AM CDT
Connie Wilson: Intrepid Reporter
Covers Dubuque Rally for
Blog for Iowa (Aug. 3, 2004)
Young Dems Amanda Burkert (left) and
Stacey Wilson (right) attend the Kerry rally
in Dubuque on August 3, excited about
the appearance by Dave Grohl of the
Foo Fighters. Amanda was interviewed
by local Channel 7 about the significance
(if any) of rock stars campaigning for
their favorite candidates while the girls and
Stacey's mom (Connie) waited for four hours.
By Connie Wilson
When I received the tickets to attend John Kerry’s Dubuque, Iowa, appearance on August 3, 2004, from MoveOn.org, I made the mistake of telling the daughter that Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters would be appearing with him. Even though Kerry and crowd were scheduled to hit our home town area the very same night, nothing would do but that we take best friend Amanda Burkert and hit the road for Dubuque.
What follows is an hour-by-hour re-telling of the successful rally, which, they say, drew 4,700 people. (The fire marshall quit letting people in to the Center after about 1,000, so I imagine this is the estimate from the number of tickets pre-printed off the internet or collected at the door.)
It is the first day of school for the daughter and her companion, Amanda (and it is only August 3rd!) but United Township High School in East Moline, Illinois, has gone to a year-round schedule this year. The girls sleep all the way to Dubuque.
3:00 p.m. – We arrive, park, and walk to the venue for the rally, which is the Dubuque Five Flags Center, changed from the outdoor Watchtower Plaza. Button-vendors approach us. I agree to pay $10 for 3 buttons, but only the “clean” ones. I select “John-John 2004” for myself. One girl selects “Cute Chicks Go for Edwards” while the other picks “If You Can Read This, You Aren’t the President.” However, there are other more “colorful” buttons (one reads BU—SH__) which I refuse to purchase for the under-age girls, who promptly whip out their OWN money and buy them, anyway, as well as the “A--es of Evil” one. (We won’t go there).
3:30 p.m. – It turns out that we have been waiting at the wrong door. It works out well for Amanda, who is interviewed by Channel 7 regarding her opinion of rock artists campaigning for their favorite candidates. Amanda is wearing pink glasses that make her look like she is auditioning for a remake of “Return from the Black Lagoon.” They are thick, goggle-like, and pink plastic. We have been kidding her about these glasses all day. She still looks darling! The girls are as cute as buttons, and this has not escaped the young reporter’s attention. (Nobody wants to ask me anything.) When asked why she is in attendance, Amanda says, “My friend’s mother made me come!” (And I had predicted a 9:00 p.m. return home, while we really don’t get there until 11:00 p.m. on a school night! Sorry, Amanda’s mom.)
4:00 p.m. -We begin chatting with those around us, who are now beginning to pass out. (“MEDIC! MEDIC!”) I am not kidding about this passing out thing. The first one goes down at 4:10 p.m. There are many people in wheelchairs, being wheeled by relatives, and the high humidity, high temperatures, threat of thunderstorms, and tornado warnings contribute to a really miserable in-line experience. I learn that the young couple behind us have driven from Oelwein, Iowa; that the woman from Savannah, Illinois pushing the elderly woman in the wheelchair has the only “local” in tow who is actually from Dubuque.
more »
Monday, August 2
Connie Wilson: The Ladykillers and the Beltway Crowd - A Review
by
Linda Thieman
on Mon 02 Aug 2004 04:14 AM CDT
"The LadyKillers" and the Beltway Crowd: A Review
By Connie Corcoran Wilson, M.S.
Tom Hanks has a new film out, The Ladykillers, in which he portrays Goldthwaite Higgenson Door, PhD., the leader of a misfit band of criminals intent on pulling off a robbery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. I couldn’t help but notice that some of the gang of miscreants reminded me of a certain Washington, D.C. bunch of Beltway insiders. In his role as the deceitful, duplicitous, but oh-so-cultured leader of the pack, the star would be analogous to our own VP Richard “Dick” (emphasis on “Dick”) Cheney. Quote: “I will take care of the matter as only a highly-educated classicist could.”
There is a character called “Lump” in the film. I’ll let you use your imagination on that one. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out which of the White House bunch is “Lump.” Lump seems to have a soft heart. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be much else going on in his cranium. Lump is just “there,” recruited because the gang might need some brute strength. Even the Professor says of him, “To look at Lump, you might wonder what he will be able to offer to our enterprise.” (What, indeed?) At one point in the film, Hanks berates Lump, saying, “You stupid boy. You very, very extremely stupid boy.”
The audience kind of likes Lump, though, just as you like a small, stupid puppy. But Lump is definitely not too bright. However, it is Lump who, at one point, suggests that they bribe Mr. Gudge (Stephen Root, who played Milton in “Office Space”), the casino boss who has just fired the “inside man,” as played by Marlon Wayans, (the least likeable of the Wayans brothers). In other words, Lump occasionally has his “even-a-blind-pig-finds-an-acorn-once-in-a-while” moment(s).
The plot has Professor Goldthwaite and his accomplices renting Mrs. Marva Munson’s rooming house as a base of operations to rob the public blind by tunneling to the nearby Bandit Queen gambling casino to rob the counting room. (Gee! This sounds very familiar….robbing the trusting public for personal gain….but lying to them about what is really going on. Hmmmmmm. Where have I encountered this plot recently?)
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