The Valley's Not So Civil War [Libs vs Conservatives in Fresno/Central Valley]

Los Angeles Times ^ | February 5, 2006 | Mark Arax

[Jim Robinson]

Ever since the twin towers came crashing down and the cloud of jihad fogged the land, the crop dusters swooping low over the San Joaquin Valley had taken on a new menace. Even here, tucked away in the farm fields of middle California, fear had settled into the ground. Harvest to harvest, one year to the next, we watched tens of thousands of illegal migrants stream into our vineyards. Not a single suicide bomber was among them. Still, we could never be certain whether it was our vigilance or just dumb luck that kept us safe.

~~ snip ~~

One Friday evening, as the nation debated whether George Bush or John Kerry would better keep the terrorists at bay, I came across a curious piece of theater playing out along the busiest intersection in Fresno. A group of anti-war protesters, no more than 50 by a generous count, huddled on one corner of Blackstone and Shaw, waving "Honk For Peace" signs. On the opposite corner, an equal number of evangelical Christians and right-wing Jews held up U.S. and Israeli flags and shouted "Jew haters" at the peaceniks. It didn't occur to me, at least not that first day, to stop my car and ask how a quiet vigil against the war in Iraq could be seen as an act of anti-Semitism.

[notpoliticallycorewrecked]

We are under the impression that Peace Fresno is being bankrolled by Micheal Moore. They close up shop at 6:30 on the dot, making it appear that they are on a time-clock. .

[Al Simmons]

Thanks Jim. Very good article.

[patriciaruth]

What is 'very good' about this article?

It's a lot of local color wrapped around a very hard core liberal point of view.

[patriciaruth]

Hubby just pulled out a book he read once, In My Father's Name, written by Mark Arax.

It's about how Arax's father was murdered, probably by the Mafia.

So, despite his protestations to the contrary, his father subscribing to the Daily Worker and being a Unionist were not such benign historical items as this lib would have us believe, as he mentions these facts in passing in this long article that wraps all this cozy local color around a hard core anti-war and anti-Bush and anti-conservatives position in order to sell it better.

He sheds crocodile tears about the young men who died in Iraq and tries to talk their fathers out of believing in the war they died for and into hating the commander-in-chief who sent them to the war, while his own father was gunned down in Fresno in 1972, and he hasn't disavowed the communism or unionism that got his father mixed up with organized crime in some way.

The writer is a propagandist, nothing more.

[Al Simmons]

The author actually does a pretty good job (for a lib) writing about a patriotic point of view that he doesn't agree with.

A true miracle for a lib these days.

[semaj]

Thanks for the ping. An intersitng article, although the author is definitely left-leaning, he is unusual in his honest writing style.