The city of Denver is showing its employees a diversity training video that portrays a white man as a narrow-minded buffoon — triggering allegations of “institutional racism” against Anglos.

“Right now, their diversity program is racially motivated against white males,” said Dennis Supple, a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning mechanic who has worked for the city 1 1/2 years.

The video, titled “Laughing Matters — Think About It,” is meant to show employees how humor at the expense of others diminishes respect in the workplace.

The character who breaks all the rules is Billy, a white, blue-collar worker who’s a racist, sexist goofball.

From the Rocky Mountain News:

Denver diversity-training video said to ‘hammer the white guy’
By Daniel Chacon

Originally published 07:11 p.m., November 23, 2007
Updated 07:17 p.m., November 23, 2007

The city of Denver is showing its employees a diversity training video that portrays a white man as a narrow-minded buffoon — triggering allegations of “institutional racism” against Anglos.

“Right now, their diversity program is racially motivated against white males,” said Dennis Supple, a heating, ventilating and air-conditioning mechanic who has worked for the city 1 1/2 years.

The video, titled “Laughing Matters — Think About It,” is meant to show employees how humor at the expense of others diminishes respect in the workplace.

The character who breaks all the rules is Billy, a white, blue-collar worker who’s a racist, sexist goofball.

In one scene Billy is told that another employee named Carlos can’t do anything because he’s waiting for supplies.

“What’s his problem?” Billy asks. “He can’t sell breakfast burritos without the supplies or he takes a siesta?”

Supple said the video violates his civil rights and that he’s considering taking the equity in his house to file a lawsuit to stop the city from showing it.

“Diversity, to me, doesn’t mean hammer the white guy,” Supple said. “Diversity means you have respect for everyone, regardless of their race, their gender, their religion, their sexual orientation.”

Councilman Charlie Brown, who is white, took offense by the video, too.

“To just target the white race, I don’t think that’s fair,” he said.

Brown said he wrote a letter to Mayor John Hickenlooper and the city’s diversity manager, Susan Maxfield, after Supple, who lives in his southeast Denver district, called and complained.

“How can city employees have meaningful discussion after seeing only a Caucasian male making insensitive comments?” Brown wrote. “All ethnic groups have a role in changing behavior across the board.”

Brown said Friday that the video perpetuates a stereotype.

“The only thing left out was the white plumber’s crack when (the actor) bends over to work,” he said.

Maxfield, who is on vacation, was unavailable for comment.

Kathy Maloney, spokeswoman for the Career Service Authority, said the video is part of a one- to three-hour facilitated discussion.

“The video itself is scheduled for updating in either 2008 or 2009, so (Supple’s) input would certainly be taken into consideration for the next video,” she said.

Maloney noted the last thing to appear on the 8-minute video is this phrase: “Remember, Billy could be anyone.”

She also said the teaching guide tells facilitators to “ensure participants recognize this video does not highlight or target any particular individual or group.”

“It’s meant to represent anyone who could (use) inappropriate humor in the workplace,” she said.

Supple said he raised concerns about the video during his diversity-training class, but that they were brushed off. When he met with Maxfield, Supple said she told him it was “no big deal.”

“If you portrayed a black woman (or a Hispanic or a homosexual) in that manner, there’d be hell to pay,” Supple said. “But it’s OK for them to portray a white man in this manner because you put down one little (disclaimer) at the end of the (video) that says, ‘Remember, anybody could be Billy.’ That’s a bunch of bull.”

The video, developed by the city’s Diversity Advisory Committee in collaboration with Channel 8, the city’s television channel, won second place in 2005 for Instruction/Training from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors.

“Congratulations,” Brown said sarcastically, “but it didn’t win any awards in my book.”

Joel Anderson is the California State Assemblyman for the 77th district. Joel appeared on the Nov. 24th, 2007 show to speak about the ‘Defunding Iran’ legislation that he was able to get signed and SB777, the banning of ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ legislation.

Presidential candidate and Congressman Duncan Hunter goes to bat for the American service member and the veterans!

The ranking Republican on the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to the chairman of the Motion Picture Association of America today calling the new Iraq war film “Redacted” shameful in its view of American soldiers.

From The Washington Times:

Military committee member slams war film

By Sara A. Carter
November 21, 2007

Rep. Duncan Hunter (CA-52)

Rep. Duncan Hunter, California Republican, sent a scathing letter regarding Brian De Palma’s new Iraq war film to MPAA Chairman Dan Glickman asking that he not forget that there are heroes who have sacrificed their lives for the United States and Iraqi people.

“Unfortunately, Brian De Palma’s new movie, ‘Redacted,’ which opened in several theaters this week, portrays American service personnel in Iraq as uncontrollable misfits and criminals,” Mr. Hunter stated in his letter to Mr. Glickman. “While incidents of criminal behavior by members of our military should never be ignored, the isolated incident on which this film is based negatively portrays American service personnel and misrepresents their collective efforts in Iraq.”

Mr. Glickman, a former Democratic congressman and agriculture secretary, could not be reached for comment.

The Department of Defense, which often assists film-makers with military-related stories, did not participate in the making of Mr. De Palma’s film.

Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen Lainez said, “We don’t comment on productions with which we have no involvement.”

Other military officials worry that the film could be used as propaganda against troops in the region and incite violence against them from Islamist groups.

Mr. De Palma’s film, which is based on a case of American soldiers raping a teenage girl and killing her family, portrays troops as callous to the plight of civilians in the war zone, critics state. The real-life incident in Mahmoudiya on which the film is based has resulted in several courts-martial, lengthy prison terms and a possible federal execution.
This week, while U.S. troops were handing out toys to Iraqi children they were attacked by a suicide bomber, killing three U.S. soldiers and three Iraqi children.

“This incident, while tragic, demonstrates the goodness and generosity of our nation’s military, and its continued mission in Iraq,” Mr. Hunter said, reminding Mr. Glickman and Mr. De Palma of the continuing sacrifices U.S. troops have made.

Mr. Hunter’s letter isn’t the first criticism of Mr. De Palma’s film. Some film critics have noted that the director’s own opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq gets in the story’s way and makes it impossible for him to live up to his other legendary pictures, such as “Scarface,” “Carrie” and “The Untouchables.” It has scored only 46 percent “positive” reviews from the nation’s film critics at the Rotten Tomatoes roundup site.

“The film intentionally fails to show or give any indication of the more than 3 million inoculations administered by American forces, the construction of medical clinics and schools, as well as the construction of other important infrastructure,” the letter went on to state. “Additionally, the film’s negative depiction of our military blatantly ignores the many acts of heroism performed by our soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors in Iraq.”

Mr. De Palma, however, defended his movie and its long-term reception at the Toronto Film Festival in September, telling the Canadian Press that “all this criticism and attack comes because that’s what’s politically correct at the time … Now a movie that was reviled when it came out — like ‘Scarface’ — is considered some kind of iconic classic.”

We are gaining momentum and organizing strategic protests across the country.

Boycottredacted.com is now releasing the show dates and times for Landmark Theaters to facilitate a show of force. We are asking all personnel who have signed on to the petition to locate a Landmark Theater in your area and rally others for “The Surge”. Here is a list of the release locations and times to muster for the protests.

Boycott Redacted organizes “The Surge”!

We are gaining momentum and organizing strategic protests across the country.

Boycottredacted.com is now releasing the show dates and times for Landmark Theaters to facilitate a show of force. We are asking all personnel who have signed on to the petition to locate a Landmark Theater in your area and rally others for “The Surge”. Here is a list of the release locations and times to muster for the protests.

The first round of releases are set for Friday November 16th in the following cities:

* Los Angeles, CA: The Landmark 10850 West Pico at Westwood Blvd. Directly next door to Barnes & Noble 6:05 8:20 10:35 – Picketers assembling out in front of the theater starting at 5:00 PM for the 6:05 8:20 10:35 showings
* Palo Alto, CA: Aquarius 2 Theater 430 Emerson Street Palo Alto, CA 94301 (650) 266-9260 2:15, 4:30, 7:30, 9:40 – Picketers assembling out in front of the theater starting at 3:30 PM for the 4:30, 7:30, 9:40 showings
* San Francisco, CA: Embarcadero Center Cinema One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level San Francisco, CA 94111 12:10, 2:25, 4:45, 7:15, 9:35 – Picketers assembling out in front of the theater starting at 4:00 PM for the 4:45, 7:15, 9:35 showings
* Washington, DC: E Street Cinema 555 11th Street NW Washington, DC 20004(1:10 3:20 5:30) 7:40 10:10 – Picketers assembling out in front of the theater starting at 4:30 PM for the 5:30, 7:40, 10:10 showings
* Chicago, IL: Landmark’s Century Center Cinema 2828 N Clark St. Clark & Diversy 4:20, 7:10, 9:40 – Picketers assembling out in front of the theater starting at 3:30 PM for the 4:20, 7:10, 9:40 showings
* Boston Area Cambridge, MA: Kendall Square Cinema One Kendall Square Cambridge, MA 02139 4:40, 7:25, 9:30 – Picketers assembling out in front of the theater starting at 3:30 PM for the 4:40, 7:25, 9:30 showings
* New York, NY: Sunshine Cinema 143 East Houston Street on the Lower East Side 11:40, 1:45, 3:45, 6:10, 8:10, 10:10, 11:30 – Picketers assembling out in front of the theater starting at 3:00 PM for the 3:45, 6:10, 8:10, 10:10, 11:30 showings
* Philadelphia, PA: Ritz at the Bourse 400 Ranstead Street Philadelphia, PA 5:10, 7;25, 9:40 – Picketers assembling out in front of the theater starting at 4:00 PM for the 5:10, 7;25, 9:40 showings

A second round of releases are scheduled for next week. We need boots on the ground in all of these locations to send a message loud and clear to Brian De Palma and Mark Cuban that their treasonous actions will not be tolerated!

So how can you participate?

1. You can go onto our website and sign the online petition.
2. Email your contacts the Boycottredacted.com link.
3. Then mobilize other patriotic Americans to protest in front of Landmark theatres when the film is being shown. (See Boycottredacted.com for the locations and show times.)

This article appeared in the New York Times today. Thanks to Judith Paixao for sending it to me.

The career centers’ dedication is this Thursday, Nov. 15th, 2007 at 0830. Chandler’s Watch will be there in force to capture the days events on camera. Standby for a tour of the facility and you will get to meet some of America’s finest that will be attending the first class!

Wounded, and Sharing War Stories

By GERRI HIRSHEY
Published: November 11, 2007
SOUTHPORT

SOME wounded soldiers can and will assess the human costs of war and tell us civilians, so distant from the fray, what it is really like in Iraq and Afghanistan. Cpl. Phillip Levine, now medically retired from the Marine Corps, says it depends on the marine. “Some just can’t or won’t talk about it. I don’t mind. Sometimes it helps.”

This is why he and two fellow marines have agreed to speak on Sunday morning in a Veterans Day forum at Trinity Episcopal Church here. They come at the invitation of the Rev. Nicholas T. Porter, who has previously had imams, rabbis and Richard W. Murphy, an assistant secretary of state in the Reagan administration, address his congregants.

Father Porter, who holds two advanced degrees in Middle East studies, expects that the program will be as well attended and as passionately engaging as the previous ones. He began integrating hot-button forums on Islam, politics and the war in Iraq with traditional worship in Southport as part of what he calls “a Lazarus ministry,” to revive a dwindling congregation. Since he arrived in 2005, membership has more than tripled to more than 300.

“People are thirsty for real news,” he said. “They’re keen to inquire more deeply beyond managed information. Americans feel a huge distance from events in the Middle East. And they want to be able to ask questions directly, of someone who truly knows.”

Also fielding the congregants’ queries on Sunday will be Cpl. Joshua Frey, who was hit in the face with shrapnel and suffered a traumatic brain injury, and Will Pearsall, a rangy, 6-foot-8 staff sergeant who was shot in the stomach by a sniper aiming for a gap in his ill-fitting body armor. Corporal Levine was shot at close range while doing a back sweep — rechecking homes for insurgents — in Falluja during Operation Phantom Fury, one of the bloodiest engagements of late 2004.

“The guy that shot me was just a few feet away,” said Corporal Levine, a Bronx native who left film school at New York University to enlist just before 9/11. “It was Dec. 23, the last firefight of that operation,” he said in a phone interview from San Diego. He recently had his seventh operation at the Naval Medical Center there to repair the shattered nerves in his shoulder.

Among them, the three marines have four Purple Hearts and a host of scars and disabilities. And in January, all three will be in the inaugural class of a new training program for wounded soldiers. The Center for Careers in Media is currently taking shape in a warehouse on a film studio lot north of San Diego, near Camp Pendleton and its medical facilities.

Financed by individual and corporate donations and sanctioned by the Marine Corps, the 10-week program is administered by the nonprofit Wounded Marine Career Foundation. The training will prepare wounded soldiers for a second career in film, video, sound design, graphics and photojournalism.

Courses will be taught by more than 30 film industry professionals; graduates will receive camera equipment, computers and software — some of it modified to accommodate those with disabilities — as well as union membership and job placement. The San Diego SWAT Team, which trains on the film lot, will work with the students on video and forensics training. “A lot of people go into law enforcement after the military,” Corporal Levine said. “With this, soldiers with disabilities won’t be shut out of that option if they have skills in videography and forensics work.”

The center is the brainchild of two Trinity congregants, Judith Ann Paixao and her husband, Kevin A. Lombard, a documentary filmmaker. The pair first spent time with wounded marines at the suggestion of a hospital worker, intending to make a documentary on how they were adjusting to their new lives.

“But I realized two things early on,” Mr. Lombard said. “First, it wasn’t our story to tell. It was the soldiers’. And it was clear that marines are most comfortable talking with one another. Why not teach them basic skills, give them cameras and let them document their own experiences?”

Corporal Levine, who has worked closely with the couple for the past year to help start the center, says he thinks that the program can also serve as a kind of therapy: “We’ve found that guys who can’t even talk to doctors or psychiatrists are finally able to put what they’re going through in words — as long as other marines are running the camera.”

A short video, “I Love My Scars,” filmed by Mr. Lombard and Corporal Levine, delivers eloquent, searing testimony by some remarkable young men. It has served as a compelling fund-raising tool for Ms. Paixao and Mr. Lombard, who have spent most of the last year shuttling among Connecticut, the Pentagon, Quantico and Camp Pendleton to get the program approved by the military and secure private funds.

Ms. Paixao, a former real estate developer, has “discovered a whole new set of crazy skills,” including the ability to woo military leaders like Gen. Paul X. Kelley, the retired Marine Corps commandant and member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as board members. Alongside contractors and marines, Ms. Paixao has also been helping retrofit the warehouse with wider doorways for wheelchairs.
“Before I met Judith and Kev, I didn’t really think of a future or a career,” Corporal Levine said. “I just thought from surgery to surgery.”

He has physical therapy five times a week, and recently found out that he will need an eighth operation. “It’s O.K.,” he said. “The shoulder could be a problem with camera work, but I’m most interested in editing.”

On Sunday, Father Porter expects to offer prayers of thanksgiving for these service members’ returning from “a highly corrosive environment.” He said he would be joined by many parishioners who have friends and relatives stationed in the Middle East. He and his wife, Dorothy, have three nephews who have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan. One came home recently to recover from burns suffered when gas tanks exploded, and is now back on active duty.

“I understand these soldiers in almost a sacramental sense,” Father Porter said. “These soldiers are us. They fought. But our nation is fighting now. Our nation is still being wounded for years to come.
“The way these soldiers understand life after this war — and how they are treated — is how life will be for this nation. And we would do well to listen to what they have to say.”

Corporal Levine and his buddies will continue to bear witness, and forge new lives. “I just can’t wait to get going,” he said, looking forward to a time when weakened nerves and limbs will be augmented by the larger power of the lens.

E-mail: conn@nytimes.com

This was written by Margret Hunter, wife of Capt. Duncan Hunter USMC.

“If you enjoy your freedom, thank a Vet.”  I read this and can barely hold back the tears.  I feel that, because I am a military wife and I know exactly what it means.

It is Veterans Day, and for so many, it is just another long weekend, a day off from work.

It is Veterans Day.  On this day our every thought should be remembering those who so bravely fought for the very freedom we enjoy.  For every American, this day should be about educating oneself and others on why we celebrate this national holiday.  On this day we are to express gratitude to those who continue to give up their every comfort and leave their family homes to protect the country they hold so dear.  These men and women in uniform are the reason why America is and always will be known as the greatest nation on earth.

Not a day goes by when I don’t do or hear something that reinforces the respect I already hold for those who put their lives on the line, and on a daily basis carry out selfless acts for their country and every American.  For me, simply entering a military base or going to the commissary can be an incredibly patriotic experience.

As a military wife, I cherish every moment of my husband’s willingness to share with me his experiences during his tours of duty.  They are all memories a fighting man, a veteran of war.

My husband is Artillery Captain Duncan Hunter, of the Marine Corps currently serving his third tour of duty in the Middle East since 9/11.  He, like so many others, made a split-second decision to become a part of the great American fighting force against terrorism.   I can only imagine the amount of fear and intimidation that came with having to show that you are strong enough to stand along-side those who already proudly wear the uniform.    There is a history of military service in the Hunter family.  Duncan’s grandfather, Robert O. Hunter was an Artillery officer during World War II, and his father, Congressman Duncan Hunter an Army Ranger during Vietnam.

These men were all instrumental in their respective war efforts and in their own way helped shape the course of our nation.  They served with a profound respect for other veterans and for the military leaders of our nation.  They shared a deep love for our country and for the principles it has always stood for:  faith, family, freedom and individual responsibility.

So many fought and died so that others can live in enduring freedom.  There is no greater sacrifice than laying down your life for another.

“Remember those who have served and those who have fallen – their names are chiseled on the roll call of America’s heroes.”  General James T. Conway, U.S. Marine Corps.

God Bless our Veterans.

Margaret Hunter

Pat Dollard is a former Hollywood manager that films true-to-life documentaries on the war in Iraq. Pat has been featured on the Rush Limbaugh show. Pat appeared on our Marine Corps Birthday show to wish his Marines a happy birthday on Nov. 10th, 2007.

Judith and Kevin are the founders of the Wounded Marine Career Foundation that teaches wounded Marines job skills in the media field.  Judith and Kevin appeared on the Nov. 3rd, 2007 show and then again on the Marine Corps Birthday show on Nov. 10th, 2007.