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Chattering Classes Show How Disconnected They Are From Reality and Nature
If you blinked, you may have missed this weekend’s outrage cycle. The White House redesigned the Rose Garden, and journalists constantly on the lookout for a new outrage against the Trump administration were aghast at the audacity.
Of course, the most audacious thing President Trump has done is win, but I digress. First, there was the xenophobic attacks by a former NYT-reporter, Kurt Eichenwald. The New York Post reports,
“This is the first time I have been furious that @FLOTUS is a foreigner. She has no right to wreck our history,” he said.
The 59-year-old journalist followed it up with a second attack on her immigrant status in a seemingly now-deleted tweet preserved by Fox News.
“I still find it unbelievable that @FLOTUS who has only been a citizen since the middle of GW Bush’s second term had the audacity to wreck the Rose Garden, to pull up history dating back a lifetime,” he wrote.
“These trashy, evil, stupid people need to get out of our house. What GALL she has.”
It would have helped, of course, to read the actual press release about the garden overhaul:
The refreshment of the Rose Garden will return it to its original ‘62 footprint and help ensure it will thrive with improved infrastructure, better drainage, and a healthier environment for plantings that reduce the risk of leaf blight. In addition, the plans include improved Americans with Disabilities Act accessibility, utilities, and support for audiovisual and broadcasting needs that will allow for the continued enjoyment of the garden’s natural beauty and storied history.
“The very act of planting a garden involves hard work and hope in the possibility of a bright future,” said First Lady Melania Trump. “Preserving the history and beauty of the White House and its grounds is a testament to our nation’s commitment to the care of this landscape and our dedication to American ideals, safeguarding them for our children and their children for generations to come.”
The plan for renewal went through the approval process of the Committee for the Preservation of the White House (CPWH) and aligned with the recommendations of their sub-committee, Committee for the Preservation of the White House Gardens (CPWHG). As the honorary chairwoman of CPWH, the First Lady established CPWHG to ensure the standards of the Rose Garden are maintained and ensure scholarship and research went into its renewal. The project is supported by the National Park Service, who has cared for the White House and its grounds since 1933, and funded with private donations.
Please click HERE to view the full Rose Garden landscape report.
But the attacks I found most interesting were along these lines:
Here is the colorful, happy Rose Garden under Obama, and here is Melania's unveiling of the new garden, entirely devoid of color or joy. pic.twitter.com/j9cNXC63tC
— Jennifer Wright (@JenAshleyWright) August 22, 2020
My fellow Ladybrains co-host Lyndsey Fifield grew up landscaping with her parents’ business and she shared some thoughts:
My parents planted gardens for rich people and they ALWAYS then had to convince them “okay trust me in a few months THOSE are gonna bloom and THOSE are gonna be 3x the size they are now…” when they whined… all the IGNORANT sniping about the WH sounds JUST like that
— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) August 23, 2020
A major spine of our homeschool philosophy (Charlotte Mason) is nature study. One may wonder the point of it, but then you see things like this and the depths of our society’s illiteracy regarding nature becomes crystal clear. I started this nature journey ignorant as well (I’d like to think I knew that tulips wouldn’t bloom in August, but you never know), and have learned so much in such a short amount of time by just paying attention. This may be a moment to highlight the importance of nature study for kids and adults alike, and if I could make a suggestion: Create a 2021 “Calendar of Firsts.” Charlotte Mason explains the practice in one of her volumes,
It is a capital plan for the children to keep a calendar––the first oak-leaf, the first tadpole, the first cowslip, the first catkin, the first ripe blackberries, where seen, and when. The next year they will know when and where to look out for their favourites, and will, every year, be in a condition to add new observations. Think of the zest and interest, the object, which such a practice will give to daily walks and little excursions.
Charlotte Mason, Vol. 1 p. 54
If you’re looking to do something like this yourself or with your kids/grandkids, this is a great information site on the topic.
Published in General
It is beautiful! Melania has done a wonderful job with the restoration. The restoration addressed some drainage issues and spacing. Air circulation is critical for roses; without it, the leaves become unsightly with blight. Also, low-growing boxwood is a wonderful choice to surround the roses because it will cover the base of the plants, which are not much to look at. Roses bloom on new wood, so they are always stretching.
Thank you Bethany. I only saw a few, seemingly overwrought posts this weekend regarding the garden. Now I see what is happening; actual gardening and landscaping, followed by actual derangement.
Eichenwald probably would have liked Melania’s Rose Garden redesign way more if she had tossed some giant squids into the mix….
And you just KNOW that anything Michelle had done would get RAVES. You can’t compare 2 garden pictures anyway without having them at the same season, same level of maturity, etc. But then to realize that would take reporter maturity. If anyone comes across as ignorant and stupid, it is these idiots who don’t even want to tie their “outrage” to something technical that would have emerged and lent a molecule of credibility if they had just scratched the surface of the subject. But blind hate is okay if they do it. And bending the law on acceptance of immigrants goes out the window too. I’d rather have a new citizen deal with the garden than a dubiously promoted guy who never finished his first term as senator, never administered a state government, never seems to have passed a bar exam, never started a business, etc. in the oval office.
There’s so much hate in the objections. This cretinous Eichenwald fellow is so deranged that he calls a naturalized US citizen a foreigner.
It looks like Melania helped in a fine job. Good for her.
It seems as though you think reporters should do research before spouting off; that’s a lot of work don’tcha know?
“She has no right to wreck our history,” he said.
Oh, but it’s fine to tear down historic statues?
I knew there were never-Trumpers, but never-Melanias? That’s news to me. Then again, she hasn’t graced magazine covers anywhere near what Queen Michelle has . . .
MDS doesn’t have as many followers as TDS, but for the ones who have it, it’s real and it’s spectacular, and shines a light far more on their own personalities than on the First Lady’s.
Melania has pretty much stayed out of the spotlight, and has only done the normal First Lady PR duties. But because she’s Mrs. Donald Trump, the deranged types take the same attitude as with her husband, that nothing Melania does is any good, and there must be evil intentions behind her actions. Nina Burleigh — she of the Time Magazine article in 1999 saying she’d gladly smoke Bill Clinton’s cigar because he kept abortion legal — had this comment over on the NBC News website two months ago that on the MDS scale of 1 to 10, was roughly a 12:
This is the same sort of mindset that would steal a MAGA hat from a 7-year-old, and shows how easy it is for the left not simply to hate Trump, but to carry that over to hating his wife, any politicians who support Trump, and all the way down to demonizing Trump voters and their families.
I had this same thought.
Good point. Plus, I’d bet a dollar to a donut that he’s a part of the crowd that calls those opposed to illegal immigration racists and xenophobes.
Yes to all of above….plus it later crossed my mind (admitted warped by fairness) that it didn’t occur to this idiot that Euopeans have an -ahem- long history of garden design and care all by themselves (unlearned from the New World? In fact maybe it was the opposite unless native Americans used to grow rose gardens?) Melania doesn’t have to be an expert if she listens to people who are, but what a bizarre complaint. Meaning all those wealthy democrats with Mexican gardeners have a lot of ‘splaining to do.
Garden restorations are always controversial. Gardens — unlike buildings, sculptures, and other old things that people tend to restore — are composed of living organisms, and living organisms grow.
Give it a decade or two (or a season or two), and the Rose Garden will look exactly as it did before — or maybe even better. But I wouldn’t expect Twitter keyboard warriors to understand.
Women who look like women aren’t really in vogue right now
So I guess you missed Howard Finemans take on this. Even more despicable. Actually he should be horsewhipped for his tweet.
I caught a bit of this drama over the weekend and it’s all crazy. I haven’t verified that claim, but some are responding to the picture in Jennifer’s tweet by saying that it is from 2008 and not Obama’s garden.
When Jackie Kennedy went on her redesign spree the interior of the White House wasn’t that old. It had been completely gutted and rebuilt during the Truman Administration. (Harry and Bess took up residence in Blair House across the street.)
But Jackie was too snobby to entrust our Executive Mansion to mere Americans. No, she decided to bring in the French, namely one Stéphane Boudin of Paris. The whole Kennedy style was foreign, overseen by Russian national, Paris born and Hollywood employed Oleg Cassini.
For Eichenwald to lament Melania’s foreign birth is laughable. Mr. Tenacle Porn was born less than 6 months into the Kennedy Administration. So history began in June of 1961.
Not to mention obscene – who does that?
The Scream by Mulch.
And it’s a damn shame . . .