Here kiddies…come get a cookie! UPDATED-Pt.1

Never underestimate the ability of the hardcore political left in their attempts to indoctrinate America’s youth. There is no end to the hidden tricks the liberals will use to ensnare young minds. A good example of just such a thing right here in central New Hampshire was this past Saturday’s now-cancelled event offered up by the Lakes Region Teen Center. What could be more innocent than “Ben & Jerry’s OreoMobile”, right? Isn’t it nice…cookies! For the kids!

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Nothing could be more insidious than this simplistic sounding fun- because that’s not what it is. The demonstration, which I have witnessed on several occasions, is nothing more than an antiwar, anti-military propaganda exhibition using cookies as props. You would be hard-pressed to find something more overtly political than the ideas presented. I called the center to alert them as to the nature of the “show.” Naturally, they were unaware of the dirty details. Shame on Ben & Jerry for pushing this political trickery on unsuspecting people trying to do right for the children! Thankfully, those running the Teen Center did the right thing and called it off.

I’d like to correct some misinformation about the PrioritiesNH campaign and our educational vehicle, the Oreo-Mobile, that was published in a recent article and column in the Daily Sun.

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The article headlined “Teen Center celebrates National Boys and Girls Clubs Day Saturday, Sept. 16” called the vehicle the “Ben and Jerry’s OreoMobile.” In fact, the OreoMobile has nothing to do with the famous ice cream company. It belongs to the Priorities campaign, an educational project launched by Ben & Jerry’s co-founder Ben Cohen after he left the ice cream business.

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The characterization of the Oreo-Mobile contained in Doug Lambert’s “Exercising the First” column was utter fiction. If he had seen the OreoMobile demonstration, as he claims, he would have known that the exhibit explains how Americans’ tax dollars are spent. $60 billion every year is wasted on building obsolete Cold War weapons that will never be used and maintaining a stockpile of nuclear weapons far beyond what the United States needs for deterrence.

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Who says this money is being wasted? High-ranking military experts including former CIA chief Admiral Stansfield Turner, former Assistant Secretary of Defense Dr. Lawrence Korb and retired Navy Vice Admiral John J. Shanahan for starters. I believe their accumulated expertise stacks up quite well against Mr. Lambert’s.

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Mr. Lambert was pleased that he was successful in banning the OreoMobile from the Teen Center’s event. The irony is that PrioritiesNH’s goal is to shift this wasteful government spending to programs that build stronger families and communities. Programs like Boys and Girls Clubs.

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If our government spent our tax dollars more wisely, we could better support programs like Boys and Girls Clubs, we could retrain workers whose jobs have gone overseas, we could reduce the deficit, we could invest in renewable energy, we could rebuild aging schools, we could make sure every child in American has health care. And we could do it all with no new taxes.

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Reduce government waste. Make the U.S. budget reflect the real priorities of the American people. Invest in real security. That’s the message of the “propaganda” that Mr. Lambert didn’t want Laconia citizens to hear.

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If this sounds more like common sense than propaganda to your readers, I invite them to learn more about our campaign online at www.PrioritiesNH.org.

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Oh, Mr. Lambert was right about one thing. We do give cookies to kids — and adults too.

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Steve Varnum
Campaign director
PrioritiesNH
Concord

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By Jack Shanahan

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In response to a wave of political pressure, the Teen Center of the Lakes Region rescinded an invitation to Priorities New Hampshire to participate in the Day For Kids event, scheduled for Saturday in Laconia. One would assume that this is an effort to prevent the community from discussing critical issues facing us today. The unpopular conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the high cost of living, the federal budget deficit, and the federal debt of $8.4 trillion dollars are but a few examples of urgent problems threatening our national security.

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Priorities New Hampshire, based in Concord, is the grassroots branch of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities. PrioritiesNH is a bipartisan organization dedicated to encouraging our leaders to reevaluate federal spending priorities in an effort to maximize national security.

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PrioritesNH’s recommendations on Pentagon spending are supported by a military advisory board that includes former assistant defense secretary Dr. Lawrence Korb, who served under Ronald Reagan, and other military authorities from around the country.

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Throughout the United States history, we have faced threats from those who disagree with our government’s policies. We took the threat posed by the Soviet Union seriously. Military preparedness trumped pork-barrel politics as the determining force in defense policy decisions, and procurement was based on finding the most effective weapons to combat the Soviet Union.

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Unfortunately, things have changed since the end of the Cold War. Defense contractors now wield more influence through their powerful lobbyists and supporters in Congress than defense analysts. Since 9/11, the Pentagon has spent billions of dollars on obsolete Cold War-era weapons that have no use in today’s defense environment.

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Ben Cohen, the president of Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities, wants to communicate the urgency of this crisis to his fellow Americans. And since the bulk of Ben’s experience is in the food industry (he was, after all, one of the co-founders of Ben & Jerry’s) Ben is using food to make his point heard.

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The OreoMobile is what it sounds like: a vehicle loaded with stacks of giant Oreos that portray the federal budget. For the last month, the OreoMobile has been roaming around New Hampshire with its unique public education campaign designed to inform and entertain the residents of New Hampshire with a splashy demonstration illustrating the inequities in our government’s current federal budget.

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Since the attacks on 9-11, our country has been fighting wars on numerous fronts: in Iraq, in Afghanistan, and in the much broader war against terrorism. If we want any chance of winning these wars, it’s critical that we reevaluate our country’s needs and strategic interests. We would do well to remember President Eisenhower’s leadership during the Cold War when he resolutely capped defense spending in his wisely-executed strategic effort to encourage military innovation and expertise and limit pork-barrel politics.

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If we are going to send our young men and women overseas to fight and perhaps die in the Middle East then we should certainly take the time to educate them about the founding principles of our great nation: freedom, equality and democracy. Instead of allowing the current wars to become a feeding frenzy for military contractors, we should take this time to reconsider what we need to provide real security for Americans. And look out for the OreoMobile: everywhere it goes, it stirs up discussion and debate. And if you’re in the right place at the right time, you might even get a free cookie!

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Jack Shanahan, retired vice admiral, U.S. Navy, lives in Ormond Beach, Fla.

Teen Center of the Lakes Region to participate in National Day for Kids

LACONIA — The Teen Center of the Lakes Region, in its work toward affiliation with Boys & Girls Club of America, will be participating in the National Boys & Girls Clubs Day for Kids on Saturday, Sept. 16.

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Nationwide, millions of children and their families are expected to participate in some 2,000 events at Boys & Girls Clubs and other locations. Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA) created Boys & Girls Clubs Day for Kids to foster stronger relationships between adults and children by educating them on the importance and value of spending meaningful time together.

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The event will be held rain or shine at the Teen Center’s location at 291 Union Ave, Laconia, directly behind Sacred Heart Church, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Ben & Jerry’s Oreomobile will be at the event along with Jolly Jumpers, live radio broadcast, face-painting, tour of the Teen Center, our monthly "Sports Card Show " at the Sacred Heart Hall and free hot dog lunch. A literature table will be set up for organizations to have brochures set out on.

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Local organizations or vendors wanting to participate in the day’s event are asked to contact The Teen Center at [000-0000].

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The event is free to the public and open to all ages.

 To the editor,

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In his letter to the editor on the September 21st edition, Steve Varnum, Campaign Director for PrioritiesNH, impugns Doug Lambert’s credibility by writing “The characterization of the OreoMobile contained in Doug Lambert’s “Exercising the First” column was utter fiction.  If he had seen the demonstration, as he claims, he would have known…” and accuses him of suppressing information from the people of Laconia by saying “That’s the message of the “propaganda” that Mr. Lambert didn’t want Laconia citizens to hear.”  Obviously, Mr. Varnum does not know Doug Lambert because he’s wrong on both counts.

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First, Doug Lambert DID SEE the demonstration in July 2004 when the OreoMobile visited the Coalition of NH Taxpayers’ Annual Picnic at the Hopkinton Fairgrounds. Doug, his son Tim and I watched the eye-catching cookie demo comparing the disparity in defense spending between the US and other countries. Then the speaker, using Oreo cookies, showed how the federal dollars spent on national defense outnumbered those spent on K-12 education, world hunger, children’s health care, and Head Start and advocated a redistribution of defense funds to pay for those four items.

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Doug and I scratched our heads trying to figure out what provisions of the US Constitution mandated federal funding of those four areas.  Doug raised his hand and pointed out that while he understood that a military is provided for in the Constitution, he didn’t think education was. "Where in the Constitution does it say the duty of the Federal government is to pay for education?" he asked. The speaker got very agitated, wouldn’t answer the question, shut off his presentation microphone, tried to pull Doug and Tim aside, gave Tim a bunch of trinkets–a pen with a pull-out chart of federal dollars, Oreo cookies and some other stuff–and asked us to just move along, wishing to finish his demo. We and others walked away at that point.

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Second, Doug is correct in his assessment of the presentation: it IS propaganda because it foments the idea of a nanny government. While Ben Cohen, PrioritiesNH and TrueMajority.org are free under the First Amendment to espouse any views they wish, Doug is similarly entitled to do whatever he wishes to express opposition to those views 

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So, Mr. Varnum, get your facts straight before casting aspersions.  Your group may succeed in fooling most of the people with this slick presentation.  But there will always be those of us in the audience who will listen with a critical ear and identify a scam when we see it, regardless of how many former high ranking military and federal officials endorse it.

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Oh yes, we ate the cookies but did not swallow the message. Isn’t this a wonderful country?

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Jorge Mesa-Tejada
Hampstead, NH