Standing Among Some American Giants Was I. By Uncle Monty.

Standing Among Some American Giants Was I.

Story and Photos By Uncle Monty.

~~

-- Three-Part Series on The 2oo8 Hay Festival --
~~

A very wet Sunday morning at a small Welsh village
in Wales is, I think, a most unlikely setting for most
folks to personally bump into an ex-American president
like did Jimmy Carter and me. It took me a long moment
to suddenly realise that indeed he was standing right in
front of me. I then instinctively took my hand to warmly

shake his and he promptly reciprocated toward me.

~~~

Addressing him politely and properly with my “Yes, Sir”
and “No, Sir” as we chatted, I then told President Carter
of how we had first met more than over 30 years ago at the
then nationally-televised 1976 Presidential Debate with U.S.

President Gerald Ford at The College of William and Mary.

Jimmy Carter’s face just lit up and beamed happily at me

as I told him of our last encounter. Aside from the presence
of his private presidential secretary and his discreet and pro-
tective four or five U.S. Secret Service agents, I felt like we
were standing together all by ourselves like some old friends
meeting happily again after such a long time. He and I were

attending the same 2oo8 Hay Festival. He was there to speak

as an invited and important American giant that is, while I

myself was there as little more than an unimportant

and nondescript observer.
~~~
I then asked the former president if I could take a photo-

graph of him. He neither answered verbally "yes" nor "no,"

but simply stood there with consent written all over his

Dixie face of 83 years of age that looked far from that with his

healthy disposition and physique. As I got my camera ready

to “Polaroid” him, it suddenly wouldn’t work. I must say I

felt abit nervy anyway and I told him so, but the president

stood there patiently without a fuss or a word while I then

got my photographic act together.

~~~
His personal secretary and his security detail stood silently

and respectfully next to me as I then focussed my camera

again carefully to get my first exclusive and prized image

of Jimmy Carter since I had last photographed him at

William and Mary more than three decades ago.

~~~

So my delightful encounter with him at Hay-on-Wye

was in some ways almost surreal, yet so completely real

as shown here above in my story’s photo caption of him

with his broad Georgia smile and his natural, Born-Again,

Christian warmth. How the Good Lord works always

amazes me. For if I had tried to meet him to arrange a

chat and to photograph such a world famous man away

from all the clamour of the public and press, I’d have

surely fallen flat right on me bedight face. Instead,

there was he with his name of Jimmy Carter standing

right in front of me from seemingly out of nowhere on a

very wet Sunday morning in Wales and with his true

rank of the 39th President of the United States. And,

let it be remembered that this same American

gentleman is also the esteemed winner of

The Nobel Peace Prize.

~~

So there with my cameras and my wordy mouth

at the ready first standing among some American

giants was then I at The 2oo8 Hay Festival.
~~~

My only image of wheelchaired Gore Vidal.

~~~

If ever there was a total mismatch -and mishmash
between an interviewer and an interviewee, then Sky

News anchor Adam Boulton should never have been

matched or mashed as the interviewer of the legendary
wit Gore Vidal. Who, in all his own right, is an American

giant of the novel, and of course, of wit. So British plastic

was Adam, I almost wanted to throw a large wet custard

pie right smack in his prig face to just shut him up and

his big gob and stop his ever squeaky questions to the
wheelchaired Gore Vidal at THF. It would have been best

to have just wheeled in Gore Vidal on stage and then

put a mic in front of him and let him run his own show.

He didn't need to be interviewed per se by anybody,

I don't think. He could manage on his own with his

erudition, skilled learnedness, and brilliant wit.

~~~

Gore Vidal belongs not only to the American literati

-for he has also long belonged to the golden mansion of

world literature that is well beyond his own country's

birth and life-long domicility. He, therefore, doesn't

need a Timpano -interviewer that's for sure.

~~~

Whatever, youngish Adam seemed at times to

almost lurch over his octogenarian intervewee as the

poor devil was stuck in his own wheelchair and could

find no escape without creating some kind of nasty

Anglo-American incident. I watched the exchange with

Adam and Gore (no, not Adam and his Eve) for over an

hour at the THF’s venue No. 61 at 10 quid per ticket holder.

Several hundreds packed the sold-out venue with those

like me just thrilled at the chance to finally see and hear

Gore Vidal in person for the first, and probably for the

last, time at these shores of Great Britain.

~~~
Vidal’s wit was absolutely inimitable and despite Adam

Boulton being like an old wet dish rag that should have

been first rammed down his gravel throat by somebody

at Sky News. Pity they didn’t, is all I can say.

~~~

Two other things: First, I was stunned to see Gore Vidal in a
non-motorized wheelchair and being pushed by his wheelchair
bus boy. I wasn’t aware he was wheelchair bound to start with.
So that’s why I was so surprised and I suspect so many others
were, too. Plus, a man with his money could surely buy a good
quality mobility or motorised wheelchair instead of being
pushed like a penniless old bugger who cannot afford such
things. And secondly, within only seconds of finishing his witty
appearance at THF, his wheelchair bus boy then rushed him

off stage as quickly as he could so that nobody even had the

slightest chance to get to speak to Vidal personally or to even

get a posed photograph of him. Not to mention, no

autographs were offered or given at all.

~~~

I ran upto the stage like a madman to get to Gore Vidal and
managed somehow to catch the last glimpse of him just has

he was being exited from the outer stage that resulted in my

only picture (shown above) of him has he was deliberately

rushed from out of public view and probing cameras like mine.
Obviously, it was all pre-arranged by the festival organisers to

avoid public contact with Vidal himself. They’ll take your money,

of course, but then only give you three-quarters of the goods it

sold to you it seems to me at THF. As for Adam Boulton,

he can go and screw himself at Sky TV …
~~~
Next, I'll write here about the not-so-giant Episcopal

and Yankee gay cleric Bishop V. Gene Robinson of New

Hampshire, who I finally and unexpectedly got to meet

face-to-face and to then photograph him (shown below)

at The Hay Festival or what I call at “THF.” I must say,

he was quite impressive to hear him speak at The 2oo8

President's Lecture at which I attended and also so sur-

prisingly did Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter who then sat

themselves down right in front of me during Gene

Robinson's pretty hypo and robust lecture.

~~~

My First Photo of Bp. Gene Robinson.

Let me now turn fully to Gene Robinson, the gay American

cleric who I have previously written about in a forthright

and critical manner here on my blog. The bishop made some

interesting comments on a number of aspects relating to his

situation within the Anglican Communion, which he stated

was the third largest religious body in the world at over

77 million of the Anglican/Episcopal faithful.

~~~

Clearly, he has a big bone to pick with Rowan
Williams, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, who
ruled that Gene Robinson was barred from joining some
other 700 bishops at this July’s tenth-yearly Lambeth
Conference. He, the American cleric, will be permitted

to attend any or all of the public events surrounding

the ecclesiastic gathering at where he will be like any

other member of the public wishing to visit such events

that for the first time in the history of Lambeth will be

open each day for public activity at what the church des-
cribes as "The Marketplace." He plans to pitch his tent,
so to speak, right there for any or all to hear him freely
speak about himself, his gay situation, and his disbarment
from the inner sanctum -of the Lambeth Conference.
I myself will at Lambeth, if I don’t have to first
undergo some needed heart surgery before then.
~~~
My personal impression of the New Hampshire bishop
was a lot more favourable since meeting him in person
here at The Hay Festival than when I first critically

wrote about Him. But needless to say, I still be-

lieve he should step down or better still drop dead.

Why? Because I think the man is so consumed with

his own sense of victimology and quack martyrdom.

There is a sense of self-masochism by him in all of

this it seems to me. He’s more a manipulative actor,

too, than a truly good bishop for the today’s church.
~~~
I think he’s living in a world of his own Pollyanna.
And, he loves the most those who are his most

ardent distractors. Gene Robinson blames every-

body but himself for his own situation of being "in the

eye of the storm," which is the title of his new book

adventure. He created the storm himself and no-

body else did it for him. Again the damage he has

already wrought on the Worldwide Anglican

Communion is almost diabolical in nature.

~~~

But let me put aside for a moment my

own personal opinions of the world’s first openly
gay bishop and tell you some of the things he said
that I thought I’d pass on to my blog readers for
them to decide whatever they want to decide
about Gene Robinson. I have taken the core of

some of the things he said and presented them

here in my own words and not as direct quotes

of Gene Robinson himself. Herein, I broadly out-

line some of his core thinking and statements:
1.
We Anglicans have become admirers of Christ,
instead of disciples or followers of Him.
2.
Push first for women to the ordained ministry
and the episcopate, if success is to come later
for openly gay men and woman being granted
equal rights and status within the church.
3.
Unlike Roman Catholics, Anglicans
don’t have a Curia that tells them what they
can and must do under the confines and
teachings of church authority.
4.
To treat a man as a woman was the gravest

insult for a male in olden times. In fact, men

were raped and not women by victorious

soldiers of ancient wars. It was done to inflict

shame and stigma on the losing soldiers.
5.
To spill and waste male seed was outlawed
to ensure the growth of the population at
where masturbation was thus condemned as

a mortal sin. Wasted seed did not produce
children to enchance the need for increased
population.
6.
Being in the eye of the storm I find
calm and stillness has it rages around me.
“Be thou not afraid,” he repeats to himself
in his gay battle with the Church.
7.
At the time of the prophets, the question
of homesexuality didn’t exist because the
thought was that everybody was hetersexual
and behaved the same.
8.
Even his most anti-gay critic he still sees
and wants as his brother in Christ.
~~~
As the Episcopal bishop ended his Hay lecture,
The Carters didn’t stay to hear the questions
and answers at the closing session. I wonder
what they must have thought about what they’d

heard from Gene Robinson. If I’d have bumped into
President Carter again while we were both at THF, I

would have enquired of him what he may have thought

as a Born-Again, Baptist Christian, a committed hetero-

sexual, and a former U.S. president, to such a gay

Episcopal agenda by the homosexual cleric from old

New Hampshire of the Granite State. That would be a

presidential story I would love to tell. So aside from the

cleric, I think I can safely say I've been standing among

some American giants right here at THF. Right on ...

~~~
Coming next are
Part 2: Images of the Festival Authors.
Part 3: Incidental happenings in and
around the festival and the village of
Hay-on-Wye.

~~~
So I'll be back later with more stories to tell.

Please have a good day, everybody.

Your's, Uncle Monty.

America's Memorial Day, 2oo8.