Roses for Helen - Reflections on a thrilling day

I could hardly sleep last night. I kept thinking about Helen, the history she has seen, and what she is going through today, treated like a joke by the mainstream media.

The roses meant a lot to her. She told us how much hate mail she gets. Mostly from men, mostly scatological. These flowers couldn't have come at a better time. Which brings me to Helderheid and her wonderful idea. I've often seen good ideas like this fail because a lot of people bail out when the work gets too hard. Helderheid not only came up with a brilliant suggestion but she pulled it off despite being 2,000 miles and two time zones away from Washington. This was not a simple project. Helderheid had to coordinate the delivery with Helen's schedule, line up volunteers to put the flowers in the vases, and make sure everything happened on time. A major hiccup occurred when the vases did not get delivered with the flowers. Helderheid had to track them down, and then plead with FedEx to deliver them ASAP. When they finally arrived by special courier hours later, 5 out of the 48 vases were broken. This set us back, but because of Helderheid's diligence we managed to get everything done before Helen left for the day.

I also want to mention the big lift we got from the pizza you had delivered. I didn't realize just how hungry I was until I opened the box and saw the huge chunks of sausage and melted cheese. No meal has never tasted so good!

Helen's office is in the Hearst Newspaper's Washington Bureau Washington office. We didn't get to see her office, we tried hard not to obtrusive. We worked in a conference room off to the side of all the reporter's cubicles. Fortunately we were near the office's kitchen where we could get plenty of water for the buckets and vases (we cut and trimmed the roses first and put them in large buckets of water until the vases came). Kristen, the Bureau Manager, graciously offered us sodas from their well stocked refrigerator (she took our intrusion into her office like a pro - she kept popping in and asking if we needed anything). The conference room had a glass wall allowing all the reporters to watch us work. When we finished a lot of them came in to marvel at the display.

There were five or six different types of roses. All were beautiful and were delivered in excellent shape. I learned more than I ever wanted to know about handling roses with thorns! We all went home with "souvenirs" of our fun with flowers.

I know many of you dug deep into your pockets to contribute money for the flowers. I want to assure you, it was money well spent. Helen was truly touched by your generosity. She spent a long time looking at the list of names of the contributers. She said "How can I ever thank so many people?" So I want to pass her thanks on to each and every one of you. Also, to those who couldn't give, or became aware of this project after contributions stopped being accepted, your support was very apparent by the messages you posted here. We asked her to go on DemocraticUnderground.com and read your messages. If she does she will be overwhelmed by the tremendous affection we have for her.

I'll close by saying, thank you all for this experience. I will always treasure the time I got to spend talking with the Dean of White House Reporters.

Here are a few more pictures.


Rainer and Paula, putting the trimmed roses in the vases



1,200 roses (don't miss the vases on the floor!)


Helen. Nearly lost in the roses.

Helen Thomas is a national treasure.

:loveya:

She asked why. "Is it her birthday?"

"No, honey... don't you remember, she's been treated like garbage by knuckle-dragging right-wingers for having the temerity to ask the President hard questions. It was the left blogosphere's way of thanking her for being a patriotic American."

Big smile after that.

I imagine this act of kindness inspired many, many smiles across the fruited plain. Bless you.

I'm thrilled to have been a part of this whole experience.

explained to me and my cousins how good she was as a reporter.

She has been trueblue through the Iraq story, much to the horror of the Administration. The Bush administration looks like a gaggle of bloodmongering clowns while Helen Thomas gleams among roses.

What a great idea, carried out beautifully, and to a very deserving soul.

Bravo to all on this very good moment, and thanks for these terrific photos, GOPFighter.

what happened yesterday and your involvement.
I'm so happy Helen was so touched! That makes it all worthwhile. :hug:

It was amazing to see DU come together and make something so beautiful and tangible happen in the real world! It really inspires me to think what else we can make happen in reality as well!

Thanks for all y'all did to make this happen.

Does anyone know if this got reported outside of DU? I'd love for others to know how appreciated she is.

...sent pictures and a story to The Hill and Roll Call. It will be interesting to see if they publish it.

Better to get them now when your alive than when you're gone. She deserves every one and more.

I mean it. Look at the things that DU and other bloggers accomplish. We are watching history folks, and I am so proud to be a part of it! We have had our heartaches and it's far from over but we are going to be fine and this kind of stuff proves it!

Perhaps you can e-mail Ms. Thomas a message with links to all of the various DU threads on the roses. She may not be able to hunt them all down since she's a DU newbie as it were! That would make it easy for her since she's obviously a very busy woman!

I hope these roses make up for all of the hate mail that she has received. :) I'll bet that the Hearst conference room is very popular this morning! :)

BTW, is that a picture of the Hearst Castle in California on the blue wall? Just curious.

Can you imagine being rich enough to build a complex that large - for yourself?

I think you can actually tour the castle. I didn't have the time or funds to do so, unfortunately! :(

Thank you so much for this report and the beautiful photos, GOPfighter.

In case she reads this, I want to let Helen know that she is not alone when it comes to getting nasty, disgusting missives from Bush supporters. Most of us who try to tell the truth, have received them also.

They are not 'men' as you so politely called them in your OP, they are cowards, like the people they support. She shouldn't worry too much about anything they have to say, they've been wrong about everything. Just ignore them Helen, we do, in fact their pathetic diatribe while shocking at first, becomes almost amusing after a while. They are in their 'last throes' imo, and not worth a minute of her precious time.

She is a beautiful woman ~ and DUers are beautiful!! Most importantly, they and she are beautiful in spirit. Thank you so much to all who made this happen, and to Helen for all she has done for her profession and her country.

:patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :woohoo:

Bravo, brava to everyone involved! :applause: And big props to the fabu Helen Thomas for being the truthfighter that she is. The blogosphere can do amazing things when it puts its mind to it.

DU, and the wonderful people here sometimes take my breath away. Thank you. :hug:

we appreciate it more than you know.:hug: I would have been in heaven had I had a chance to spend time with that wonderful woman. Thank you for eveything you did, GOPFighter. It's people like you, minime and helderheid who make DU as wonderful as it is. Thank you all.:hug:

Great job, DUers! :yourock:

to Helen, this icon of journalistic integrity. I have tried hard to meet her when she does a book tour, but thus far been unsuccessful. I have emailed her a few times and she has always graciously answered-brief but personal. I can't tell her how much good she has done. Even when she has been stymied, her courage--when all the press about her had largely turned to sniffling sycophants--bolstered my morale.

I haven't had many heros in my life. I refuse to use the term lightly, as those who worship celebrity increasingly do. But, Helen Thomas is truy deserving of the title.

A couple of years ago, someone posted a photoshop image of Helen suited up as the great baseball star Babe Ruth. I've been looking for that for months now, but can't find it. If anyone has it, I wish you would post it again.

Thanks again DUERS who made this happen for Helen and for all of us.

BTW, is anyone sending a photo to AP? I'd love to see this get out.

of Helen amidst the roses. You guys are the best and so is she. Am so pleased you pulled this off.

but I wasn't going to say so til someone else admitted it too!
:blush:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Thomas

to include this beautiful gesture?

The update will not be written by me, though. ;-) I do hope that someone will document this day on wiki.

Some of the links didn't copy/paste over, but you get the idea. I'll let you know if they give me access or they update her page.

...hiding a secret from a reporter is about as hard as hiding a bull in a haystack. I'm sure she knew what was going on early in the day. I doubt she had ANY idea how many roses were involved and was genuinely astonished by the size of the display when she saw it.

Helen knew that something was going on, but I don't know if she knew what it was. The staff wanted to keep the secret just as much as we did. I sent Kristen some of my pics and thanked her for all of her help and support yesterday. I got a very nice email reply from her, I think they were all touched by the gesture.

were going with what you were doing. I was glued to my computer all day as were so many others.
It was an exciting day and your hard work along with the others (on site) will always be remembered, as will Helderheid and all the DU members.

It was a great day and even moreso with the knowledge that Ms. Thomas gets such awful hate mail.

On 3/30/2006 Helen Thomas got dozens of beautiful roses from people who appreciate her life and her work.





I'm so happy I could be here and be involved.

Helen is the best and I'm glad that DU showed her how much we appreciate her.

A big thanks to helderheid and everyone who made this happen!

this is just so cool and I am so glad my little bit went to help make Helen know we love her!

true journalist flowers. You don't have to send each person a "thank you"; that last picture says it all. You deserve each and every one of those roses, and I love ya.

And thanks for your efforts yesterday. I'm getting teary eyed again. :yourock: :hug:

I've already posted my appreciation of Helderheid. Now, I want to thank you and the others who worked so hard to make this special for a wonderful lady and journalist.

What happened today?

Thanks again for all your work yesterday!

For being there and helping ot make this all come together...just beautiful!

Hope Helen was invited to post on DU :)

We watched this unfold all day yesterday on DU. It was a delight. Wish we could have been there to help. You all did a beautiful job. The Roses are so beautiful. We were like children, watching and waiting with anticipation!

Great that it counteracted the negative junk she gets from the sheeple.

We have placed one of the photos on our desktop and it SURE IS PRETTY!

All of you who worked so hard to put this together have done more than you can possibly know. For Helen and for everyone around you. I'm sure I'm not the only one whose faith in humanity got a healthy shot in the arm after seeing this amazing gesture of love and respect for someone who surely deserved it but otherwise wouldn't have gotten it.

Thanks to all of you for doing this. It's had me in tears - the good kind - several times now.

product!

And did you guys de-thorn all those roses?

took them all day!

I remember her in 1960 questioning John F. Kennedy and his gracious and humorous responses to her. It is a shame and a tragedy that her concise and clear questioning was totally estopped by, guess who, all the Republican presidents that she questioned! Even Democrats dreaded her drilling, but they treated her with respect! God love her for never giving up! Helen, just know that you have a following, girlfriend! Never give up! Love you!

:loveya:

thank you, GOPFighter for a job well done.

K&R :toast:

Thank you Helen Thomas, for being the Shining Star among reporters. I grew up seeing her at presidential press conferences. She deserves FAR better than to be tormented by these neo-fascists for being a true reporter.

Thank You GOPFighter and all the others at DU who helped this happen. Whenever she receives hate-filled messages from the neocon brownshirts, she can look at the roses, and remember that we treasure her for her work and dedication.

And for the pics, and all your hard work yesterday. (Yes, I know, talking to Helen for almost an hour made it all worth it....and I'm JEALOUS! :D)

That beautiful lady deserves every petal, and more.

thanks to Helen for 'speaking truth to power' and refusing to allow herself to be shut up

and thanks to the DU organizers, the ones who worked at the office, and to all who contributed

I read she sent/will send most of them to Walter Reed; is it appropriate to post any pictures of that???????