Irish fighter Jack Dempsey

ALAN writes:

When everyone around you is claiming that two and two equal five, it requires both an independent mind and a good deal of moral courage to disagree and speak the truth.

It takes even more moral courage to stand confident in opposition to “public opinion”, “Liberals”, Feminists, Communists, Fabian change agents, anarchists, Do-Gooders, “innovators”, “new ideas”, “new approaches”, ad hominem attacks by trolls, character assassination by those who resent achievement and hate the good for being the good, racketeers who call themselves “The Law” and “The Government”, and last but not least, the “mass media”, who are — as Dr. Bruce Charlton wrote ever so correctly — our “enemy headquarters”.

To oppose all such adversaries and persist in thinking for oneself is seemingly a simple act but actually a heroic act, according to George Orwell, when assumed in an age of monumental decadence and lies officially called truth.

The Thinking Housewife is one such courageous voice.  For 15 years now, Mrs. Laura Wood has presented independent thought, dissenting ideas, and views on current events that are sharply at odds with the Official Truth proclaimed by the Occupation Government and it’s innumerable fronts.

So Thank You, Laura Wood, for your moral courage in the face of overwhelming odds and opposition, and for 15 years of incorrect writing so dear to the hearts of us veteran Thought-Criminals.

Laura writes:

Thank you for remembering and for the extravagant praise. The 15th anniversary of this website was yesterday! Wow, that’s a long time. I honestly can’t explain it.

How or why I’m still standing is hard to explain or defend.

I guess I’m in a strange category of my own, a cross between Betty Crocker and the 19th-century Irish fighter Jack Dempsey. Whatever I am, the readers I have engaged with over the years have struck me as decent, humble, kind and intelligent. I must be doing something right if they have read me. Don’t you think?

Thank you, Alan, for your many contributions over the years, especially your chronicles of the city of St. Louis. You’ve recorded history with uncompromising eloquence. You have dared to resist the trends and you possess the rare literary skills to explain why. You belong in jail too. Right this way, sir. Your cell is waiting for you.

I have a simple message to convey to others on this insignificant anniversary.

Speak up.  Please, speak up. 

I have done it and I’m still standing. I haven’t done it well perhaps, but I’m still standing.

Our everyday lives should be filled with acts of charity. There are plenty of people who don’t believe that, who are not decent and kind individuals. They will speak up, rest assured. They will dominate the discussion, they will prevail when it comes to difficult truths and the search for solutions if decent people don’t assert themselves.

Is it so bad to be hated? Defamed? Ostracized? Ridiculed? Insulted? Held up to public lies and exaggerations?

I can’t lie to you. It hurts. But I figure, being blamed for things you haven’t done is penance for not being blamed for things you have done.

And the pain is nothing, I think, compared to the pain of realizing you were there and you said nothing. Remorse is worse than ridicule.

Thank you to those who have supported me over these many years. I am truly grateful for the encouragement — but even for you, precious reader, I have honestly not done this.

— Comments —

Alan M. writes:

Congratulations on your anniversary! I can’t imagine how many people you have positively influenced over the years!

That was very touching of Alan to write you with that. He has been an excellent contributor and I always look forward to his posts and responses as well.

David writes:

Congratulations, Laura!

The Thinking Housewife is a truly Catholic American website!

Laura writes:

Thank you.

Janice G. writes:

I can only respond to Alan with a resounding “Hear, hear!”

Congratulations, Laura, on fifteen years of TTH, and thank you for speaking out for Faith, common sense and freedom – day in and day out.

I’ll be reading and forwarding your uniquely interesting articles for as long as you publish them, and for as long as I am around to do it.

Laura writes:

Thanks so much.

Alan writes:

Thank you for suggesting that I belong behind bars.  It is the sweetest thing anyone has ever said to me.

Laura writes:

I didn’t mean to puff you up or anything. So don’t let it go to your head!

Kathy G. writes:

Big kudos to you, Laura! Knowing there are people out there like you make it so much easier for isolated folks like me. Having always been an outlier, with non-conforming tendencies, I’m so used to being alone that finding out that there are people who think and see what is happening is such a comfort and joy. I wish I would have known about you 15 yrs ago!

Laura writes:

Thanks! I wish you had too.

Michael D. writes:

Congratulations on 15 years. I am informed that crystal is the traditional gift for that milestone. Well, you already bring crystalline clarity to your readers.

As I think I have written before, should I ever convert to RC, your writings will have been a significant impetus. And even if I remain an infidel by your lights, I will still consult your blog for plain speaking that rings true with me spiritually.

Long may you and your site prosper.

Laura writes:

Thank you!

Non-Catholics, anti-Catholics, quasi-Catholics, pseudo-Catholics — all are most welcome here.

Dianne writes:

Aw Laura …. this was awesome.

I’m so glad for the intelligent feedback you get sometimes, for anything worthy of your thoughts and research.

I limp a long in the background, still pretty new to all of this, let alone to your site.

I’m so glad I found it, you. You do actually feel like a friend.

Laura writes:

Thank you! I most definitely am your friend.

Hurricane Betsy writes:

Congratulations on lasting all these years, Laura, and for all the fabulous articles and some music, too.

Just as an experiment, for fun,  why don’t you open your columns to unmoderated comments?  You know, for a week or two.  Let’s see what happens.  That would  be a true test.

Laura writes:

Thanks!

Not sure why it would be a “true test.” It’s not like I don’t take comments through the platform because I’m afraid of what people would say. I have rarely not posted a comment because I objected to the message.

For one, it’s more secure this way — if you send comments to my Proton Mail address.

Secondly, I’m an old newspaper person. I like the “Letter to the Editor” tradition.

But I can understand why some don’t like it. Comments sent directly to the platform though would be moderated too. They usually are.

Johanna writes:

Congratulations on your long-standing work for God. You are blessed with a strong literary arsenal and we are blessed to be a part of your reach.

Kidist Paulos Asrat writes from Ethiopia:

Congratulations on The Thinking Housewife’s 15th anniversary. I have been a follower for all these years.

But let me brag.

I started blogging in 2005, at my original Camera Lucida: How Art, Culture and Society Converge. I will have blogged for 20 years come next year, when I started and continued with Reclaiming Beauty: Saving Our Western Civilization in 2013.

From the beginning, I closed off all comments, and left an email address on the far right column. I never asked for “feedback” or participation, because I felt that I was easy target for non-White, non-Westerners, who saw me, an Ethiopian, as a traitor to their multicultural, anti-white rage (“those racist haters” – whites, that is). And leftist whites too, although I think they were more confused and wouldn’t know how to “fight” me off.

Some Ethiopians just ostracized me if relatives, and would occasionally confront me with brief, rage-filled remarks in person. But mostly they seemed to me to be afraid of me. I learned through them to develop non-confrontational behavior, and to enjoy being a relative: daughter, sister, niece, cousin, etc. And they liked me, even if baffled by me. And my posts on Ethiopia were full of admiration. They couldn’t begrudge me that!

I also developed a thick skin!

One funny episode: someone took the time to find my side-paneled e-mail address (my blog e-mail is different from my regular correspondence) and insult me. My relatives and other Ethiopians NEVER send me e-mails unless it is a group email. I tracked this person down, and it was a white woman! I e-mailed back that I would report her to the Canadian Human Rights Commission for hate crime, for insulting a non-White. I turned the tables on her! Lol! Never heard from her.

And my blogs have NEVER been shut down despite using Blogger, an open and free platform.

I kept my blogs as records of the events, large and small, that interested me. It has been a pleasure blogging, even the difficult posts.

The blogs helped me find Larry Auster who was my earliest fan, you, Jim Kalb and a few others who became friends.

Both blogs concentrated on art, and were also cultural critiques, but I also posted hundreds of posts on beauty, and especially the beauty of Western Civilization.

I still am fascinated at how I, alone and with just a computer, managed to keep a sane mind, and continue with this endeavor. I think art helped me. And my focus on beauty was a stroke of luck, or divine intervention. Beauty doesn’t lie.

So, many more years to us!

Holly from SoCal writes:

Thank you, Laura. I have been following for atleast 10+ years, maybe since around 2010!!!

Keep up the great work!!!

Laura writes:

Thanks so much, Holly.

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