Mr. King:
On behalf of more than 1.1 million men and women of the Moose fraternal organization, we at Moose International take great offense, and seek to correct the record, in the wake of Bill Maher's gratuitous attack on Moose members as "racist" on the Larry King Live broadcast of Thursday evening, Oct. 16.
First, the Moose organization welcomes men and women of ALL ethnicities as members.
Secondly and more importantly, the Moose organization not only conducts tens of millions of dollars worth of community service annually all over North America; but moreover, raises tens of millions of dollars annually to provide a home and school for children and teens in need, of ALL ethnicities, at its Mooseheart Child City and School west of Chicago. We have also, for many decades, provided full-ride college scholarships to any academically qualifying graduate of Mooseheart -- and over the last five years, fully one-third of the students receiving those scholarships have been African-American.
These are facts that Mr. Maher could have easily obtained from us--had he been interested in the truth--before voicing his smug and ignorant attack against the Moose organization on your broadcast.
We encourage anyone to learn more about our organization at www.mooseintl.org or www.mooseheart.org.
Kurt Wehrmeister,
Director/Communications & Public Affairs, Moose International |
Political commentator/comic Bill Maher, speaking on CNN's Larry King Live on Thursday, Oct. 16, in an exchange with host Larry King about how various groups may vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, made a defamatory reference to "the racists down by the Moose Lodge". . 