Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Beware Trogs! @lordwestover Twitter Site Has Over 4000 Lordiacs


By Robert Hudson Westover

The Vast Estate (and me!) are very pleased to announce that the Lord Westover Twitter account, @lordwestover, has over 4000 followers, or Lordiacs, as I like to refer to fans of His Lordship.

So, you may ask, why did I start the Lord Westover Find Your Inner Nobility performance art piece?

It all started many, many years ago when, as a young Trog, I was introduced to a woman who changed my life. She gave me a gift that has sustained me throughout my life for which I am eternally grateful. This gift was an awakening of something we all have within us: our inner nobility.

A high-born Russian countess (for real), this woman, Olga C Morgan, was uniquely qualified to take a very rough-hewn character and make him into someone who would lead a productive and useful life.

It could have so easily gone the other way (really easily!)

Unidentified Trog (believed to be this Steven Tyler person)
Attempts to congratulate His Lordship upon hearing
the news of the growing followers of @lordwestover Twitter Site
Since Olga’s passing I find myself constantly drawing on the wisdom she imparted to me to guide decisions, shape my behavior and most of all, to provide me strength. I now realize this noble teaching, this framework of higher life ideals, can be used by others to help them overcome their own life challenges and ignite the spirit of inner nobility that burns within.

And it can be funny, too!

As an artist, I sought out an array of ways to bring this noble awareness to others. Then it hit me! Why not use comedic (that means funny) performance art? What better way to see the impact on fellow Trogs but to actually witness it! (Of course, Lord Westover is not a Trog, obviously.)

I started with a Nobility Oath based on Lowell’s Be Noble quote and created the character Lord Westover to administer it. I then recruited others (seriously, I did) to play the roles they most thought brought out (or didn’t!) their inner nobility.

We “opened” our first “performance” at the Jon Stewart Rally on the National Mall (that’s Washington, DC, not the Mall of America.)

The impact went far beyond our expectations. I named our performance art piece Find Your Inner Nobility and it received national attention with many wanting to take the Nobility Oath!  

Later that year I then created a blog and developed the Ask a Lord column taking “questions” from both “noble” and “trog” alike. The timing could not have been more appropriate for shortly thereafter the horrific Tucson shootings of Congresswoman Giffor, her staff and bystanders, shined a white-hot
spotlight on the growing incivility taking hold in our national discourse.

That year, the Washington Post asked readers to submit their one minute “State of the Union” address. Lord Westover’s speech, addressing incivility, was one of only three to be posted by the newspaper and by far received the most hits.

Our next installation (of sorts) was to take the concept of Inner Nobility to a medium most familiar now to American audiences: the reality show venue. We called it American Monarch  (yes, I know, it congers up so many amazing images!) and created a ten minute “sizzle real” and a “promotional” trailer.

At the same time both comedic and profound, I think Find Your Inner Nobility breaks new ground and goes to the core of why so many of us want to be and do good things (really, most of us do).

Discovering one’s inner nobility has very little to do with the bling (well, not entirely) and societal positioning (ok, maybe not entirely) that Lord Westover possess. It has everything to do with the intrinsic desire we all have in us to be noble as we best understand what nobility means to us.

Here’s to four thousand more Lordiacs!


Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The 57th Inaugural Ball!

An inside look at the Commander-in Chief's Ball


I had the privilege and honor to serve as a team captain for the President's Commander-in Chief Ball. My crew was incredible. We sailed through the night without a single mishap! We looked at this honor to serve President Obama as a gift to the First Family and we delivered!

The following is a link to a short music video I put together to share with others what an incredible night it was to be an American! Semper Fi team!!!

Go to video:
Inaugural Ball for President Obama!

Peace, Robert




This letter, my life-partner wrote to the Washington Post about my service at the event, really says it all about why I dedicated so many hours of my time to serve President Obama at his second Inaugural:


I want to tell you about my life-partner.  He recently received exciting news from President Obama’s inaugural committee. Out of “thousands of qualified and enthusiastic applicants,” they wrote in their acceptance email, my partner, Robert Hudson Westover, was selected to serve as a team captain for the Commander-in Chief Ball.

Under any circumstance, to be asked to serve in such an important venue, managing dozens of volunteers, would be an important duty and a solemn honor, but for my husband (we were married in DC on Nov 17, 2010 after living together in a committed relationship for ten years), it was almost surreal.  That’s  because when he served in the United States Marine Corps in the late 1980s, before Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, not only could a Marine be discharged for being Gay, that discharge could be a Dishonorable one.

And, sometimes, those discovered to be Gay were beaten so severely by “fellow” Marines, that a medical discharge was given instead—or worse—some were even killed. It was indeed a dark ages for the Marine Corps.

Robert almost became a victim himself. Fortunately, probably because he was a third generation Marine, a call from his mother to Pentagon investigative services ended what could have been a personal catastrophe for Robert.

But the most amazing part of this story isn’t Robert’s fortitude during his crisis but his ongoing and unflinching dedication to the Marine Corps and the time he served which is still what he terms “The proudest thing I’ve ever done.”

As you can imagine, back in 1987, as he feared for his future, Lance Corporal Westover could not have imagined that 25 years later he would be serving as an openly Gay team captain for the President of the United States’ very own Commander-in Chief Ball. As First Lady Michelle Obama said on the election night in 2008 “This is a great country.” A big OOORAH and Semper Fi to that!

Tom E. Fulton

Monday, December 17, 2012

Mental Illness + Guns = Death


How 10 minutes with Chris Matthews has challenged me to fight for gun control

By Robert Hudson Westover

The recent massacre of innocent children and staff at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, will haunt our nation for years to come.

It should.

The horrific tragedy that overtook our country last Friday has perhaps convulsed the American people into taking stronger action at stricter gun control measures.

At least I hope so.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak with legendary liberal commentator Chris Matthews, and the subject of getting serious action on gun control came up.

This wasn't the usual forum for an intense discussion on such a heated issue. It was a book signing for Chris Matthews’ Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero at Politics and Prose in  Washington, DC and that was all—no lecture and no Q&A. However, a chance meeting with my former colleague would change all that. Paula Terry and I hadn't seen each other in years but I remembered her as a staunch advocate of liberal causes.

Robert Westover with Chris Mathews
She would not disappoint.

Before my and Paula’s encounter with Mr. Matthews no one dared to get “real” with the MSNBC political pundit.

The married couple in front of Paula and me knew Mr. Matthews and Chris thanked the gentleman, who had years ago apparently enlisted him in Toastmasters, thus changing his life, while the two men worked together on Capitol Hill.

Then it was my turn.

My clever way of “gettin’ jiggy” with the liberal icon was to mention we knew someone in common. I’ve been working on a book called Lessons in Nobility based on my memories of a friendship I had with a Russian Countess, who was Hugh “Yusha”D. Auchincloss III’s aunt (still with me?) Chris and Yusha are friends and I reached out to Mr. Auchincloss last summer to let him know of my intentions to publish these memories and we have since become pen pals. As many readers know, Yusha is Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ beloved older stepbrother and since Mr. Matthews’ book signing was about JFK—I went with it.

It worked. We spoke a little bit about getting together with Yusha at the famed Metropolitan Club and I got my photo op.

But Paula really got things going.

She wanted a clearer understanding as to why we Americans don’t have a stronger legislative commitment on preventing the sales of semi-automatic weapons. Matthews answered with a question, “What politician is going to risk losing his seat for supporting gun control?”


Paula Terry with Chris Matthews
Paula wasn't giving up, “Someone needs to take stronger action,” she insisted, “Times have changed and many gun supporters have since lost their seats…”

Matthews said back, “Who?”

At this point I jumped in and said, “We need more guys like me. I’m a third generation Marine. I grew up with a profound respect for guns. I want them registered…”

“And most cops agree with you…” Matthews added and then said what I feel is going to give the vital emotional connect to reach the minds of rational folks all over our country on some type of gun control, “Mentally ill people should not be allowed to own assault rifles.”

“That’s it. That’s the tagline,” I said. And then added, “Mental Illness + Guns = Death.” (At the posting of this blog, a Google Search indicated this exact tagline has not been used or trademarked.)

Feeling erudite I added, “If we accept the argument that semi-automatic rifles fit the circumstances of Second Amendment era muskets and primitive revolvers, the fact that we experience the insanity of mass murder from the mentally ill then perhaps we should not be shocked when they are turned against us.”

By this point another fan had bravely approached with that agitated look of “get a room” on his face. Our time to move on had come, but thanks to Paula and Chris I now have a tagline that I can develop into an awareness campaign and, with God’s help, work to prevent another Newtown massacre of the innocents.  

And I think I've already begun...

Tags: Chris Matthews, Hardball, MSNBC, #newtown @chrismatthews, Robert Hudson Westover, Yusha Auchincloss, gun control #guncontrol

Thursday, December 6, 2012

New York Times Reporter, Iver Peterson, Helped Bring Awareness to Plight of the SS United States

By Robert Hudson Westover

I so clearly remember the day I met Iver Peterson. How could I forget when it was in front of the great SS United States! Filled with the excitement of touring through the interior of the massive ocean-liner, we behaved like school boys peering down dark passageways and staring into the cavernous space that is the forward engine room of the storied vessel.

Iver was interested in writing a story about the plight of the ship and the nascent organization I was forming to save her. I didn't know it at the time but Iver's story Group Battles to Save Luxury Liner Big U, and Glory of Its Day published on Easter Sunday in the entire New York Times syndicate, would bring my fledgling organization, the SS United States Foundation, into national prominence and launch a worldwide effort to Save the United States.


His story was (and is) invaluable to the still ongoing effort to Save the United States. And his subsequent follow up stories kept the flame alive for many years.

Iver had a passion for the Big U because as a child he sailed on her many times. His parents were a Washington, DC power couple and in his dining room a picture of his  famous mother, Ester Peterson, riding shotgun next to President Lyndon Johnson in his convertible Lincoln Continental said it all.

No doubt the SS United States held such fond memories for Iver simply for the fact that on this ship, for a few days as it crossed the Atlantic, he could have an adventure with his family.

When it became obvious that the direction to change tactics for preserving the former national flagship, Iver said to me at Christmas party in his home, "Robert, you are a puritan...and I respect that but you're going to have to consider alternatives."

He was right.

In the end, I would turn over the Foundation to others and Iver would never pen another story about the fabled ship.

It was time for a new direction on the path that we puritan preservationists had forged.

Iver died August 1, 2012. Sadly, I just discovered his obituary in the online edition of the newspaper he wrote for The New York Times.

Sail on Iver. Sail on...

For more information about helping the effort to Save the United States go to the SS United States Conservancy. #ssunitedstates #savetheunitedstates 


This was the first New York Times story (releases across the newspaper's entire syndicate)about the SS United States since 1969 and with a readership of over 25 million (including The Dallas Morning News, The Boston Globe and the International Herald Tribune) it brought world attention to the plight of the great vessel.

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Lord Westover ıt ıs Istanbul Not Constantınople!

By Ima Somıddle Class

A Vast Estate (obvıously) -- When ın Rome do as the Roman's do - not as the sultan´s would, your GRACE! Lord Westover and the Earl of Fulton seem to be havıng too good a tıme doıng as the Sultan´s do. Try not beıng so NOBLE next tıme.



Wednesday, August 1, 2012

The Nobility of Gore Vidal - Where did he get it?


By Robert Hudson Westover


Love him or hate him (you have no other choice) Gore Vidal had a persistent and apparent nobility about him that could never be denied--not even by those who most loathed him.

So where did he get it?

Many will attribute this nobility to the fact that he was born into a grand political family. But so was his mother and she, by Vidal's own accounts, rarely exhibited the noble traits of her famous son. 

So how did it develop in Vidal?

I think I might have the answer and it might surprise you.

My dear honorary godmother, Countess Olga Chrapovitsky Morgan, was related to Gore Vidal through marriage. Her nephew, Hugh D. "Yusha" Auchincloss III was both Vidal’s step brother and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis' (as well as a slew of other well born Auchincloss children). 

Gore Vidal
It's interesting to me that the "Merrywood on the Potomac" kids (the children of family patriarch Hugh D. Auchincloss and former residents of the famed Merrywood mansion near Washington, D.C.) who most all knew and admired Olga, had such nobility about them. And I strongly feel they all got part of their awareness of their inner nobility in large part from Olga. Not that she taught them in any sort of Maria-von-Trapp-Sound-of-Music sort of way. 

No. I think it was just her day-to-day noble actions and reactions to the world around her. I say (and believe) this because I too had the unique opportunity to be exposed to the Nobility of Olga. 

And it changed my life.

Countess Olga C. Morgan with me at her home in Laguna Beach


I wish the whole world could have had this woman as their honorary godmother. To show them, as she demonstrated to so many others, that we all have a Noble spirit within us that just needs to be brought out in our daily walk and conversation—that this world can be a much more civilized world by truly (and honestly) respecting others because they're just as noble as you and me.

Admittedly Vidal fell far short of this aspect of inner nobility! (Nobody's perfect.) But he often recovered.

Case in point. From The Guardian newspaper: 

A few years ago, when I mentioned a passage in his memoirs that admits to being unable to express any open distress after the death of Howard Austen, his supportive partner for almost 50 years, he drawled: "Have you seen that film with Helen Mirren? The Queen? Our class are brought up not to show emotion."

This effortless identification with one of the highest-born figures in history was very Vidal: both in its social self-confidence and the fact that a question about emotional evasion was itself emotionally evaded through a provocative aphorism.

Indeed.


#GoreVidal @GoreVidal