May World Peace Abide.  I also believe this speech transcript is a
"Must-Read!"  Hope you agree.         Ian

>Subject: Must-Read
>Date: Mon, 28 Apr 2003 09:53:21 -0500
>
>
>----- Forwarded by Susan Larson/SpecTax/MDOR on 04/28/03 09:37 AM -----
>
>Published on Wednesday, April 16, 2003 by
>CommonDreams.org
>'A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation...'
>Transcript of the speech given by actor Tim Robbins to the National Press
>Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003.
>
>TIM ROBBINS: Thank you. And thanks for the invitation.
>I had originally been asked here to talk about the war and our current
>political situation, but I have instead chosen to hijack this opportunity
>and talk about baseball and show business. (Laughter.) Just kidding. Sort
>of.
>
>I can't tell you how moved I have been at the overwhelming support I have
>received from newspapers throughout the country in these past few days. I
>hold no illusions that all of these journalists agree with me on my views
>against the war. While the journalists' outrage at the cancellation of our
>appearance in Cooperstown is not about my views, it is about my right to
>express these views. I am extremely grateful that there are those of you
>out there still with a
>fierce belief in constitutionally guaranteed rights.
>We need you, the press, now more than ever. This is a crucial moment for
>all of us.
>
>For all of the ugliness and tragedy of 9-11, there was a brief period
>afterward where I held a great hope, in the midst of the tears and shocked
>faces of New Yorkers, in the midst of the lethal air we breathed as we
>worked at Ground Zero, in the midst of my children's terror at being so
>close to this crime against humanity, in the midst of all this, I held on
>to a glimmer of hope in the naive assumption that something good could come
>out of it.
>
>I imagined our leaders seizing upon this moment of unity in America, this
>moment when no one wanted to talk about Democrat versus Republican, white
>versus black, or any of the other ridiculous divisions that dominate our
>public discourse. I imagined our leaders going on television telling the
>citizens that although we all want to be at Ground Zero, we can't, but
>there
>is work that is needed to be done all over America.
>Our help is needed at community centers to tutor children, to teach them to
>read. Our work is needed at old-age homes to visit the lonely and infirmed;
>in gutted neighborhoods to rebuild housing and clean up parks, and convert
>abandoned lots to baseball fields.
>I imagined leadership that would take this incredible energy, this
>generosity of spirit and create a new unity in America born out of the
>chaos and tragedy of 9/11, a new unity that would send a message to
>terrorists everywhere: If you attack us, we will become stronger, cleaner,
>better educated, and more unified. You will strengthen our commitment to
>justice
>and democracy by your inhumane attacks on us. Like a Phoenix out of the
>fire, we will be reborn.
>
>And then came the speech: You are either with us or against us. And the
>bombing began. And the old paradigm was restored as our leader encouraged
>us to show our patriotism by shopping and by volunteering to join groups
>that would turn in their neighbor for any
>suspicious behavior.
>
>In the 19 months since 9-11, we have seen our democracy compromised by fear
>and hatred. Basic inalienable rights, due process, the sanctity of the home
>have been quickly compromised in a climate of fear. A unified American
>public has grown bitterly divided, and a world population that had profound
>sympathy and support for us has grown contemptuous and
>distrustful, viewing us as we once viewed the Soviet Union, as a rogue
>state.
>
>This past weekend, Susan and I and the three kids went to Florida for a
>family reunion of sorts. Amidst the alcohol and the dancing, sugar-rushing
>children, there was, of course, talk of the war. And the most frightening
>thing about the weekend was the amount of times we were thanked for
>speaking out against the war because that individual speaking thought it
>unsafe to
>do so in their own community, in their own life. Keep talking, they said; I
>haven't been able to open my mouth.
>
>A relative tells me that a history teacher tells his 11-year-old son, my
>nephew, that Susan Sarandon is endangering the troops by her opposition to
>the war.
>Another teacher in a different school asks our niece if we are coming to
>the school play. They're not welcome here, said the molder of young minds.
>
>Another relative tells me of a school board decision to cancel a civics
>event that was proposing to have a moment of silence for those who have
>died in the war because the students were including dead Iraqi civilians in
>their silent prayer.
>
>A teacher in another nephew's school is fired for wearing a T- shirt with a
>peace sign on it. And a friend of the family tells of listening to the
>radio down South as the talk radio host calls for the murder of a prominent
>anti-war activist. Death threats have appeared on other prominent anti-war
>activists' doorsteps for their views. Relatives of ours have received
>threatening e-mails and phone calls. And my 13-year-old boy, who has done
>nothing to anybody, has recently been embarrassed and humiliated by a
>sadistic creep who writes -- or, rather, scratches his column with his
>fingernails in dirt.
>
>Susan and I have been listed as traitors, as supporters of Saddam, and
>various other epithets by the Aussie gossip rags masquerading as
>newspapers, and by their fair and balanced electronic media cousins, 19th
>Century Fox. (Laughter.)
>Apologies to Gore Vidal.(Applause.)
>
>Two weeks ago, the United Way canceled Susan's appearance at a conference
>on women's leadership. And both of us last week were told that both we and
>the First Amendment were not welcome at the Baseball Hall of Fame.
>
>A famous middle-aged rock-and-roller called me last week to thank me for
>speaking out against the war, only to go on to tell me that he could not
>speak himself because he fears repercussions from Clear Channel. "They
>promote our concert appearances," he said. "They own most of the stations
>that play our music. I can't come out against this war."
>
>And here in Washington, Helen Thomas finds herself banished to the back of
>the room and uncalled on after asking Ari Fleischer whether our showing
>prisoners of war at Guantanamo Bay on television violated the Geneva
>Convention.
>
>A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the
>White House and its allies in talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown.
>If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.
>
>Every day, the air waves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled
>threats, spewed invective and hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And
>the public, like so many relatives and friends that I saw this weekend, sit
>in mute opposition and fear.
>
>I am sick of hearing about Hollywood being against this war. Hollywood's
>heavy hitters, the real power brokers and cover-of-the- magazine stars,
>have been largely silent on this issue. But Hollywood, the concept, has
>always been a popular target.
>
>I remember when the Columbine High School shootings happened. President
>Clinton criticized Hollywood for contributing to this terrible tragedy --
>this, as we were dropping bombs over Kosovo. Could the violent actions of
>our leaders contribute somewhat to the
>violent fantasies of our teenagers? Or is it all just Hollywood and rock
>and roll?
>
>I remember reading at the time that one of the shooters had tried to enlist
>to fight the real war a week before he acted out his war in real life at
>Columbine. I talked about this in the press at the time. And curiously, no
>one accused me of being unpatriotic for criticizing Clinton. In fact, the
>same radio patriots that call us traitors today engaged in daily personal
>attacks on their president during the war in Kosovo.
>
>Today, prominent politicians who have decried violence in movies -- the
>"Blame Hollywooders," if you will -- recently voted to give our current
>president the power
>to unleash real violence in our current war. They want us to stop the
>fictional violence but are okay with the real kind.
>
>And these same people that tolerate the real violence of war don't want to
>see the result of it on the nightly news. Unlike the rest of the world, our
>news coverage of this war remains sanitized, without a glimpse of the blood
>and gore inflicted upon our soldiers or the women and children in Iraq.
>Violence as a concept, an abstraction -- it's very strange.
>
>As we applaud the hard-edged realism of the opening battle scene of "Saving
>Private Ryan," we cringe at the thought of seeing the same on the nightly
>news. We are told it would be pornographic. We want no part of reality in
>real life. We demand that war be painstakingly realized on the screen, but
>that war remain imagined and conceptualized in real life.
>
>And in the midst of all this madness, where is the political opposition?
>Where have all the Democrats gone? Long time passing, long time ago.
>(Applause.)
>With apologies to Robert Byrd, I have to say it is pretty embarrassing to
>live in a country where a five-foot- one comedian has more guts than most
>politicians. (Applause.) We need leaders, not pragmatists that cower before
>the spin zones of former entertainment journalists. We need leaders who can
>understand the Constitution, congressman who don't in a moment of fear
>abdicate their most important power, the right to declare war to the
>executive branch. And, please, can we please stop the congressional
>sing-a-longs? (Laughter.)
>
>In this time when a citizenry applauds the liberation of a country as it
>lives in fear of its own freedom, when an administration official releases
>an attack ad questioning the patriotism of a legless Vietnam veteran
>running for Congress, when people all over the country fear reprisal if
>they use their right to free speech, it is time to get angry. It is time to
>get fierce. And it doesn't take much to shift the tide. My 11-year-old
>nephew, mentioned earlier, a shy kid who never talks in class, stood up to
>his history teacher who was questioning Susan's patriotism. "That's my aunt
>you're talking about. Stop it." And the stunned teacher backtracks and
>began stammering compliments in embarrassment.
>
>Sportswriters across the country reacted with such overwhelming fury at the
>Hall of Fame that the president of the Hall admitted he made a mistake and
>Major League Baseball disavowed any connection to the actions of the Hall's
>president. A bully can be stopped, and so can a mob. It takes one person
>with the courage and a resolute voice.
>
>The journalists in this country can battle back at those who would rewrite
>our Constitution in Patriot Act II, or "Patriot, The Sequel," as we would
>call it in Hollywood. We are counting on you to star in that movie.
>Journalists can insist that they not be used as publicists by this
>administration. (Applause.) The next White House correspondent to be called
>on by Ari
>Fleischer should defer their question to the back of the room, to the
>banished journalist du jour. (Applause.) And any instance of intimidation
>to free speech should be battled against. Any acquiescence or intimidation
>at this point will only lead to more intimidation. You have, whether you
>like it or not, an awesome responsibility and an awesome power: the fate
>of discourse, the health of this republic is in your hands, whether you
>write on the left or the right. This is your time, and the destiny you
>have chosen.
>
>We lay the continuance of our democracy on your desks, and count on your
>pens to be mightier. Millions are watching and waiting in mute frustration
>and hope - hoping for someone to defend the spirit and letter of our
>Constitution, and to defy the intimidation that is visited upon us daily in
>the name of national security and warped notions of patriotism.
>
>Our ability to disagree, and our inherent right to question our leaders and
>criticize their actions
>define who we are. To allow those rights to be taken away out of fear, to
>punish people for their beliefs, to limit access in the news media to
>differing opinions is to acknowledge our democracy's defeat.
>These are challenging times. There is a wave of hate that seeks to divide
>us -- right and left, pro-war and anti-war. In the name of my 11-year-old
>nephew, and all the other unreported victims of this hostile and
>unproductive environment of fear, let us try to find our common ground as a
>nation. Let us celebrate this grand and glorious experiment that has
>survived for
>227 years. To do so we must honor and fight vigilantly for the things that
>unite us -- like freedom, the First Amendment and, yes, baseball.
>(Applause.)
>
>
>
>
>
>

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