Posted on 02/05/2003 6:34:19 AM PST by areafiftyone
Gere takes on Bill
Richard Gere stunned fellow liberals Monday by suggesting that President Bush is doing a better job of fighting AIDS than President Bill Clinton did.
Introduced by Sharon Stone at a fund-raiser at Cipriani 42nd Street for the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the "Chicago" star hailed Bush for his State of the Union proposal to contribute $15 billion toward the AIDS battle in Africa and the Caribbean. Gere then addressed the track record of Bush's predecessor in the White House.
"I'm sorry, Sen. [Hillary] Clinton, but your husband did nothing about AIDS for eight years," Gere said.
By that point, Sen. Clinton, who joined Mayor Bloomberg and honorees Anna Wintour and Lorne Michaels at the event, had left the restaurant. But a spokeswoman for the senator said yesterday that Gere's claim was "simply not true. The Clinton administration increased funding for AIDS research, prevention and treatment by over 400% and tripled funding for international AIDS programs."
Meanwhile, veteran Clinton-basher Christopher Hitchens is suggesting that the former President was a CIA informant at Oxford University, where the two were students in the late 1960s.
"I think he was a double," the author of "No One Left to Lie To" claims in the latest issue of the conservative quarterly Doublethink. "Somebody was giving information to [the CIA] about the antiwar draft resisters, and I think it was probably him."
Clinton's spokesman Jim Kennedy declined to comment on Hitchens' spy story.
...or maybe that the left is being fractured by the truth. Which to my knowledge is why FR is in existence.
Gere also made that anti-Red China movie. What was its name? (He played a journalist visiting Peking.)
Although there are some using this language, look at Gere and others. They are taking the President at his word, that much is obvious. Why?
Because no matter how they might feel about some of his other policies, they know he is a man of conviction, somebody who means what he says.
Gere called for peace at that concert, but I don't recollect him damning the U.S. Did he?
It is interesting that, during his visit to the University of Warwick in 2000, Clinton made a point of meeting with Germaine Greer. I wonder if they talked about old times.
He did do his best to understand the permissive sexual climate of 1990's America...give him some credit.
Here's the link to the full article. LINK
Here's the excerpt. I'll make specific comments on five issues below.
When asked how his involvement began, Gere stated, "Well, I'll tell you where it started with me was in Central America. In the early 1980s I went to Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. In El Salvador this dirty war was still going on heavily. I went there with a doctor who had treated 'campesinos.' And I ended up in refugee camps across the border in Honduras where these kids were telling the most horrific stories of what had happened to their families, and to them. Some of them couldn't even speak: so traumatised that they couldn't relate the stories. Their therapy was to tell the story in the communities, and keep telling it; not to bury it, to get it out through drawings, paintings. We'd bring crayons and paper and they'd immediately start drawing these horrific things."
He also spoke about the ethical subtleties of international politics; that it's never a simple black and white/good vs. bad issue. Ultimately, and most illuminating, is that he himself personally is taking responsibility:
"You know, the thought from my side was that the U.S. was providing the expertise for this kind of horror and human rights abuse. And if it isn't the U.S., it's Argentina, or it's Britain, or it's the Israelis. It's not just the 'bad guys' who do this kind of thing. We are the bad guys too! And it made me feel a tremendous responsibility to do something about this. In fact, these are my tax dollars, as it were, funding these horrors. It reminded me of a concept the Quakers started, called 'witness to truth.' It is very important to all of us who have access to the truth, to speak about it, and mainly in defence of people who don't have access to a voice, who don't have access to a judicial system where they can take their grievances. It's really our responsibility to hold the hands of our younger brothers, you know, our less well-off brothers and sisters."
You stated that Gere isn't as bad as Streisand, Sarandon et al. I stated that I find him just as problematic. This is why.
Gere is diefied by the media. Just go do a Google search on the internet. You'll find site after site developed by fans who have created a shrine to him. Nothing this man says is measured by a criticle mind. These people have set their minds on vacuum with no filter. That makes people like him very dangerous. Their views affect the world-view of millions of Americans.
I have no problem with Gere being a touchy feely bleeding heart. Go to South America. Use your influence to help people. Defend the indiginous peoples of the region if you like. That doesn't give you carte blanche to vilify the United States on the world stated.
By now you've read the excerpt. The lead in to it described Gere in glowing terms. Fine. Some of his qualities on their own are honorable. The problem with guys like Gere, is that they don't stop there. They don't have the critical skills necessary to engage in political speak, but that doesn't stop them.
Gere went to these nations. He found problems there. As far as that goes, he's right. There were problems. Let's move on. No, things are never black and white. But guess what? Directly after telling us it's not black and white, a black and white issue rises. Guess who's the nation who get's blamed in these instances. In black and white no uncertain terms, it's the United States. And of course if it wasn't the United States it was the United States' allies. Note the inclusion of Israel here. We're discussing a American Hemisphere problem, but Gere can't help himself but to insert a slam at Israel, and let's make this clear, Jews.
Nowhere in this presentation did the words, "U.S.S.R", "Cuba", "Marxist Insurgents", "repressive Marxist Government" or any other pertinant words appear that would show why the United States was involved in the area. Note that today there is peace in El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua. Why? Even before the U.S.S.R., fell it withdrew funding of Cuba's Marxist insurgency into Central and South America, and the African Continent. US efforts to defeat Marxist insurgencies and repressive governments were a complete success. Gere mentions none of this in his haste to damn the United States as the single force that created the problems he saw in Central America.
Gere speaks of "witness to truth". Gere wouldn't know truth if it rose up and bit him on the arse.
As evidenced by his comments here, Gere is perfectly willing to be a tool for Marxism. While it may seem innocent, it isn't really. Marxism gets a free ride. The US is framed as being the bad guy. Hence the impression given is that US foreign policy is bad. Look at the poor children. When people hear other bits of information they piece it together to forumulate a global view of US policy. It's a disinformation tactic. Today Central America's children live in peace and freedom. Do you think Gere goes back to remark about what US policy provided for them? Do you think he goes back to remark about what Israeli policy brought them? As if!
Gere is a card carrying Marxist visionary. To hell with him. Yes that's the same hell Susan Sarandan will one day inhabit.
Gere's inclusion of Israel in the list of nations who are damnable should haunt you. It should haunt him too, but he's beyond help.
Ugh. If there is, I don't wanna see. :)
Gere also made that anti-Red China movie. What was its name? (He played a journalist visiting Peking.)
_________
"Red Corner" I saw it. Was OK. I do respect Gere. He's not a Hollyweird airhead
You might like to check out my comments a few posts above his one. They're somewhat long.
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