Posted on 09/23/2002 8:45:31 AM PDT by fight_truth_decay
A bunch of left-wing celebrities, including Ed Asner, Ossie Davis, Jane Fonda, Danny Glover, Casey Kasum, Susan Sarandon, Oliver Stone and Marisa Tomei, helped pay for a full page ad in last Thursday's New York Times denouncing President Bush's war on terrorism.
Also adding their name to the ad: Time magazine contributor Barbara Ehrenreich and Steve Earle, singer of John Walker's Blues. Across the top of the page the ad screamed: "PRESIDENT BUSH has declared: 'you're either with us or against us.' Here is our answer:"
The ad, paid for by a group calling itself "Not in Our Name," screeched below: "We call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate."
The signers equated 9/11 with the terror inflicted by the U.S. military: "We too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible scenes of carnage -- even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation ago, Vietnam."
The Bush administration "put out a simplistic script of 'good vs. evil,'" the signers complained, a formula "that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media."
An excerpt of the low-lights:
Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression.
The signers of this statement call on the people of the U.S. to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world....
We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their own governments do -- we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST the war and repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with the people of the world.
We too watched with shock the horrific events of September 11, 2001. We too mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible scenes of carnage -- even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama City, and, a generation ago, Vietnam. We too joined the anguished questioning of millions of Americans who asked why such a thing could happen.
But the mourning had barely begun, when the highest leaders of the land unleashed a spirit of revenge. They put out a simplistic script of "good vs. evil" that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media. They told us that asking why these terrible events had happened verged on treason. There was to be no debate. There were by definition no valid political or moral questions. The only possible answer was to be war abroad and repression at home....
In our name, the government has brought down a pall of repression over society. The President's spokesperson warns people to "watch what they say." Dissident artists, intellectuals, and professors find their views distorted, attacked, and suppressed. The so-called Patriot Act -- along with a host of similar measures on the state level -- gives police sweeping new powers of search and seizure, supervised if at all by secret proceedings before secret courts.
In our name, the executive has steadily usurped the roles and functions of the other branches of government. Military tribunals with lax rules of evidence and no right to appeal to the regular courts are put in place by executive order. Groups are declared "terrorist" at the stroke of a presidential pen.
We must take the highest officers of the land seriously when they talk of a war that will last a generation and when they speak of a new domestic order. We are confronting a new openly imperial policy towards the world and a domestic policy that manufactures and manipulates fear to curtail rights....
President Bush has declared: "you're either with us or against us." Here is our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say NOT IN OUR NAME. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our solidarity in word and deed....
Let us not allow the watching world today to despair of our silence and our failure to act. Instead, let the world hear our pledge: we will resist the machinery of war and repression and rally others to do everything possible to stop it.
END of Excerpt
Count me in - I'll pony up real $$ to be a part of this. How about $200 for openers?
Keep me posted.......Hardstarboard
But -- they are a useful indicator for me, as I've not the time to closely examine every issue all the time, but if they are for it, I'm against it, and if they are screaming bloody murder, then I *know* we are right on target. Fire for effect.
Count me in for a couple bucks.
I remember laughing when Henry referred to her as "My Alleged daughter"
Whenever I write about her, I always refer to her as Henry's daughter, though. I don't consider her as a talent in her own right.
We will not hand over our consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say NOT IN OUR NAME. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare.
"NOT IN OUR NAME" says defending oneself and the nation is "immoral and unjust". They don't want any war lead by the evil Bush administration to be fought in their name. When Hollywood, Beverly Hills and other rich celebrity communities are hit by terrorists let's remember they said they don't want war in their name.
They seem to have left out Bosnia and the aspirin factory in Sudan. Hmmmmmmmm.
We all know that they despise America, and they probably believe that US racism and exploitation somehow provoked the 9/11 attacks. They were either too intimidated or too ashamed to voice these opinions for the first year or so after the attacks....but they're out of the closet now. Even Algore got into the act today.
That's great! I didn't know he said that. I might respect him after all.
.. but some of these names/occupations are hilarious..
Mary Van Lieshout, U.S. Citizens in Ireland for Alternatives to War
John Stanton, national security analyst & football coach
Stefanie Seskin, singer/songwriter blue number nine (????)
Leslie P. Salgado, Chair, Maryland-Cuba Friendship Coalition
John T. Racanelli, presiding judge (ret.), California Court of Appeal (if he is retired, he's no longer presiding, right?)
William Tyson Painter: Student/Webmaster/Musician (unemployed?)
Anuradha Mittal, co-director, Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food First
Jordan Scott Merrell, #12549651, Oregon State Prison
Candace Martin, governor of enlightenment
Rev. Thomas Ferranti, local tv/radio producer, cartoonist, publisher, musician (busy man)
Cecilia Chang, Chairperson, Wen Ho Lee Defense Fund Steering Committee
Dale Bennett, common man, world citizen
other than that, pretty much, the list consists of poets/writers/other type folks. Sad to see a name of the mother of a victim of WTC on the list. Didn't see Julia Roberts on it.. hmm.
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