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
This is a partial list that MRC is trying to update. If you don’t see your name, please be patient: Please notify us of any errors.. John Abbick
Susan Abbott, consultant
Hamdiya Fatimah Abdul-Aleem
Rabab Abdulhadi
Erica Abeel, writer
Kim Abeles, artist
Anna Abend
Jennifer Abod
Khaled, Abou El Fadl, professor of law, UCLA
Darren Aboulafia
James Abourezk
David Abram -- cultural ecologist and author
Paula Abrams-Hourani
Dave Abston
As`ad AbuKhalil, Professor, Cal State Univ, Stanislaus
Janet L. Abu-Lughod, Professor Emerita, New School University
Lila Abu-Lughod, Professor of Anthropology, Columbia
Emily Achtenberg
Jesse Achtenberg, filmmaker
David Adams, professor, Wesleyan University
Dennis Adams, artist
Lande Adams
Katrina Adang
Sandra Adickes, writer/teacher
Justin Adler
Kristin L. Adolfson, bookmaker
Julia J. Aegerter
Farhad Afsharvand
Nancy Agen
Delia D. Aguilar, Professor of Women's Studies (retired), Washington State University
Rev. Anne Ainsworth
John M Aiono
Airtrack..........
Too many to take up this space go to the site to read more "http://www.nion.us/CURRENTM.htm"
Banger Sisters is Sarandon's new film..one of the most outspoken of the group.How to respond to a Group where Entertainment lines the pockets in such enormous dollar amounts that by banding together, such ads can be taken in the NY Times..the man or woman going to his Reality job could never place an ad like this..so what can they do?(and won't cost a dime) Maybe just maybe one just doesn't attend the next film of that celebrity..Granted these gifted individuals (sic) have the right to speak out as many men and women have given their lives to allow them to exercise these freedoms..but if we do not agree with their Liberal_isms, then as the President Bush said on combatting terrorism "We stop the money supply!"..well maybe "We just slow down the entertainment business money supply." So when someone says to me they are going to see "Banger Sisters", I just point out this Latest Letter by the "Not In Our Name" to the NY Times and the reply has been.."Maybe I just will see another film."
Except they'd find a way to come back...
Damnit now Im pissed I thought she was cool I liked her.
I can see it now, Marisa Tomei penning "The Starbucks Archipelago", the riveting account of how dozens of Hollywood millionaires suffered under the Bush regime: Their taxes lowered, property values skyrocketing. The lesser minions toiling in the military so that Will and Grace may be safely viewed without threat of interruption.
Not in your name? Gladly, you ungrateful jackasses.
Survivors and families of the victims should BOYCOTT these creeps. I haven't seen a movie in longer than I can remember, and it doesn't hurt a bit.
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