- 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.
-
- Actor Tim Robbins speaks about his anti-war stance at
the National Press Club in Washington Tuesday, April 15, 2003. (AP Photo/Gerald
Herbert)
-
- 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.)
-
- ###
-
- FAIR USE NOTICE
-
- This site contains copyrighted material the use of which
has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We
are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding
of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific,
and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use'
of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the
US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material
on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed
a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of
your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the
copyright owner.
-
- http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0416-01.htm#
|
