1371Tim Robbins

Apr. 21, 2003

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=15673

Countering a Wave of Hate
By Tim Robbins
April 17, 2003
Transcript of the speech given by actor Tim Robbins to the National
Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003.

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. 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 these past few
days. I hold no illusions that all of these journalists agree with me
on my views against the war. While the journalist's 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 the ugliness and tragedy of 9-11 there was a brief period
afterwards 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 of this I held onto a glimmer of hope in the naive assumption
that something good could come out of all this. I imagined our
leaders seizing upon this moment of unity in America, this moment
when no one wanted to talk about Democrat vs. Republican, white vs.
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 into 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, 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 re-born.

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 re-union of sorts. Amidst the alcohol and the dancing and
the sugar-rushing children there was, of course talk of the war. 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. 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 were 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 peaceniks doorsteps
for their views against the war. Realtives of ours have received
threatening e-mails and phone calls. My 13-year-old boy, who has done
nothing to anybody, has been embarrassed and humiliated by a sadistic
creep who writes, or rather, scratches, his column with his fingers
in the 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. Apologies to Gore Vidal. Two weeks ago, the United
Way cancelled Susan's appearance at a conference on women's
leadership and both of us last week were told that both we and the
1st Amendment were not welcome at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

A famous 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, [veteran White House correspondent] Helen Thomas
finds herself banished to the back of the room and uncalled on after
asking Ari Fleisher 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 airwaves 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 in fear.

I'm sick of hearing about Hollywood being against the 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 our teenagers are having? 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 talk-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 OK 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? 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. We need leaders, not
pragmatists that cower before the spin zones of former entertainment
journalists. We need leaders who understand the Constitution –
Congressmen 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 stop the Congressional sing-a-longs?

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. 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 backtracked and began stammering compliments in
embarrassment.

Sports writers 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. 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 re-
write our Constitution in the 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. 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 de jour. Any instance of intimidation to free
speech should be battled against. Any acquiescence to 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. 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.