Notes from Another un-American Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Notes from Another un-American by Wayne Sumstine On the evening of Saturday, October 20, the City of New York was host to a magnificent and grand celebrity/music fundraiser at Madison Square Garden. The five-hour program was televised live around the country. During the celebration, there was a curious incident in which the actor Richard Gere was booed strongly for contemplating aloud the possibilities for peaceful, thoughtful, non-vengeful responses to the tragedies that have overtaken us. Subsequently, he was vilified on at least two programs on the Fox News channel for his "un-American" utterances. So, in fairness to Mr. Gere and his detractors, I would like to enter the following "un-American" quotes, for the record: "In this difficult time for the United States, it is perhaps well to ask what kind of a nation we are. And what direction we want to move in... You can be filled with bitterness and hatred and a desire for revenge. We can move in that direction as a country. Or, we can make an effort to understand and to comprehend and replace that violence, that stain of bloodshed that is spread across our land, with an effort to understand, and compassion, and love.... "Too often, we honor swagger and bluster and the wielders of force. Too often we excuse those who are willing to build their own lives on the shattered dreams of other human beings.... And, there is another kind of violence that is just as deadly as a shot or a bomb in the night. This is the violence of institutions. Whenever an innocent life is taken, whether it is done in defiance of the law, or in the name of the law,... whether it is an attack of violence or in response to violence, the whole nation is degraded... Repression breeds retaliation, and only a cleansing of our society can remove the sickness from our souls." Many of you may have seen the Garden celebration on television or attended it in person, and are now taxing your memory, wondering whether or not I have quoted Mr. Gere accurately and completely. I must confess, I heard him speak, but do not have a copy of the transcript, so while I believe the above is a fair and reasonable paraphrase of the so-called "un-American" sentiments he tried to convey, the actual words quoted above are from the speech given by Robert F. Kennedy in April of 1968, following the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. Wayne Sumstine Tucson, AZ orblink@yahoo.com ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytrc-10.23.01-20:34:31-16686