“I’m concerned that in the United States we are not embracing what we normally do, which is to have a debate on the subject.”
— George Clooney
Are we both living in the same United States? That is all we have BEEN doing since September 11, 2001, is debating. Shouting at each other. From the second Susan Sontag wrote her piece in The New Yorker, which hit the stands only days after the attack, with smoke still rising from lower Manhattan. But that started off this damn “debate”. She gave voice to people who don’t think the United States should fight back, that WE are the villain, and they have been talking and debating ever since. Firing off op-ed columns to each other, shouting across the desk on Crossfire, picking apart this issue (from what to do in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban, to is it wrong to racially profile Muslims) ad nauseum. That is all we have BEEN doing is debating!
And if you’re criticized for your views, then that is part of free speech too. That’s not persecution. That’s the person who disagrees with you feeling free enough to say, “You’re a windbag. I think your opinion is stupid.” If that person then threw you in jail and cut off your hands, THEN maybe I’d say that free speech was in danger in this country.
Debate with no eventual choice made, no eye on the outcome, is just hot air. People who would rather talk than do.
I’m an actress. I know that there are many celebrities out there who are intelligent, and well-spoken. But not too many of them have been speaking up these days. Probably terrified that if they do, they will end up, 30 years from now, like Charlton Heston. A movie star who could not get a frigging job in Hollywood because of his political views.
