GW Bush’s America: Americans Pay Price for Speaking Out

Dissenters Face Job Loss, Arrest, Threats But Activists not Stopped by Backlash

GW Bush’s America: Americans Pay Price for Speaking Out
Dissenters Face Job Loss, Arrest, Threats But Activists not Stopped
by Backlash
by Kathleen Kenna, staff reporter, Toronto Star
Published on Saturday, August 9, 2003 by the Toronto Star
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He’s a Vietnam War hero from a proud lineage of warriors who served
the United States, so he never expected to be called a traitor.
After 39 years in the Marines, including commands in Somalia and
Iraq, Gen. Anthony Zinni never imagined he would be tagged
"turncoat."
The epithets are not from the uniforms but the suits - "senior
officers at the Pentagon," the now-retired general says from his
home in Williamsburg, Va.
"They want to question my patriotism?" he demands testily.
To question the Iraq war in the U.S. - and individuals from Main St.
merchants to Hollywood stars do - is to be branded un-American.
Dissent, once an ideal cherished in the U.S. Constitution’s First
Amendment, now invites media attacks, hate Web sites, threats and
job loss.
After Zinni challenged the administration’s rationale for the Iraq
war last fall, he lost his job as President George W. Bush’s Middle
East peace envoy after 18 months.
"I’ve been told I will never be used by the White House again."
Across the United States, hundreds of Americans have been arrested
for protesting the war. The American Civil Liberties Union has
documented more than 300 allegations of wrongful arrest and police
brutality from demonstrators at anti-war rallies in Washington and
New York.
Even the silent, peaceful vigils of Women in Black - held regularly
in almost every state - have prompted threats of arrest by American
police.
Actors and spouses Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon have publicly
denounced the backlash against them for their anti-war activism.
Robbins said they were called "traitors" and "supporters of Saddam"
and their public appearances at a United Way luncheon in Florida and
the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., this spring were
cancelled in reaction to their anti-war stance.
Actor/comedian Janeane Garofalo was stalked and received death
threats for opposing the war in high-profile media appearances.
MSNBC hosts asked viewers to urge MCI to fire actor and anti-war
activist Danny Glover as a spokesperson - the long-distance
telephone giant refused to fire him despite the ensuing hate-mail
campaign - and one host, former politician Joe Scarborough, urged
that anti-war protesters be arrested and charged with sedition.
"There’s no official blacklisting," says Kate McArdle, executive
director of Artists United, a new group of 120 actors devoted to
progressive causes.
"This is Hollywood, so there are always rumours starting up. Mostly
it was producers saying, We know your position - do you have to be so vocal?'" Internet chat rooms have spouted "tons and tons of vitriol aimed at us," says McArdle, a former network TV executive. "Things like,Tell me where Tim Robbins lives and I’ll go bash out
his brains,’" she says.
"Or, If you don't like America, why don't you move to Iraq? Why don't you move to Canada?' "The real backlash comes from the right wing, from America's talk radio guys - when their ratings are down - not from the industry," McArdle says. "We get theYou’re either with us or agin’ us.’"
Comes with the territory, she adds.
"We’re a nation of dissenters."
The Dixie Chicks country pop group won worldwide attention for their
anti-Bush comments, which were met with widespread radio station
bans against playing their music. Their fans have responded by
circulating petitions on the Internet objecting to the "chill" that
has tried to silence free speech in the U.S.
And opposition to the war has spawned many new songs - some remixes
of old Vietnam protest songs - and Web sites devoted to anti-war
lyrics.
Dozens of fans walked out of a Pearl Jam concert in Denver, Colo.,
last spring when lead singer Eddie Vedder hoisted a Bush mask on a
microphone stand and sang, "He’s not a leader, he’s a Texas
leaguer."
But musician Carlos Santana was cheered in Australia - a key U.S.
ally in the Iraq war and recent proponent of the "Bush doctrine" of
intervention in smaller states’ affairs - when he spoke against the
war and American foreign policy.
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