Sean Penn has been berated by critics and attacked by right-wing pundits for speaking out publicly against the war and the Bush administration’s actions more generally. In response, USA Today (9/19) quoted Penn as saying:
I think it’s incumbent upon everyone to speak up. Not
enough people do it. Maybe they’re afraid they’ll be criticized or
called a Nazi. But I hope that never makes me embarrassed to lend a
hand or speak my mind.
The world very much needs people like Penn who take responsibility to use their voice to call attention to the disastrous and horrific crimes the Bush regime is committing in the Middle East and elsewhere. At a moment when the future of people around the world is at stake, what Penn has done is exactly what anyone with public influence should do without equivocation.
In the same article, Penn shared his views on the upcoming election, saying he “won’t get involved with a single Democrat who doesn’t believe we should responsibly pull out of the war now.”