[Sean Penn received The 2006 Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award
from The Creative Coalition on December 18, 2006, in New York City,
where he delivered the following speech.]
The Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award. For the purposes of
tonight and my own personal enjoyment, I’m going to yield to the notion
that I deserve this.
And in the spirit of that, tell you that I am very honored to
receive it. And for this I thank the Creative Coalition and my friend
Charlie Rose. It does seem appropriate to take this opportunity to
exercise the right that honors us all – freedom of speech.
Note for later:
The original title for the Louis XVI comedy called “Start The
Revolution Without Me” was one of my favorites. That original title was
“Louis, There’s a Crowd Downstairs.” But I’ll come back to that…
Words may be our most civil weapons of change, when they connect to
actions of sacrifice, or good will, but they have no grace or power
without bold clarity. So, if you’ll bear with me, borrowing a line from
Bob Dylan, “Let us not talk falsely now – the hour is getting late.”
Global warming
Massive pollution
Non-stop U.S. war in Iraq
Attacks on civil liberties under the banner of war on terror
Military spending
You and I, U.S. taxpayers, spend 1 1/2 billion dollars on an Iraq-war-‘focused’ military everyday, while social needs cry out.
Health care
Education
Public transit
Environmental protections
Affordable housing
Job training
Public investment
And, levy building.
We depend largely for information on these issues from media
industries, driven by the bottom line to such an extent that the public
interest becomes uninteresting.
And should we speak truth, we stand against government efforts to
intimidate or legislate in the service of censorship. Whether under the
guise of a Patriot Act or any other benevolent-sounding rationale for
the age-old game of shutting down dissent by discouraging independent
thinking and preventing progressive social change.
The most effective forms of de facto censorship are pre-emptive.
Systemically, we are encouraged to keep our heads down, out of the line
of fire – to avoid the danger, god forbid, that someone in the White
House, on Capitol Hill, or a media blow-hard might take a shot at us.
But, as a practical matter, most of the limits on creative
expression and other forms of free speech come from self-censorship,
where the mechanism of corporate clout offers carrots and brandishes
sticks. We avoid a conflict before the conflict materializes. We reach
for the carrots and stay out of range of sticks.
Decades ago, Fred Friendly called it a “positive veto” –
corporations putting big money behind shows that they want to establish
and perpetuate. Whether in journalism or drama, creative efforts that
don’t gain a financial “positive veto” are dismissible, then dismissed.
We may not call that “censorship.” But whatever we call it, the effects
of a “positive veto” system are severe. They impose practical limits on
efforts to bring the most important realities to public attention
sooner rather than later…
We’re beginning to see more revealing images of this war. But it’s
later now, isn’t it? What we have to pay attention to are the results
of these “practical limits.” One, is that wars become much easier to
launch than to halt.
I’ve got a feeling about how we can begin to change this process and
I want to pass it by you. Children grow up in our country — many by
the way, under conditions of extreme poverty — and are told from a
very early age “You will be accountable!” “With freedom, comes
responsibility!” And so the lecture goes…Democratic and Republican
alike. Lie-cheat-steal, and there will be consequences! Theft will be
punished. Actions that cause the deaths of others will be severely
punished. The message, from leaders in Washington, news media, mom,
dad, and church is clear. Criminals MUST be held accountable.
Now, there’s been a lot of talk lately on Capitol Hill about how
impeachment should be “off the table.” We’re told that it’s time to
look ahead – not back…
Can you imagine how far that argument would go for the defense at an
arraignment on charges of grand larceny, or large-scale distribution of
methamphetamines? How about the arranging of a contract killing on a
pregnant mother? “Indictment should be off the table.” Or “Let’s look
forward, not backward.” Or “We can’t afford another failed defendant.”
Our country has a legal system, not of men and women, but of laws.
Why then are we so willing to put inconvenient provisions of the U.S.
constitution and federal law “off the table?” Our greatest concern
right now should be what to put ON the table. Unless we’re going to
have one set of laws for the powerful and another set for those who
can’t afford fancy lawyers, then truth matters to everyone. And
accountability is a matter of human and legal principle. If we’re going
to continue wagging our fingers at the disadvantaged transgressors,
then I suggest we be consistent. If truth and accountability can be
stretched into sham concepts, we may as well open the gates of all our
jails and prisons, where, by the way, there are more people behind bars
than any other country in the world. One in every 32 American adults is
behind bars, on probation, or on parole as we stand here tonight.
Which is to say that, globally, the United States is number one at
demanding accountability and backing up that demand with imprisonment.
But, when it comes to our president, vice president, secretary of
state, former secretary of defense…this insistence on accountability
vanishes. All of a sudden, what’s past is prologue. And we’re just
“forward-looking.” But some people can’t just look forward. Men and
women stationed in Iraq at this moment, under orders of a
Commander-in-Chief so sufficiently practiced in the art of deception,
that he got vast numbers of American journalists and the most esteemed
media outlets of this country, including The New York Times, The
Washington Post, NPR, and PBS to eagerly serve his agenda-building for
war. And the process also induced vast numbers of artists and
performers (probably even some in this room tonight) to keep quiet and
facilitate the push for an invasion in Iraq.
I’m sure many people who I met in Baghdad, both in my trips prior to
and during the occupation, now similarly cannot just look forward. With
lives so entirely shattered by a violence of occupation – an ongoing
U.S. war effort and the civil war that it has catalyzed. All on the
back of a crumbled infrastructure, following eleven years of
devastating U.N. sanctions.
And, where is the accountability on behalf of the American dead and
wounded, their families, their friends, and the people of the United
States who have seen their country become a world pariah. These events
have been enabled by people named Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, and
Rice, as they continue to perpetuate a massive fraud on American
democracy and decency.
On January 11, 2003, I made an appearance on Larry King’s show
following my first trip to Iraq. I suggested that every American mother
and father sit down with a scrap of paper and pencil and scribble the
following words: Dear Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so — We regret to inform you
that your son or daughter so-and-so, was killed in action in Iraq. I
then asked that those mothers and fathers complete that letter in
whatever way might comfort them should they receive it. When one
considers what a bewildered continuation of those words a parent might
attempt to write today, it seems inconceivable that this country
could’ve ever bought into this war. Who were those mothers and fathers
believing in?! We know it’s not the administration alone, but a culture
at large, cloaking itself in self-righteousness, religion, and
adolescent hero-dreaming machismo. Would they have believed Rush
Limbaugh if they’d known he was high as a kite on OxyContin? Would they
have believed the factually impaired Bill O’Reilly if they knew he was
massaging his rectum with a loofah while telephonically harassing a
staffer? Hannity, had they known he was simply a whore to the cause of
his pimps – Murdoch and Ailes? Or the little bow-tie putz, if they knew
all he was seeking was a good laugh from Jon Stewart? Maybe our
countrymen and women were listening to Ted Haggert while he was
whiffing meth and boning a muscle-headed gigolo? Or Mark Foley seeking
junior weenis? Joe Lieberman, sitting Shiva? And Toby Keith, singing
about how big his boots are?
“Oh, there goes Sean…he had to go and name-call. They say he can’t
help himself.” Or, did I name-call? Maybe I just quickly summed up 7 or
8 little truths. Oh, no, you’re right – I name-called. I said, “putz”.
I take it back. Or, do I? Did I say “whore?” Pimp? These are questions.
But, the real and great questions of conscience and accountability
would not loom so ominously — unanswered or evaded at such tremendous
cost — without our day-to-day failure to insist on genuine
accountability. Of course we’d prefer some easy ways to get there. But
no easy ways exist. Not a new Congress. Not Barack Obama. And, not John
McCain. His courage in North Vietnamese prison makes him a heroic man.
His voting record in Congress makes him a damaging public servant. We
have gotta stand the fuck up and show the world how powerful are the
people in a democracy. That’s how we regain our position of example,
rather than pariah, to the world at large. And that is how we can begin
to put up our chins and allow pride and unification to raise our own
quality of life and security.
They tell us we lost 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Is that enough? We’re
about to match it. We’re within weeks, if not less, of killing 3,000
Americans in Iraq. I ask Speaker Pelosi, can we put impeachment on the
table then? Without former FEMA chief Mike Brown being held
accountable, post Katrina (scapegoat though he may have been) we’d have
had the same chaos and neglect when Rita hit Houston. Think about it.
And, the same people who trumpet deterrence as a justification for
punishment when we speak of “crime and punishment,” will boast their
positive thinking when dismissing the deterrent qualities of an
impeachment proceeding.
What is impeachment? It’s not a Democratic versus Republican event.
Not if used responsibly. If the House of Representatives votes to
impeach this president, is he thrown out of office? No, he is not
thrown out of office. That is not what impeachment is. Impeachment is
the opportunity to proceed with accountability and give our elected
senators, democratic and republican, the power to pursue a thorough
investigation. The power to put the truth on the table. Mothers and
fathers are losing their kids to horrifying deaths in this war every
single day. Horrible deaths. Horrible maimings. Were crimes committed
in enlisting the support of our country in this decision to go to war?
For the moment we’re living the most spineless of scenarios; where the
hawks abused impeachment eight years ago, now, the rest of us politely
refuse to use it today. Let’s give the whistle-blowers cover, let’s get
the subpoenas out there, and then, one by one, put this administration
under oath. And then, if the crimes of “Treason, bribery, or other high
crimes and misdemeanors” are proven, do as Article 2, Section 4 of the
United States Constitution provides, and remove “the President, Vice
President and…civil officers of the United States” from office. If
the Justice Department then sees fit to bunk them up with Jeff
Skilling, so be it.
So…look, if we attempt to impeach for lying about a blowjob, yet
accept these almost certain abuses without challenge, we become a
cum-stain on the flag we wave. You know, I was listening to Frank Rich
this morning, speaking on a book tour. He said he thought impeachment
proceedings would amount to a “decadent” sidetrack, while our soldiers
were still being killed. I admire Frank Rich. And of course he would be
right if impeachment is all we do. But we’re Americans. We can do two
things at the same time. Yes, let’s move forward and swiftly get out of
this war in Iraq AND impeach these bastards.
Christopher Reeve promised to get out of that chair. Well, I don’t
know about you, but it feels like he’s up now and I wouldn’t be
standing here if it weren’t on his shoulders. Let it be for something.
Georgie, there’s a crowd downstairs.
Thank you and good night.