BASEBALL AND SHOW BUSINESS

Tim Robbins Fires Back

"To allow those rights to be taken away out of fear, to punish people for their beliefs, to limit access in the news media to differing opinions is to acknowledge our democracy's failure."

This is really great. I strongly recommend it. In a speech on Monday at the National Press Club, Robbins is both articulate and damning. As a quick observation, it strikes me as absurd that so many Americans should be so dismissively aghast that an actor would speak against the war. The theater, as an institution, since its very beginning, has been rather obsessed with the notion of war and its effects. Plays such as Lysistrata and the Trojan Women explore war from the ancient Greek perspective. War and civil conflict are Shakespeare's bread and butter. Actor, John Wilkes Booth was so impassioned about the Civil War that he killed President Lincoln. In a theater! World War II and the Vietnam War produced reams of playscripts examining how war affects lives, culture, politics, personal relationships, and the individual psyche. Obsessing on war is what actors do--it's what they've always done. Watch this speech! It is easily worth the 16 and a half minutes. It starts about nine minutes into the video.

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