Sean Penn still going strong

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Kilroy's still here

Osama bin Laden's agenda is being furthered by our fear, as we hack away at
the soul of our own civil liberties.

Editor's note: This text was first published as a paid advertisement in the
May 30 edition of the New York Times.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Sean Penn

May 31, 2003  |  In early October of 2002 -- when the radio sputtered and
whined with accusations by the Bush Administration declaring a direct link
between the terrorist activity of Al-Qaida and the brutal dictator Saddam
Hussein; I was sitting beside my 11-year-old daughter in a car. It
continued, with charges that Hussein's Iraq possessed weapons of mass
destruction in violation of U.N. resolutions.

"It's a sunny afternoon in Northern California," the weatherman
interrupted, "puffy white clouds resting upon a beautiful blue sky." We sat
in the car eating french fries in the parking lot of our local burger
joint. President George W. Bush had just rebuffed the United Nations' push
to re-introduce weapons inspection teams into an Iraq where even a
deservedly humiliated Saddam Hussein had expressed willingness to accept
them. Tightening in my gut, on this otherwise fab day, were troubling
questions about our nation's understanding of this pending conflict. Its
most accessible information sources were the corporately sponsored and
largely conservative media outlets. Indeed, in my gut were my own troubling
questions, not only about our Administration's unilateral military
posturing, but also about what effect U.S. decisions today might have on my
children's tomorrow.

Since September 11, 2001, when Kilroy left his mark, I had been, of course,
concerned for the physical safety of my children and that of the nation.
More urgently though, for the food of their spirit, their sense of right
and wrong, and of their will to be individuals of character and true
patriotism in a media environment largely exemplified by mistrust,
dishonesty, censorship and national policies fostering division, death, and
arbitrary consumerism.

Saint Augustine said, "Hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and courage;
anger at the way things are, and courage to change them." Beside me, my
little girl tugged at the blue ribbon in her blond hair, her eyes forward,
gentle but unblinking; her front teeth nipped at a french fry, one slow
bite at a time. As I started the car, I wondered if her future and my son's
would befriend or be vanquished by Saint Augustine's daughters of hope. And
I had to ask myself, What remaining hope did I have? What example was I to
them? I carried my troubling questions to the President of the United
States, in a public letter printed October 18, 2002, in the Washington Post.

full: www.salon.com

Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org