Posted on 06/30/2003 8:58:11 AM PDT by presidio9
Has this new era of secrecy, lies, and deceit in the government and corporations started to infect our states, our cities, our communities, our core values and beliefs? We cannot let our politicians and corporate CEOs get away with lying to us. The president steals such slogans as “Leave No Child Behind” and then cuts funding for schools serving low-income children. The president told us he was against nation-building, then he invaded Iraq using what we now know was faulty intelligence of exaggerated threats. And while in his 2002 State of the Union speech the president vowed to expand the public service program Americorps by 50%, he recently presided over major cuts to the program. The president is our leader, the figurehead of the country, a father figure. Are the “children” supposed to follow his example? Are we in an era of trickle-down immorality, like trickle-down economics? The country sees their leader not telling the truth. These actions send a message that you don’t have to mean what you say, that you don’t have to care about other people, that you can do whatever you have to do or say whatever you have to say to get ahead. Is that the message we want to impart to our children? Is that the culture we want to live in?
The lies and the deceit have started to infect my life as well. Many celebrities expect that some people will try to take advantage of them for personal profit. That’s just the price of fame, and for a long time I tried to simply accept it because I know that ultimately I am a blessed person who has been granted a great deal of fortune in my life. But sometimes the abuses seem to outweigh the perks. The price is that my name and stories told about me are bandied about carelessly. You try to accept it ... but it’s hard. I know that I am too thin-skinned, but I also know that I never want to lose that thin-skin because as an artist, you need that sensitivity in your work.
For over 40 years, I have read lies about myself and have had people take advantage of my position ... but I have never before sued anybody. Sometimes people send me unauthorized books that have been written about me. I usually read the first page and if they can’t get the first page right, I don’t read on. They usually don’t do their own research or verify facts – they just perpetuate the old lies. I remember one book said that I walked onto a soundstage and fired everyone on the left side of the room, and other nonsensical stories like that. All lies, but I didn’t sue because of the publicity, the headache, the expenses, the time... but I guess now I’ve reached a different place in my life. It just gets to a point where you have to draw a line in the sand and say, like the character Howard Beale in the movie Network, “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Years ago, I donated my 24-acre ranch with five homes on it to the California Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. Ever since I made that donation, lies have continued to make their way through reputable publications about the nature of that donation. Here is the truth: In total, I received a tax savings of $5.5 million for the ranch, for which I had originally paid $7.5 million during the previous twenty years. Therefore, I actually lost $2 million on the property.
Now we have decided to sue a website mogul for publishing pictures of our home identified with my name, because he is causing my husband and me very real security problems, and because I can think of no logical reason why he needs to have my name up there if his website is truly designed to be used for environmental purposes. We asked him nicely to remove my name from his website, and he refused. We just want to be treated fairly, like the other coastal residences in the 11,000 photos on his site that are not identified by name. Why am I singled out and used to bring people to his site? It should be said that this is also a website that is endangering homeland security by providing high definition, detailed photographs of high security facilities.
Now I have decided to fight back. And I would like to encourage all people to take an interest in their own lives, and to fight for what they believe in and what they care about, for themselves, for their communities, the country, the world ... in whatever way they can.
I know it’s not easy to stand up for yourself and for what you believe in. Right now, I am in the midst of recording an album of songs from movies. I am distracted from talking about this ridiculous situation and others. But I also know that it is worth it to me to fight to stop the exploitation of my name, just as speaking out against social injustice on a far larger scale has always been an integral part of who I am.
One man’s hobby is to fly around spying on people ... my hobby is gardening, caring for my roses, watching things grow! When I get upset, I go out and trim bushes. I have to constantly try to remember to celebrate the miracle of life. It is that miracle that we must all work every day to protect. We live in a country where all people are supposed to have equal rights, but it is also a country where we all have to be vigilant to protect those rights.
I know that having lies told about me or having my name published on a website is but a very small problem compared to the struggles that so many people go through every day. I do not pretend to compare my problems with the inequalities that exist on a larger scale, but I do think that standing up against injustice in our own lives is part of becoming active participants in our communities and our country. There is too much injustice in the world on too many levels affecting too many people to take it sitting down. So stand up and fight!!
I thought the liberal slogan was "leave no child's behind alone."
Michael Savage has been using this term to correctly describe the Clinton presidency for the past seven years.
I think what she means is she takes a Weedeater to
her underarms and crotch occasionally.
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