From Mary Shaw at Philadelphia Freedom Watch: Bono speaks out against torture -- and gets censored
Bono, I fear you may be too late with those words.
On September 27th, here in Philadelphia, the Liberty Medal for 2007 was awarded to Bono and his organization DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa), for their work in fighting AIDS and poverty in Africa. Each year, the National Constitution Center awards the Liberty Medal to a person or persons for outstanding work in advancing the cause of liberty around the world.Indefensible! Disgusting! Is this nation so gutless, so spineless that criticism from those it awards for human service is to be supressed, lest it offend?
While Bono's entire acceptance speech was quite good, I was particularly moved when he spoke out against the use of torture. He said, "You do not have to become a monster to defeat a monster."
Indeed. Very well put.
And I wrote those words down right after I heard them, because I was so impressed and wanted to share the wisdom.
However, two days after the event, I downloaded the official video of Bono's speech at www.libertymedal.org. And I discovered that the official video had been edited so that it no longer contains the references to torture, or other portions of the speech that apparently were not acceptable to The Powers That Be. Furthermore, the edited version seems to over-emphasize the few gratuitous positive comments that Bono made regarding the current Bush administration. (By the way, George Bush Sr. presented the award.)
Not being a conspiracy theorist, I began to question whether I had heard it all correctly the first time.
Fortunately, I discovered that Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News heard the same speech that I heard, and he wrote about it in his blog at www.attytood.com. Bunch's blog entry about Bono's speech fills in some of the gaps that are missing from the official video, including the context surrounding Bono's "monster" comment.
So, thanks to Will Bunch, here is what Bono had to say about torture:Today I read in the Economist an article reporting that over 38 percent of Americans support some type of torture in exceptional circumstances. My country? No. Your country? Tell me no. Today, when I receive this great honor, I ask you, I implore you as an Irishman who has seen some of these things close up, I ask you to remember, you do not have to become a monster to defeat a monster. Your America’s better than that.Yes, that is exactly what I heard.
But, in the official video, all is missing except the last two sentences.
Yes, this is America, land of the free. Or so it once appeared to be.
Bono, I fear you may be too late with those words.
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Comments
My point is, they played that very quote, and while the DJs talked about it, I don't remember anyone calling in to give their 2 cents about it. I know WMMR isn't your typical format for political discussion, but come on people. Get off your asses and wake the hell up to what this country is doing. Give a fuck about something more than your neighbors and your next caramel machiatto.
You'll remember back when I recruited you into the IWW, when I first knew you. Remember the guy who came to sign you up, who had signed me up? Mike D'Amore? (Now a city councilman in Allentown.) He'd written a letter to the editor of the Morning Call comparing the situation with Mumia Abu-Jamal to that of Joe Hill (the Wobbly Bard). They cut the letter to shreds, making it only about Joe Hill and completely exerpting the segment about Mumia.
Editorial license is a load of shit in America because of the sickeningly dishonest and shrewish Right wing.
Americans are dumb bastards for sumbitting to this sort of indoctrination and not seeing it for what it is.
It's gonna take a riot to change these mules.
So sad, he should be someone that everyone is taught about.