Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Fourth Annual Awards Dinner
December 11, 2001
Barbra Streisand received the Liberty and Justice Award from the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition civil rights organization at a star-studded gala that also marked founder Jesse Jackson's birthday.
Among those who dropped by the Beverly Hilton hotel Tuesday night were House Democratic Leader Dick Gephardt of Missouri, boxing great Sugar Ray Leonard, comedian Chris Tucker and singer Smokey Robinson, who also performed.
Motown Records' Berry Gordy arrived to accept the group's Legend Award.
“I have tremendous respect for Jesse Jackson,” said actress Lauren Bacall. “I think he's done a lot of marvelous things, bringing people together. And of course, Barbra, my director, I mean I have to be here for her.”
Streisand directed Bacall in the 1996 movie The Mirror Has Two Faces.
A major fund-raiser for Democratic politics and liberal causes, Streisand, 59, was honored by the group Jackson founded 30 years ago.
Part of the evening was spent celebrating Jackson's 60th birthday, which was on Oct. 8.
Below: House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt & The Reverend Jesse Jackson presents Barbra Streisand the Rainbow/PUSH Liberty and Justice Award the award at the Fourth Annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Awards Dinner celebrating th 30th anniversary of the International Civil rights Organization.
Remarks by Barbra Streisand
Thank you. Thank you, Speaker Gephardt, for that kind introduction and for coming all the way from Washington with your busy schedule to present me with this award. You've been a great leader in Congress who's done so much for the working people of this country and we're all looking forward to your being the next Speaker of the House. I promise never to write the Democrats a challenging letter again - at least for a couple of weeks.
I don't like giving speeches. First, I don't know what to say. Then I want to say too much. But I'm here tonight for one reason: I'm a sucker for Jesse.
Jesse represents meaning to me because he doesn't duck the hard case. Against segregation in the South. Against racial profiling in the North. Against apartheid in South Africa. For a living wage. For opening locked doors and lifting glass ceilings. For voting rights - and for counting every vote - even in Florida. For this, he's been vilified and scalded in the press. But he's stood up, made his case, marched and protested with passion and poetry - and one thing for sure,he's made America better.
So...
When I was making Yentl, I learned that the wise men who wrote the Talmud believed it was ok to argue with God ...be angry with God ...wrestle with God. What they didn't want you to be was indifferent to God. Indifference was unacceptable then. And indifference is unacceptable now.
This is certainly true as our nation wrestles with serious issues that can no longer be ignored -even in wartime. Across the country, Americans have come together in the face of the tragedy of September 11th. In responding to that horror, we all became brothers and sisters, where there was no discrimination, no racial or national divides. That day, ironically, brought out the best in people. With lives on the line, people understood that the soul has no color...that inside we're all the same. We saw the possibility, as one rabbi put it, of the "Re-United States of America."
Today, the country stands united behind our president because we need him to succeed. We all pray that President Bush gets good advice and makes wise decisions. But heartfelt patriotism does not mean silence.
Yet, we already see efforts to stifle independent thought and free speech. I've even heard that certain right-wing commentators and editors have announced that they were forming an organization to police the press. Bill Maher was threatened as host of Politically Incorrect for being...politically incorrect. Professors and journalists' jobs are under review simply for criticizing U.S. policy.
White House press spokesman Ari Fleisher first warned that "We should watch what we say," as if democratic debate were a threat to the war on terrorism. But Fleisher had it backwards: We wage the war on terrorism precisely to defend the right to democratic debate.
And now it's particularly important to speak out, because the sudden shift from peace and prosperity to war and recession raises fundamental questions about the direction of our country.
Below: Berry Gordy Jr., The Rev Jesse Jackson & Barbra Streisand look on at the Fourth Annual Rainbow/PUSH Coalition Awards Dinner.
Consider this: Over 800,000 people have lost their jobs since September 11 and only one-third of them are eligible for unemployment insurance.
In recessions, the federal government usually steps in, extends unemployment benefits, and helps put people back to work. But in today's Washington, the Republican-controlled House passed a stimulus bill that contains almost nothing for the unemployed, yet includes 25 billion in retroactive tax cuts for big corporations. It's the reverse Robin Hood theory - take from the poor and give to the rich. IBM would get $1.4 billion... GM, $833 million ... and Enron, whose executives are among the president's leading donors, would get $254 million - if it stays in business long enough to collect it. That isn't a stimulus, it's a scandal.
It doesn't make sense. We're spending a billion dollars a month on the war. We've got real domestic security needs that have to be met. We passed the last set of tax cuts, and now the President's own budget director says we're looking at deficits for as long as the eye can see, as the Democrats predicted, I might add! The country can't afford these tax cuts. And it can't afford indifference either.
After September 11th, a lot of us took down articles and ads critical of the president. Congressional Democrats embraced bipartisan unity. Yet, only 10 days later, the Wall Street Journal urged the president to use the crisis to force through the entire conservative agenda - upper end tax cuts, oil drilling in ANWR, fast track, even conservative judges - the full catastrophe. Since then, the Republican Congress has tried to do just that. Attorney General Ashcroft has gone even further, claiming unprecedented police powers in the name of national security.
Hell, he's even got Bill Safire scared! All of us want this nation to be safer. But you can't defend America by attacking the very rights and liberties that we're fighting for.
And isn't it a little hypocritical to suspend people's rights, yet not allow the FBI to check whether suspected terrorists have purchased guns? It doesn't make sense!
And why is this administration cloaked in secrecy...from the Cheney energy task force meetings, to issuing an executive order locking up historical presidential papers that, by law, were set to be released to the public? What is there to hide?
I say it's time for our representatives in Congress—even those afraid of not being re-elected -and for our citizen leaders, for each and everyone one of us to stand up and speak out. This is not a question of party, but of principle.
What's worrisome is that too many people of conscience are biting their tongues, fearing they'll be perceived as unpatriotic. In fact, we need to forcefully engage the argument about what makes America ... America, the country we all love. Do we want corporate tax giveaways, or help for the unemployed. Opening public lands to oil companies and logging interests, or renewable energy and conservation. An America where elections end up in the courts, or where election reform insures that every vote is counted. A justice department and judiciary that threatens a woman's right to choose and the elderly's right to a dignified exit, or a renewed commitment to the freedom of choice and liberty in a time of crisis.
Let's have the debate. We can argue about this, wrestle with this...but we can't be indifferent to this. I know it's difficult to criticize the administration in a time of war. But this is about our future...about protecting the very essence of our democracy...freedom of speech. Our leaders shouldn't be afraid to speak the truth, even if it is temporarily unpopular. As Dr. King said,"Truth crushed to the earth will rise again." Truth works. Truth has its own force. Truth eventually wins out.
And that's another reason I'm a sucker for Jesse. All of his life, he's acted with the faith that if Americans heard the truth, they would choose the right path. And there's no better time to test that belief than now.
Happy belated birthday, Jesse. You're a giant of our times. Thank you, and Rainbow Push, for this honor, and thank you all for being here.
End.
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