Courtesy of Crooks and Liars, you've got to see this TV clip from the show "Boston Legal." Crooks and Liars describes the episode ("Stick it") as follows: "Alan Shore's secretary, Melissa...is arrested for tax evasion [and] he takes on the case of this outspoken girl who says her late, patriotic grandfather would be proud of her for challenging the government."Here are extended excerpts from the speech by Alan Shore (James Spader), which I've attempted to transcribe accurately:
When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out not to be true, I expected the American people to rise up....they didn't.Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists 'suspects', locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we'd never stand for that. We did.
And now, it's been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal domestic surveillance on its own citizens, you and me. And I at least console myself that finally, FINALLY the American people will have had enough. Evidently we haven't. In fact, if the people of this country HAVE spoken, the message is 'we're ok with it all.'
Torture, warrantless searches, seizures, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial or any trial, war on false pretenses. We as a citizenry are apparently not offended. There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there's no clear indication that young people even seem to notice. Well, Melissa Hughes noticed."
"...We've lost the right to [demonstrate] as well. The Secret Service can now declare 'free speech' zones to contain, control, and in effect, criminalize protest. Stop for a second and try to fathom that. At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you're wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed. This in the United States of America. This in the United States of America! Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarassed?
Shore adds, "what I'm most sick and tired of is how every time somebody disagrees with how the government is running things, he or she is labeled unAmerican."
And then he speaks these powerful words:
I object to government abusing its power to squash the constitutional freedoms of its citizenry. And God forbid anybody challenges it, they're smeared as being a heretic. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American. Melissa Hughes is an American!
For good measure, Shore quotes an Adlai Stevenson speech from 1952:
[Stevenson] said, 'The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live. And fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the bill of rights, to freedom of the mind, are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-communism.' Today, it's the cloak of anti-terrorism. Stevenson also remarked, 'It's far easier to fight for principles than to live up to them.'
Finally, Shore concludes: "I know we are all afraid. But the bill of rights...we have to live up that, we simply must."
Powerful words on a TV show. But, as my friend Shaula Evans asks, "why don't Democrats talk like this? Why are the only people who sound like leaders around here fictional characters in pop culture?" Good question, Shaula. Damn good question.