Thinking a lot today about what Orson Welles had to say in 1946.
We must simply say "no" to those who hate others.
"Tomorrow's democracy discriminates against discrimination."
Enter Orson Welles, a man ahead of his time:
"We must each day earn what we own.
A healthy man owes to the sick all that he can do for them. An educated man owes to the ignorant all that he can do for them. A free man owes to the world's slaves all that he can do for them
“And what is to be done is more, much more, than good works, Christmas baskets, bonuses and tips, and bread and circuses.
There is only one thing to be done with slaves:
Free them.
“If we can't die in behalf of progress, we can live for it. Progress, we Americans take to mean, a fuller realization of democracy.
The measure of progress, as we understand it, is the measure of equality enjoyed by all men.
We can do something about that.
“The way our fighting brothers and sisters looked at it, some of them dead as I speak these words, the way they looked at it, we're lucky. And they're right, we're lucky to be alive.
“But only if our lives make life itself worth dying for, we must be worthy of our luck or we are damned.
“Our lives were spared, but this is merely the silliest of accidents, unless we put the gift of life to the hard employments of justice.
If we waste that gift, we won't have anywhere to hide from the indignation of history.
...
“I want to say this:
The morality of the auction block is out of date. There is no room in the American century for Jim Crow.
Tomorrow's democracy discriminates against discrimination. Its charter won't include the freedom to end freedom.
“Race hate isn't human nature, race hate is the abandonment of human nature.
...
Over several generations, maybe there'll be men who can't be weaned away from the fascist vices of race hate.
“But we should deny such men responsibility in public affairs, exactly as we deny responsibility to the wretched victims of the drug habit.
“There are laws against peddling dope, there can be laws against peddling race hate. But every man has the right to his own opinion as an American boasts, but race hate is not an opinion.
It's a phobia.
It isn't a viewpoint, race hate is a disease.
“In a people's world, the incurable racist has no rights. He must be deprived of influence in a people's government.
He must be segregated, as he himself would segregate the colored and semitic peoples.
“Anything very big is very simple, if there's a big race question, there's a big answer to it.
And a big answer is simple, like the word "no."”
-Orson Welles
Well worth a listen:
archive.org/details/1946OrsonWellesCommentaries/460811_To_Be_Born_Free.MP3
You can read the unrolled version of this thread here: typefully.com/GoldsteinMatt_/cgXkORh