Good Night & Good Luck

Saw George Clooney's movie about Edward R. Murrow this evening. Powerful and chilling.

Many parallels between McCarthy's accusing any critics as being "pinko" commie" or "commie sympathizer" to the Bush administration's squashing of dissenters as "unAmerican" and "unpatriotic" "aiding the terrorists" that began when they started ramping up for war in Iraq.

I still remember watching both Murrow and the totally creepy-scary McCarthy. I also remember the hearings in which the cherubic attorney with the bowtie, Joseph Welch, brought McCarthy down. I was only in 9th grade in 1954 and had never cared about current events until those hearings, which my family watched like the soap opera it was, growing increasingly fond of Mr. Welch... a real hero.

Murrow gave many powerful speeches in his day (and in the movie), but the only one I could find a transcript for was this:

"If we confuse dissent with disloyalty — if we deny the right of the individual to be wrong, unpopular, eccentric or unorthodox — if we deny the essence of racial equality then hundreds of millions in Asia and Africa who are shopping about for a new allegiance will conclude that we are concerned to defend a myth and our present privileged status. Every act that denies or limits the freedom of the individual in this country costs us the . . . confidence of men and women who aspire to that freedom and independence of which we speak and for which our ancestors fought."

Good night and good luck....