TIM ROBBINS: Thank you. And thanks for the invitation.

I had originally been asked here to talk about the war and our current political situation, but I have

instead chosen to hijack this opportunity and talk about baseball and show business.

(Laughter.) Just kidding. Sort of.

I can't tell you how moved I have been at the overwhelming support I have received from newspapers throughout the

country in these past few days. I hold no illusions that all of these journalists agree with me on my views against the war.

 While thejournalists' outrage at the cancellation of our appearance in Cooperstown is not about my views, it is about my

right to express these views. I am extremely grateful that there are those of you out there still with a

fierce belief in constitutionally guaranteed rights. We need you, the press, now more than ever. This is a

crucial moment for all of us. For all of the ugliness and tragedy of 9-11, there was

a brief period afterward where I held a great hope, in the midst of the tears and shocked faces of New

Yorkers, in the midst of the lethal air we breathed as we worked at Ground Zero, in the midst of my

children's terror at being so close to this crime against humanity, in the midst of all this, I held on

to a glimmer of hope in the naive assumption that something good could come out of it.

I imagined our leaders seizing upon this moment of unity in America, this moment when no one wanted to

talk about Democrat versus Republican, white versus black, or any of the other ridiculous divisions that

dominate our public discourse. I imagined our leaders going on television telling the citizens that although

we all want to be at Ground Zero, we can't, but there is work that is needed to be done all over America.

Our help is needed at community centers to tutor children, to teach them to read. Our work is needed at

old-age homes to visit the lonely and infirmed; in gutted neighborhoods to rebuild housing and clean up

parks, and convert abandoned lots to baseball fields. I imagined leadership that would take this incredible

energy, this generosity of spirit and create a new unity in America born out of the chaos and tragedy of

9/11, a new unity that would send a message to terrorists everywhere: If you attack us, we will

become stronger, cleaner, better educated, and more unified. You will strengthen our commitment to justice

and democracy by your inhumane attacks on us. Like a Phoenix out of the fire, we will be reborn.

And then came the speech: You are either with us or against us. And the bombing began. And the old

paradigm was restored as our leader encouraged us to show our patriotism by shopping and by volunteering to

join groups that would turn in their neighbor for any suspicious behavior.

In the 19 months since 9-11, we have seen our democracy compromised by fear and hatred. Basic

inalienable rights, due process, the sanctity of the home have been quickly compromised in a climate of

fear. A unified American public has grown bitterly divided, and a world population that had profound

sympathy and support for us has grown contemptuous and distrustful, viewing us as we once viewed the Soviet Union, as a

 rogue state. This past weekend, Susan and I and the three kids went to Florida for a family reunion of sorts. Amidst the

A teacher in another nephew's school is fired for wearing a T- shirt with a peace sign on it. And a

friend of the family tells of listening to the radio down South as the talk radio host calls for the murder

of a prominent anti-war activist. Death threats have appeared on other prominent anti-war activists'

doorsteps for their views. Relatives of ours have received threatening e-mails and phone calls. And my 13-year-old boy,

who has done nothing to anybody, has recently been embarrassed and humiliated by a sadistic creep who writes -- or, rather,

Susan and I have been listed as traitors, as supporters of Saddam, and various other epithets by

the Aussie gossip rags masquerading as newspapers, and by their fair and balanced electronic media cousins,

19th Century Fox. (Laughter.) Apologies to Gore Vidal. (Applause.)

Two weeks ago, the United Way canceled Susan's appearance at a conference on women's leadership. And

both of us last week were told that both we and the First Amendment were not welcome at the Baseball Hall

of Fame. A famous middle-aged rock-and-roller called me last

week to thank me for speaking out against the war, only to go on to tell me that he could not speak

himself because he fears repercussions from Clear Channel. "They promote our concert appearances," he

said. "They own most of the stations that play our music. I can't come out against this war."

And here in Washington, Helen Thomas finds herself

banished to the back of the room and uncalled on after asking Ari Fleischer whether our showing prisoners of

war at Guantanamo Bay on television violated the Geneva Convention.

A chill wind is blowing in this nation. A message is being sent through the White House and its allies in

talk radio and Clear Channel and Cooperstown. If you oppose this administration, there can and will be ramifications.

Every day, the air waves are filled with warnings, veiled and unveiled threats, spewed invective and

hatred directed at any voice of dissent. And the public, like so many relatives and friends that I saw

this weekend, sit in mute opposition and fear. I am sick of hearing about Hollywood being against

this war. Hollywood's heavy hitters, the real power brokers and cover-of-the- magazine stars, have been

largely silent on this issue. But Hollywood, the concept, has always been a popular target.

I remember when the Columbine High School shootings happened. President Clinton criticized Hollywood for contributing to

this terrible tragedy -- this, as we were dropping bombs over Kosovo. Could the violent actions of our leaders contribute

I remember reading at the time that one of the shooters had tried to enlist to fight the real war a

week before he acted out his war in real life at Columbine. I talked about this in the press at the

time. And curiously, no one accused me of being unpatriotic for criticizing Clinton. In fact, the same

radio patriots that call us traitors today engaged in daily personal attacks on their president during the

war in Kosovo. Today, prominent politicians who have decried violence

in movies -- the "Blame Hollywooders," if you will --recently voted to give our current president the power

to unleash real violence in our current war. They want us to stop the fictional violence but are okay with

the real kind. And these same people that tolerate the real violence of war don't want to see the result of it

on the nightly news. Unlike the rest of the world, our news coverage of this war remains sanitized, without a

glimpse of the blood and gore inflicted upon our soldiers or the women and children in Iraq. Violence

as a concept, an abstraction -- it's very strange. As we applaud the hard-edged realism of the opening

battle scene of "Saving Private Ryan," we cringe at

the thought of seeing the same on the nightly news. We are told it would be pornographic. We want no part of

reality in real life. We demand that war be painstakingly realized on the screen, but that war

remain imagined and conceptualized in real life. And in the midst of all this madness, where is the

political opposition? Where have all the Democrats gone? Long time passing, long time ago. (Applause.)

With apologies to Robert Byrd, I have to say it is pretty embarrassing to live in a country where a

five-foot- one comedian has more guts than most politicians. (Applause.) We need leaders, not

pragmatists that cower before the spin zones of former entertainment journalists. We need leaders who can understand the

the Hall of Fame that the president of the Hall admitted he made a mistake and Major League Baseball disavowed any

of the room, to the banished journalist du jour. (Applause.) And any instance of intimidation to free

speech should be battled against. Any acquiescence or intimidation at this point will only lead to more

intimidation. You have, whether you like it or not, an awesome responsibility and an awesome power: the fate

of discourse, the health of this republic is in your hands, whether you write on the left or the right.

This is your time, and the destiny you have chosen. We lay the continuance of our democracy on your desks,

and count on your pens to be mightier. Millions are watching and waiting in mute frustration and hope -

hoping for someone to defend the spirit and letter of  our Constitution, and to defy the intimidation that is

visited upon us daily in the name of national security and warped notions of patriotism.

Our ability to disagree, and our inherent right to question our leaders and criticize their actions

define who we are. To allow those rights to be taken away out of fear, to punish people for their beliefs,

to limit access in the news media to differing opinions is to acknowledge our democracy's defeat.

These are challenging times. There is a wave of hate that seeks to divide us -- right and left, pro-war and anti-war. In the

name of my 11-year-old nephew, and all the other unreported victims of  this hostile and unproductive environment of fear, let

227 years. To do so we must honor and fight vigilantlyfor the things that unite us -- like freedom, the

First Amendment and, yes, baseball. (Applause.)