Nobel Laureates, Sally Field, and Other Muzzled Peace Voices

[marmar]

from HuffPost:




Marianne Schnall
Nobel Laureates, Sally Field, and Other Muzzled Peace Voices
Posted September 18, 2007 | 07:02 PM (EST)



Sunday night at the Emmy Awards Sally Field was cut off by the Fox Network during her anti-war statements in her acceptance speech. This wouldn't be the first time women speaking out for peace have been silenced, and the story that links Sally Field's comments to a major women's peace event winding up on that same day, are an intriguing, and ironic, part of that story.

This past weekend the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies in Rhinebeck, New York, gathered a diverse group of amazing women for a conference called "Women, Power & Peace." The event was organized by the Women's Institute at Omega; V-Day, the organization opposing violence toward women, founded by The Vagina Monologues playwright Eve Ensler; and The Nobel Women's Initiative, a new organization founded last year by five women Nobel Peace Prize winners dedicated to "peace with justice and equality."

On the first evening of the conference, Omega Institute co-founder Elizabeth Lesser announced that scheduled speaker Sally Field, who had participated in several of Omega's Women & Power events, was unable to be there. Field, who plays the matriarch in the television series, Brothers & Sisters, was nominated for one of the Emmy Awards, which were being televised on Sunday night. Lesser added, "She's incredibly sad not to be here, but she promised both Eve and myself that if she wins, she'll make the speech be about women, power and peace," eliciting booming applause from the audience. Field did indeed win the Emmy last night, and in her acceptance speech (the end of which was cut off by Fox), she said, "Surely this belongs to all the mothers of the world. May they be seen, may their work be valued and raised. Especially to the mothers who stand with an open heart and wait. Wait for their children to come home from danger, from harm's way, and from war. I am proud to be one of those women. If mothers ruled the world, there would be no..." (And this was where she was cut off from the broadcast): "god-damned wars in the first place." As of Monday morning, other news services from around the world are picking up the story and airing the full quote.

The Women, Power & Peace event that Field missed was headlined by three Nobel Laureates, Betty Williams (1976; for her work with Mairead Corrigan as founders of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement), Rigoberta Menchu Tum (1992; for her campaigns for human rights, especially for indigenous people, in Guatemala) and Jody Williams (1997; an American who worked for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines). They were joined by several women from conflict zones, who told their wrenching stories of horrific atrocities happening to women and girls in their countries. The conference was a parade of inspiring women, and the audience was repeatedly brought their feet in impassioned support of their powerful messages.

The event also featured a variety of other inspiring women, ranging from well-known media figures such as Jane Fonda, Kerry Washington and Pat Mitchell, opinion leaders and activists such as Majora Carter, along with renowned academics such as Kimberle Williams Crenshaw, Carol Gilligan and Riane Eisler. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marianne-schnall/nobel-laureates-sally-fi_b_64933.html

[Cha]

1. And Sally was busy elsewhere

making NEWS!