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[Editor's note -- The National Constitution Center replies: "The video version you are looking at is actually an outside company that made a shortened version of the entire event for their purposes (it's more of a tourism piece). Instead of using the entire one-hour ceremony, they just took highlights. We in no way censored Bono - this piece was just edited down to a 10 minute clip that highlighted parts of the ceremony (in fact, pieces of each part of the ceremony were edited for length - not content). The National Constitution Center has not edited Bono's speech and the entire speech is available on our website. Mary Shaw corrected her error on her blog." -- JT, 11 October 2007]
On September 27th, here in Philadelphia, the Liberty Medal for 2007 was awarded to Bono and his organization DATA (Debt AIDS Trade Africa), for their work in fighting AIDS and poverty in Africa. Each year, the National Constitution Center awards the Liberty Medal to a person or persons for outstanding work in advancing the cause of liberty around the world.
While Bono's entire acceptance speech was quite good, I was particularly moved when he spoke out against the use of torture. He said, "You do not have to become a monster to defeat a monster."
Indeed. Very well put.
And I wrote those words down right after I heard them, because I was so impressed and wanted to share the wisdom.
However, two days after the event, I downloaded the official video of Bono's speech at www.libertymedal.org. And I discovered that the official video had been edited so that it no longer contains the references to torture, or other portions of the speech that apparently were not acceptable to The Powers That Be. Furthermore, the edited version seems to over-emphasize the few gratuitous positive comments that Bono made regarding the current Bush administration. (By the way, George Bush Sr. presented the award.)
Not being a conspiracy theorist, I began to question whether I had heard it all correctly the first time.
Fortunately, I discovered that Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News heard the same speech that I heard, and he wrote about it in his blog at www.attytood.com. Bunch's blog entry about Bono's speech fills in some of the gaps that are missing from the official video, including the context surrounding Bono's "monster" comment.
So, thanks to Will Bunch, here is what Bono had to say about torture:
Today I read in the Economist an article reporting that over 38 percent of Americans support some type of torture in exceptional circumstances. My country? No. Your country? Tell me no. Today, when I receive this great honor, I ask you, I implore you as an Irishman who has seen some of these things close up, I ask you to remember, you do not have to become a monster to defeat a monster. Your America’s better than that.
Yes, that is exactly what I heard.
But, in the official video, all is missing except the last two sentences.
Yes, this is America, land of the free. Or so it once appeared to be.
Let's face it: When you feel you must censor the acceptance speech of a Liberty Medal recipient, something is seriously wrong.
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what are you talking about?????????
Bono was raised in the south of Ireland in a comfortably middle class family. He went to school with an English guy named Adam Clayton who was certainly not Catholic. Maybe you've heard of him. He plays bass in a band called U2. 99% of people in the Irish republic are "raised Catholic" but they are and were completely divorced from what was going on up in the north of Ireland. So the Irish Catholics who "do know about terrorism and torture" are the ones who live in the north. The Irish catholics in the south are a different breed and have been comfortably distanced from the troubles for the last 50 years. Your comment betrays your wilful ignorance. You make it sound like Bono was a member of the Fenians in 19th century British-ruled Ireland.
Bono's ALWAYS preached non-violence.
Bono was raised in a hard-scrabble, at best working-class neighborhood on the North Side of Dublin. He knew discrimination as the product of the Irish mixed marriage - one Catholic parent, one Protestant. As a result, he knew from the get-go that sectarian violence was NOT the answer. He has devoted his entire life to promoting peace, sharply denouncing violence. Look no further than the 1985 video - "Live From Red Rocks" - where he delivers a blistering attack on those responsible for the horrific bombing at Enniskillen, which had occured shortly before the concert.
The truth is that horrors have occurred on both sides of the Irish equation. Yes, the Brits enforced grossly unfair prosecutions against anyone suspected of IRA activity. The IRA wasn't exactly kind, either, though.
The saddest part? In the 1790s, when Irish Republicanism came to full fruition, it WAS non-sectarian. Catholics and Protestants fought together for their independence. In fact, the hero of that period, Wolfe Tone, was Protestant.
Recommended viewing: "The Wind That Shakes the Barley"
Not wanting to quibble here,
Not wanting to quibble here, but actually, Bono was raised Protestant (and was bullied a fair bit as a kid because of it).
Also, I've seen the house he grew up in, and it's definitely a middle class home. It is, however, in a neighborhood that is close to what was once a very rough area, and he knew a lot of rough kids. But no, his own childhood was not "hard-scrabble" at all.
You're wrong
I was there and recall the speech vividly. It was a very moving speech and indeed he did condemn torture! But, the NCC DID properly post the entire speech in both video and transcript format.
Sorry Mary, but you got this one wrong. The NCC is completely non-partisan and it would be a real travesty if they censored their honoree. Fortunately, they did no such thing. See for yourself...
Well, perhap she did not get this one wrong.....
I linked to your given website--www.constitutioncenter.org/libertymedal/. When I reached the website titled "Liberty", I clicked on "transcript of Bono's speech", and I was sent to a website of zooitalia. So, while this was not censored, the site carrying the entire speech was from Italy.
DemWoman
Update: Bono's full speech is now available on video
Good news:
Today the National Constitution has finally made Bono's full speech available on video. More info here.
Democracy Flourishes When the Citizens Tell the Truth
Thanks, Mary, for enlightening ALL OF US ABOUT THE TRUTH of how Bono's words were 'manipulated' by this administration.
The ONLY way American citizens learn the TRUTH is to have journalists and citizens unafraid to speak the TRUTH to the 'POWERS THAT BE'!
DEMOCRACY, YES! FASCISM, NO!
The fucking British
The British screwed the Irish from the time of the Normans. All those Fitz*** names date from that time. Henry VIII really went wild and so did Elizabeth and the rest of those dirty limeys! Not to mention Cromwell! The IRA finally beat those bastards at their own game: killing. In 1921 the Irish Free State was established. Of course, like the British did everywhere, they insisted on partition, just as they did in India. The British kept the six counties of Ulster.
_______fjh
"Not being a conspiracy theorist..."
Well, you'd have to be (a conspiracy theorist) to think that his speech was censored by such a benign organization. Obviously, it was a technical glitch of some sort. I mean, otherwise, it would mean that someone's higher up pressured him/her to edit the video, probably because the higher-up's higher-up pressured him, and so on. PLEASE! GET REAL! That never happens in the real world! Everything is just as it appears on CNN!
All Hail Occam's Razor! (Even if you don't really understand what it means, and it's real requirements for valid application.)
The only conspiracies that ever happened have all been revealed! Every single one! That's how we know 9/11 wasn't a conspiracy (by our gov't, that is) -- it would have been revealed!
And so on and so on.
You and I and everyone who reads this blog are "useless eaters"; do you actually believe that that entitles us to know, in any detail, how power is distributed and used in the world, let alone to actually influence it?
Wake up. When the CIA was overthrowing Mossadeq in Iran in 1953, you would have had no idea that that was the truth. And if you suggested it, you'd just be another "paranoid conspiracy theorist". But you would have been right. That obviously doesn't mean that because that was an actual conspiracy, all theories of conspiracy are true. But to blithely use the term "conspiracy theorist" as you did makes those who kill in our name more powerful, and those who question the official version of things weaker. Your words do matter.
The Irish Catholics do know about terrorism and torture
...and Bono was raised Irish Catholic. The British were brutal in trying to find and eliminate the Irish Republican Army, and they used much of the same language and removal of civil rights Bushco uses now to 'combat terrorism'.
more info about the IRA at wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Conlon