Why ignore the current madman?

To the surprise of many, Hollywood rightfully recognized the brilliance of “The Pianist.” The motion picture academy rewarded Adrien Brody, who movingly portrayed the real-life pianist and Holocaust survivor Wladislaw Szpilman, director Roman Polanski and screenwriter Ronald Harwood.

Kudos to Hollywood for addressing and continuing to expose the attempted genocidal slaughter of European Jews and many others by the Nazi regime and its monstrous leader, Adolf Hitler.

Many filmmakers seem to be quite adept at taking on atrocities committed by madmen 60 years ago. It’s the atrocities and genocide being committed by the madmen of today that they seem to have trouble recognizing. While proudly proclaiming themselves against evil with remarkable films such as “The Pianist” and “Schindler’s List,” they remain, for the most part, disturbingly silent as United States and coalition forces conclude the removal of the Hitler of today.

As host of the recent 75th Academy Awards, Steve Martin made a joke about contrasts. In the middle of the bit, in talking about Hollywood, he said, “We are Democrats, and we are....” He did not finish the sentence because there was no need. The celebrity-packed audience laughed and applauded appreciatively at the inside joke. The meaning being, “We are only Democrats.”

It was a funny line, but it also may have some serious implications. Only having one voice, one opinion and one party can stifle ideas and dissent -- something “The Pianist” spoke so movingly against.

I happen to be a Republican who strongly believes that actors and artists not only deserve to have a voice but also have opinions that the Bush administration and the rest of the country need to hear. Keep talking, because that is your right, and just because you are artists does not mean you cannot have a valid point. Many do, and those points need to be expressed. It’s called free speech.

But sadly, I believe free speech is mostly a one-way street in Hollywood. Recent articles in The Times have mentioned fear of actors who are against the war in Iraq being blacklisted; it got to the point that the Screen Actors Guild sent out a news release warning against such action. Maybe that release was an April Fool’s joke. My understanding is that the actors most likely to be blacklisted would be those who spoke up in favor of the war or in support of President Bush.

That’s just human nature. If 95% of any group is against something, then the 5% for it is going to have an uphill battle.

I am trying to be as nonpartisan with this issue as possible. With that in mind, I question the response of Hollywood if Bill Clinton had executed this campaign against Saddam Hussein and Iraq the exact same way as President Bush. I suspect many more artists would have supported the action. Again, that’s just human nature.

I am not a stereotypical Republican. I grew up on welfare and was homeless many times and have never been afraid to take on the GOP publicly. I am also a Republican who has married into a wonderful Jewish family and I have learned more about that wonderful faith. In my opinion, we cannot remind the world enough of the horrors of the Holocaust and the evil that was Hitler.

That said, as an American, I am deeply troubled that so many influential filmmakers and actors would choose to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that Saddam Hussein does not exist or was not as evil as Hitler was six decades ago. In many ways, he has been more evil.

In the interests of an honest debate, does anyone in Hollywood truly believe that if he had the means and the chance, Hussein would not have wiped Israel off the map and tried to exterminate the Jewish faith? I have had many private conversations with friends in Hollywood, many of them Jewish. In private, they all tell me they have no doubt that Hussein would have tried to destroy Israel and the Jewish faith. In public, however, they remain silent or only find their voices when condemning a Republican president who chose not to wait for the evil to go to Israel or come to our shores.

The artists of Hollywood have much to offer this ongoing debate. But first, they must find their voices. And those voices must be honest and bipartisan.

The dangers of silence: Did we not learn anything from the horrors of World War II?