Chris Hedges, is in my opinion, one of the most admirable, patriotic and courageous Americans alive today. The Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the New York Times could have just quietly faded into the night after a career most of us can only fathom, but not him. Rather, he is right here on the front lines in the fight for liberty.
Whether it is his lawsuit against the Obama Administration over the NDAA, or penning thoughtful critiques of the corporate-facist state, Chris is always right there fighting for his principles. He made that clear once again as he resigned from PEN due to the appointment of Suzanne Nossel, a former aide to Hillary Clinton who may have coined the term “soft power,” to executive director. He writes:
I will not be participating as a speaker in the PEN World Voices Festival in May. I will not participate because of your decision to select Suzanne Nossel as Executive Director of the PEN American Center. This appointment makes a mockery of PEN as a human rights organization and belittles the values PEN purports to defend. I spent seven years in the Middle East, most of them as the Middle East Bureau Chief of The New York Times. The suffering of the Palestinians under Israeli occupation and the plight of those caught up in our imperial wars in countries such as Iraq are not abstractions to me. Nossel’s relentless championing of preemptive war—which under international law is illegal—as a State Department official along with her callous disregard for Israeli mistreatment of the Palestinians and her refusal as a government official to denounce the use of torture and use of extra-judicial killings, makes her utterly unfit to lead any human rights organization, especially one that has global concerns. PEN American Center, by appointing Nossel, has unwittingly highlighted its own failure to defend and speak out for our dissidents, especially Bradley Manning. I hereby resign from PEN. I will wait until the organization returns to its original mandate to defend those who are persecuted, including those within the United States, before returning to the organization.
Sincerely,
Chris Hedges
If we had more people like Chris Hedges in this nation we would not be in the trouble we are in. Yes, it is that simple.
For more go here.
In Liberty,
Mike
Follow me on Twitter!
Donate bitcoins: 35DBUbbAQHTqbDaAc5mAaN6BqwA2AxuE7G
Follow me on Twitter.
Hedges is money in the bank (x Cyprus )!!
Balls of steel !! Amen
cant support his politics but you have got to love the guy for his ethics and the fact that he calls things as he sees them with NO fear what so ever
They hired her to get him out.
Chris Hedges is great, and I’ve learned a lot from him.
But he doesn’t always get it right: “The fuel or the engine of the gun culture is largely white people who are terrified of black people.” –Chris Hedges
I agree with you on both points. His critique is precise and clear; his courage is apparent; and once in a while he gets it dead wrong, IMO. Well, two out of three….
I have enormous respect for him. Truly.
Pathological fear and hatred of blacks does indeed fuel a measurable portion of america’s gun culture. But even among this ignorant mass, the even more pressing fear of a tyranical government has taken precedence.