Paying tribute to Bravery

[92bDad]

The link below is to a story about a man who spoke his mind and shared his views, only to lose everything as a result.

Perhaps someday, we can see a move about his life...after all, if "Milk" is such a great film about a great person and a great subject, perhaps we can have an equal view about Ron Silver.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.p...ery+Not+an+Act

Silver's Bravery Not an Act
by Ann Coulter

03/18/2009


I wish I could ask Ron Silver what he thinks of the AIG bonuses. He'd have some original take -- maybe propose re-opening the bonuses paid to Franklin Raines and Jamie Gorelick for their yeoman's work running Fannie Mae into the ground and then collecting bonuses of $90 million and $24.7 million, respectively. Or maybe he'd just make a joke.

But I can't ask him anymore because Ron died of a rare esophageal cancer last Sunday.

So now there is one less person in the world who never chooses his positions to feed a pompous ego or to stroke his self-image as a thinking person. There was no point to posturing for Ron: His social standing in Hollywood was revoked the moment he supported Bush and the Iraq War.


Perhaps Ron always spoke his mind, but I didn't know him when he was "brave"; I only knew Ron when he was actually brave.

I've noticed that words like "brave" and "courageous" are mostly used nowadays to mean "left-wing." We're constantly asked to admire the monumental courage of Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Janeane Garofalo and the Dixie Chicks -- sometimes even by other people.

But for my younger readers, what courage traditionally meant was risking the disapprobation of people you know. It was about losing friends, losing work and losing status where you live -- not alienating people you will never meet. Insulting people in Kansas when you live in Los Angeles is not speaking truth to power; it's speaking anything to serve power.

One thing you cannot say about Ron's magnificent speech at the 2004 Republican National Convention is that he did it to go with the flow in Hollywood, to take the path of least resistance, to win easy applause. Ron did lose work, lose friends and lose his entire social apparatus.

Ron didn't say what he said to get any kind of reaction, but because he believed it. He was an intellectual trapped in an actor's body.

Amid the antiques at his beautifully appointed Park Avenue pre-war, there were piles and piles of magazines and newspaper articles on topics ranging from Sunni Muslims to Darwinism. Nearly every room was lined with books, most of them dog-eared.

When I needed to stay with Ron for a few weeks once, he'd get up hours before I did, read all the major newspapers and leave the interesting articles circled at the foot of my bed.

This might be the nicest thing a man could ever do for me. Hey, skip the bagel and fresh coffee -- bring me that op-ed page and a pair of scissors! It was like a fabulous Park Avenue hotel with a clipping service.

During his long-shot chemo treatments at "the spa," as he called Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Ron turned his chemo rooms into Command Central. Most people doze off during chemo; Ron would be sitting upright, watching the news, checking his laptop and making cell phone calls, seemingly oblivious to the poison being injected into his arm.

He'd often come to church with me on Sundays -- while insisting he favored the "Original Testament," as if the New Testament were an act of judicial activism. He just liked to hear an intellectual lecture on the Bible -- and always perked up when the minister began discussing the "Original Testament."

On Sundays when we had communion, Ron would pop the host in his mouth as soon as the tray passed him, approvingly observing that matzo was served at church.

No ideas frightened him, which is part of the reason why we were always laughing, even when we were arguing.

Ron sometimes told me of the cruelty directed at him by his former friends, but never with bitterness or for publication -- although I'm tempted to get it off my chest even if he didn't want to get it off his chest. You know who you are.

As with his impending death, Ron mostly joked about his banishment from the plutocracy. When I off-handedly mentioned in December 2004 that I had to get a Christmas tree, he told me he'd like to help, but having recently spoken at the Republican National Convention, the last thing he needed was to be seen walking through the streets of New York carrying a Christmas tree.

After an aborted operation on his cancer in July 2007, as soon as I saw Ron in his hospital bed, I told him I had Christians across the country praying for him. He said, "That's good, because the Jews are praying for me to die."

Here he was joking only hours after being told his cancer was inoperable and he had mere months to live. Nearly two years later, he was gone. Luckily for him, he now faces a Maker who rewards bravery, but despises "bravery."

[Mavdog]

ann couter is under the misconception that there are no republicans in hollywood and/or the movie biz, and that there are not jewish conservatives.

she's wrong (typical imo) on both counts.

ron silver was a good person, but he wasn't that unusual. there are many good people out there, and they have a varied political ideology. likewise there are some miserable examples of people out there, both on the right side and the left side of the political spectrum.

[dude1394]

Ron silver was VERY unusual. A hollywood person who stood up for conservative and republican principles very publicly and got the very public grief for it. Unlike the glory that the leftist hollywood type gets for being publicly a left-wing wacko.

[Mavdog]

"unusual"??

tell that to kelsey grammer, jon voight, stephen baldwin...even dennis hopper, adam sandler, and robert duvall. don't forget ben stein, dennis miller, and clint eastwood.

nope, not that unusual at all. lots of actors stand up for what they believe, both right and left, both jewish and christian.

[mcsluggo]

You know what is funny....?

how often this whiny lady whines about how whiny liberals are.

... well, perhaps "funny" isn't the correct word....

[dude1394]

Originally Posted by mcsluggo

You know what is funny....?

how often this whiny lady whines about how whiny liberals are.

... well, perhaps "funny" isn't the correct word....

what a whiner.

[bernardos70]

Holy crap, how did I miss her name at the top! Dang it, I read the whole thing when just reading her name would have terminated my reading! That lady is a whacko.

EDIT: For reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wnPHFSdrME

[mary]

Even my republican friends don't take Ann Coulter seriously.

[Mavdog]

Originally Posted by mcsluggo

You know what is funny....?

how often this whiny lady whines about how whiny liberals are.

... well, perhaps "funny" isn't the correct word....

no, "whiny lady" isn't correct....there's a better word for "whiny" and that woman is no "lady".

[mcsluggo]

Originally Posted by dude1394

what a whiner.

it is too true!

[92bDad]

Sad, this story is about Ron Silver who has past away...yet somehow this has turned into a bash Ann Coulter thread.

Thank you for spinning this away from a well intended positive post about a guy who sacrificed everything to support his beliefs.

Think about it, does someone like Sean Penn or several others get black balled for supporting Liberal views...no they get praised, often times rewarded...but with Ron Silver, we see a guy who saw job opportunities in Hollywood basically go to zero after he came out in support of the War efforts. He voiced an unpopular view within Hollywood and was blackballed...he knew it would happen and yet he spoke openly anyway.

This story is about Ron Silver, not the author. The author happened to write a nice respectable piece on Ron Silver as a bit of tribute now that he has died.

Nice to see that others can provide the same respect...

[mcsluggo]

!!!!!!DEFINITELY NSFW!!!!! (but pretty funny)


!!!! NSFW !!!!

[mary]

And yet...if it weren't for the political slant, you wouldn't have posted it in the first place.

So....feel sad for yourself.

BTW..he has "passed" away - not "past away".

[92bDad]

Originally Posted by mary

And yet...if it weren't for the political slant, you wouldn't have posted it in the first place.

So....feel sad for yourself.

BTW..he has "passed" away - not "past away".

thankyoufrobingbysplckrnexttmillrunitbyubeforeipst asforudcnksmaupplehvgnffthdpnd

Run that through your spell check!!!

[u2sarajevo]

Oooooooh Burn.

[Mavdog]

Originally Posted by 92bDad

Sad, this story is about Ron Silver who has past away...yet somehow this has turned into a bash Ann Coulter thread.

you should thank ann coulter, who wrote a piece about ron silver in which she used his death to bash the left.

if you didn't see her intent and use of this deceased person as a foil to bash the left, you've not understood what she wrote.

Thank you for spinning this away from a well intended positive post about a guy who sacrificed everything to support his beliefs.

Think about it, does someone like Sean Penn or several others get black balled for supporting Liberal views...no they get praised, often times rewarded...but with Ron Silver, we see a guy who saw job opportunities in Hollywood basically go to zero after he came out in support of the War efforts. He voiced an unpopular view within Hollywood and was blackballed...he knew it would happen and yet he spoke openly anyway.

This story is about Ron Silver, not the author. The author happened to write a nice respectable piece on Ron Silver as a bit of tribute now that he has died.

Nice to see that others can provide the same respect...

uh, ron silver didn't "sacrifice" anything. he continued to have a career subsequent to his republican convention speech, he was in over a dozen works since 2004.

so no, ron silver was not "blackballed", and his job opportunities were not "zero", so just what ann coulter did wasn't out of respect but rather it was using ron silver to promote her agenda of attacking the other side of the political debate.

that shouldn't surprise anyone, for that is exactly what everyone should expect from her as that's how she makes her living.

[bernardos70]

Ya know, Don Quixote was very brave fighting those windmills....... didn't make him right, Sancho Panza!

[mary]

Originally Posted by 92bDad

thankyoufrobingbysplckrnexttmillrunitbyubeforeipst asforudcnksmaupplehvgnffthdpnd

Run that through your spell check!!!

It's not really about "spell check" so much as it is about your consistent misuse of the English language.

I was just trying to help you out a bit.

[Murphy3]

Originally Posted by Mavdog

"unusual"??

tell that to kelsey grammer, jon voight, stephen baldwin...even dennis hopper, adam sandler, and robert duvall. don't forget ben stein, dennis miller, and clint eastwood.

nope, not that unusual at all. lots of actors stand up for what they believe, both right and left, both jewish and christian.

Republicans that are willing to stand up and speak out in Hollywood is still a bit unusual.. no, it's not unheard of, but it is unusual.

[Murphy3]

Originally Posted by mary

And yet...if it weren't for the political slant, you wouldn't have posted it in the first place.

So....feel sad for yourself.

BTW..he has "passed" away - not "past away".

Maybe he did both?