Jane Fonda gave a passionate speech defending the First Amendment on Sunday night at the star-studded Rise Up, Sing Out: A Concert for the First Amendment.
The event, held at The Town Hall in New York, was organized by the Committee for the First Amendment, a group that originally formed in 1947 during the McCarthy era but was recently revived by Fonda.
“Right now, the government and its cronies [are] routinely violating its First Amendment to silence artists,” she said onstage. “Shuttering institutions like the Kennedy Center, efunding museums and the National Endowment of the Arts, and banning books, canceling TV, hosts who speak out. It’s really bad. And it’s being allowed by cowardly corporations. I’m not gonna name names right now. But I am honored now to pass the mic to artists and activists who continue to speak up and sing out so that we might be inspired to rise up.”
Fonda also thanked the audience for showing up and supporting the committee’s mission to “defend free expression against government repression, industry complicity and intimidation,” according to its website.
“Showing up is an act of hope, and you all give me hope,” she said. “Those rights are for everyone, everyone. And we must defend them for everyone. Even if we don’t agree with them. You know, it’s not about Democrat or Republican, or left or right. It’s about right or wrong. And it is wrong. It is wrong for people to be attacked and called terrorists for exercising their rights and freedoms. It’s time for Americans all across the country, all across the political spectrum, who care about these freedoms, to stand up, creatively, nonviolently, to defend these rights, while we can. And we must do this now. Because if we don’t, we’re not gonna have any rights to descend.”
Fonda went on to explain why she revived the Committee for the First Amendment, a group that originally boasted several Hollywood luminaries, including her father, Henry Fonda, along with Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Danny Kaye, among its ranks.
“The committee was relaunched last October to bring together the entertainment industry,” she said. “At this moment, when our democracy is in peril. In the face of what’s happening, we need our industry to be unified, activated and unwilling to engage in anticipatory obedience. We stand together in defense of our right to free expression. They come for one of us, by God, they come for all of us.”
Also on the bill at Sunday night’s event were Julia Roberts, Robert De Niro, Tessa Thompson, Ayo Edebiri, Bette Midler, Ms. Rachel, Joy Reid, Lily Gladstone, Patti Smith and others.
