I watched and was very impressed by the thoughtful patriotism of actor Richard Dreyfuss, sitting on the panel-du-jour of "Real Time with Bill Maher". It's from November 17th of 2006, but Dreyfuss's words are timeless. Please listen to it when you have a few minutes-it's so much better in his words. Here's a link to part of it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JodajZV0itM.
Dreyfuss sat quietly for a long time during the program listening to the other panelists, but when he spoke it was more than worth waiting for. He was interesting, even inspiring, but also dead serious about the need to resume teaching and stressing "Civics", both in schools and in life.
Civics? Yeah, civics, as in how government works, and how citizens and representatives should participate. "Civics is the learning of the tools of maintaining a republican democracy. Republican democracy as opposed to democracy. Representational democracy, which was what was created in the Constitution.."
He feels so strongly about all this that he cut WAY back on movie-making in order to study at Oxford no less, and has also been teaching civics, so of course he was very well-informed, with an inspiring manner that was downright "presidential".
This is not a new or temporary enthusiasm; Dreyfuss has been politically active and working for peace and justice for a LONG time, going back to when he was a C.O. during the Vietnam War.
He's been described as "outspoken on the issue of media informing policy, legislation, and public opinion" and is basically very concerned about privacy, freedom of speech, participatory democracy, and individual accountability, all obviously endangered of late. IMO we need many many more citizens like him. He has shown solid commitment to educating Americans about potential and actual erosion of individual rights. He spoke about it eloquently at The National Press Club in D.C., hoping to stimulate a serious national discussion of impeachment against Bush. (Note that this was in November of 2006-right now I doubt there'd be time or interest in impeachment...)
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewPolitics.asp?Page=%5CPolitics%5Carchive%5C200602%5CPOL20060217a.html
"There are causes worth fighting for even if you know that you will lose," Dreyfuss said during his speech. "Unless you are willing to accept torture as part of a normal American political lexicon, unless you are willing to accept that leaving the Geneva Convention is fine and dandy, if you accept the expansion of wiretapping as business as usual, the only way to express this now is to embrace the difficult and perhaps embarrassing process of impeachment." (YES!)
OK, you could call Richard Dreyfuss a 
"Peacenik" 
and not be far wrong, but he's so much more than that: he describes his pro-civics position as not primarily liberal or conservative, but "pre-partisan", focusing his efforts on bringing reason, logic, clarity, civil debate and dissent to the American political dialogue. (He's a lot better at articulating it than I am...)
"I am speaking as an American who wants to hand to his kids the country he learned about," he said. Amen!
"Peacenik" 
and not be far wrong, but he's so much more than that: he describes his pro-civics position as not primarily liberal or conservative, but "pre-partisan", focusing his efforts on bringing reason, logic, clarity, civil debate and dissent to the American political dialogue. (He's a lot better at articulating it than I am...)"I am speaking as an American who wants to hand to his kids the country he learned about," he said. Amen!
“Who will show me any Constitutional injunction which makes it the duty of the American people to surrender everything valuable in life, and even life, itself, whenever the purposes of an ambitious and mischievous government may require it?”
- Daniel Webster in an address to the House of Representatives December 9, 1814
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A full hour-long audio recording of Richard Dreyfuss on this subject is in my podcast http://podcast.geekcruises.com/ shows 84 and 85.
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