Buffy Sainte-Marie Quotes
It never occurred to me that I was important enough to have some politician go out of his way to silence me. I only found out about it in the '80s by accident - a broadcaster announced they received letters of commendation from the White House for having suppressed my music. My career was so highly impacted in the U.S. it will never recover.
Sainte-Marie, Buffy. Interview by Amy Goodman. "Buffy Sainte-Marie on Her Legacy, Blacklisting & Native American Rights." Democracy Now!, 9 Oct. 2015.
The Red Scare had affected much of the country. Congressman Thomas was the Chair of The House Un-American Activities Committee which had frightened much of the country claiming that the Communists had infiltrated the government. But when facts and proof were demanded, they came up with some workers in the Hollywood film industry who had gone to communist meetings and some who had joined the party before the War when The Great Depression was still plaguing the country. The Hollywood and TV executives caved in to the political demagogues and fired and blacklisted not only the communists but those who refused to testify. The actors and musicians could not work for several years until the country came to its senses, but the screenwriters wrote under false names. At least one Academy award was won that way.
The segment to which he referred were corporations. In his view, the then existing limits on corporate contributions to political campaigns were a “muffling” of the most experienced economic operatives in our society—corporations. Therefore this was censorship of the corporation’s right to freedom of speech. So in his view, in addition to the rights that were abrogated the nation was being blocked from receiving the political voice of one of its best sources of experience and wisdom regarding economic matters. The Supreme Court with the George W. Bush appointees became much more conservative and a few years later, with Scalia leading the charge, the court overruled itself and all its precedents and decided that Corporations were entitled to free speech. See {642321} for an earlier Supreme Court view that corporations were not entitled to the protection of citizens. This Scalia statement was quoted by fellow Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy in one of his opinions.
It is one of the tactics of Putin’s Russia. as it was with the Stalinist Era, to commit dissidents to mental institutions under the twisted logic that no one who was sane could possibly ge against such a beneficent government,
Buffy Sainte-Marie, CC is an Indigenous Canadian-American singer-songwriter, musician, Oscar-winning composer, visual artist, educator, pacifist, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues facing Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Her singing and writing repertoire also includes subjects of love, war, religion, and mysticism. She has won recognition, awards and honours for her music as well as her work in education and social activism. Among her most popular songs are "Universal Soldier", "Cod'ine", "Until It's Time for You to Go", "Now That the Buffalo's Gone", and her covers of Mickey Newbury's "Mister Can't You See" and Joni Mitchell's "The Circle Game". Her music has been recorded by Elvis Presley, Neil Diamond, Donovan, Joe Cocker, Jennifer Warnes, Barbra Streisand, Shirley Bassey, Roberta Flack, Janis Joplin, and Glen Campbell.
