Jane Fonda apologizes for comparing Georgia to Third
World
Copyright ¸ 1998 Nando.net
Copyright ¸ 1998 The Associated Press
ATLANTA (April 16, 1998 8:13 p.m. EDT nando.net) -- Jane Fonda apologized Thursday for telling a U.N. group that
parts of Georgia resemble a Third World country, with children "starving to death" and people living in "tar-paper shacks."
Fonda's remarks hit a raw nerve with Gov. Zell Miller, a native of the north Georgia mountains. He fired off a scathing letter to
the actress, saying her comparison was "simply ridiculous and reflects a prejudice I am shocked to learn you hold."
"Maybe the view from your penthouse apartment is not as clear as it needs to be," Miller said, referring to the downtown
Atlanta flat atop CNN Center that Fonda shares with husband Ted Turner.
Fonda quickly apologized.
"I was wrong. I should not have said what I said. ... My comments were inaccurate and ill-advised," she said.
Fonda made the remarks Wednesday as she addressed the U.N. Population Fund agency in New York. She was discussing
Georgia's teen-pregnancy rate.
"And it's what makes working in Georgia very interesting, because we're like, in some ways, like some developing countries,"
she said.
"I love Georgia. I'm proud to be living there. But we have very special problems that some of you can recognize that we're
dealing with," she said. "In the northern part of Georgia, children are starving to death. People live in tar-paper shacks with no
indoor plumbing, and so forth."
Miller, who has often fought against those he thinks have stereotyped Georgians as hicks and hillbillies, said he took her words
personally.
"Your remarks paint a grossly inaccurate and unfair picture of the state of Georgia. Your comments will do great harm to the
state you claim to love," his letter said.
Many Georgians, unimpressed with Fonda's remarks, spent Thursday burning up talk-radio lines to complain.
"I'm from Summerville, Ga., and I am extremely offended," a caller said on Dave Stone's morning show on WGST (AM 640).
"The churches up there wouldn't allow anyone to starve." Over on WSB (AM 750) radio, morning talk host Neal Boortz
issued a challenge to Fonda.
"Produce statistical evidence that one single child starved to death in this state last year," he said. "You went up to the U.N.
and flapped your gums. Now produce the evidence." |
