Look who's back: Jane Fonda was on CNN's Paula Zahn last night.
Aired September 15, 2004
ZAHN: Let's talk a little bit about this partnership you have with MoveOn.org, an organization that has spent tens of millions of dollars to try to defeat George W. Bush.
Is it your primary goal to elect John Kerry?
JANE FONDA, ACTRESS/ACTIVIST: Our primary goal is to try to get the 50 million women who are eligible to vote and have not voted to vote. We want the woman's voice to be in the body politic.
EVE ENSLER, PLAYWRIGHT/ACTIVIST: What we want women to see is that voting is in their interest. That it matters that they vote. That if women don't vote, all of the things that matter to them will be disregarded and essentially not paid attention to and not heeded. That their vote counts.
ZAHN: But the fact is, Jane, with the vast amount of money that MoveOn.org has spent running ads against President Bush, is there any way you can encourage women out there who would be inclined to vote Republican to come to the polls?
FONDA: We're the majority. If we voted, we would make a difference. We could decide who was elected. We could decide whether the person elected, man or woman, was going to care about and speak to our issues.
And we don't need to tell people who to vote for. We have to say, "Here are the facts. Here's who represents what. Vote your heart. Go in there; whatever party you belong to."
ZAHN: Let's look at the reality in the numbers. In the 2000 election, you had some 20 million single women in America that simply didn't vote. In -- of those, 16 million weren't even registered to vote. Now that was coming off two terms of a Democratic presidency.
What does that tell us?
FONDA: Well, I think it tells us that women, especially young, single women, feel that none of these guys are speaking to their issues.
ZAHN: No matter what party they represent?
FONDA: Yes, and they're right. They don't see our issues. They don't feel our issues. They're not walking in our shoes.
ZAHN: Is that our fault?
ENSLER: Well, I think part of it is how women feel empowered or disempowered. Part of what's happened in a culture we live in is women don't feel the right to what they know. They don't feel they can say what they say and see what they see and know what they know.
And what we're saying is begin with voting. To not participate is basically turning over your lot. It's saying, "I'm not part of this game. I'm not participating in this game. I'll accept whatever comes my way."
ZAHN: And that's basically what women have been saying.
ENSLER: And it's not acceptable.
ZAHN: Why do you think it is that these women believe that neither of these candidates are addressing their concerns? Are these politicians afraid of touching these issues?
FONDA: I think that they've been allowed to get away with ignoring us. It's become the way life is. It's just the way things are, that we're not paid attention to.
We're the ones that -- that look to the future. We bear the children. We protect the earth. We take care of health care. The issues that women carry in their bodies are the issues of the future.
And it is our responsibility as individuals and for our children and for our grandchildren to -- to force them to pay attention to us. They're not going to do it unless we force them.
ZAHN: So we certainly should share in the blame, should we not, for sitting out of the process?
FONDA: It's like blame the victim. We live in a patriarchal society where women are less than. Just that's the way it is. I don't -- I'm not going to blame us. I'm just going to say it's time to wake up.
ZAHN: Jane, I find it hard to believe when you talk to these 50 million women out there that didn't vote that you just want them to vote their hearts. You really want them to vote for John Kerry, don't you?
FONDA: I'm not putting myself, nor am I asked to be in either campaign. I'm just saying that I know that if women voted and they voted with their hearts and with their bodies and their souls, that the future would be more safe, because that's where our hearts are.
ZAHN: But you personally, obviously, are more comfortable with Kerry.
FONDA: I'm a Democrat. My father would strike me dead from the heavens if I ever voted for a Republican. Ted could never understand: "You've never voted for a Republican?" I can't do that to my father, who was a yellow dog Democrat. What can I say?
ZAHN: Jane, you have spent a number of years trying to put your controversial Vietnam past behind you. And yet for the last week or so, we have seen a tremendous amount of news coverage on George W. Bush's service in the national guard and questions being asked about John Kerry's service in Vietnam.
What does that tell us about how raw the feelings are to this day about the Vietnam War?
FONDA: It tells us that they're raw. It tells us that we have not healed. We need to heal from this wound, because it's very directly connected to what -- to the new wound. We haven't learned, you know, the lessons of Vietnam.
ZAHN: Jane, you have apologized to the families of Vietnam War vets, saying that maybe you have said some things that you wish you hadn't said along the way. Do you think you'll ever be able to satisfy people to this day who question what you did in Vietnam?
FONDA: No. There's a lot of people who -- who -- it's a cottage industry to hate me. And if they -- if they stop, that might mean that they'd have to look at some things that would question their own identity. And that's -- it's very hard for people to do.
cnn.com
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P.S. My father never voted for a Republican either but I know he would be a Republican today if he were alive....Henry Fonda probably would be as well. Jane is still her daddy's little girl who threw temper tantrums astride anti-aircraft gun in North Vietnam. |
