Governor Rips Into "Georgia" Jane Fonda
It's been nearly 30 years since Jane Fonda ignited her first political
firestorm, but the Oscar-winning workout queen clearly hasn't lost
her incendiary touch.
Georgia Governor Zell Miller yesterday blasted the actress for
comments she made at a United Nations forum earlier this week that
compared the Peach State to third-world countries.
Fonda's remarks - which also included observations that "in the
northern part of Georgia, children are starving to death. People live in
tar paper shacks with no indoor plumbing" - infuriated Miller, who
dashed off a sharply worded letter addressed to Fonda at the CNN
building in Atlanta.
"Your statement that 'Georgia is like some developing countries' is
simply ridiculous and reflects a prejudice I am shocked to learn you
hold," wrote Miller in a rebuttal that went on to boast of Georgia's
job and population growth. While he conceded that "teen-pregnancy
rates remain a serious problem," the governor noted teen births had
dropped 9 percent in the last six years.
Fonda yesterday apologized for her statements: "I was wrong. I
should not have said what I said.... My comments were inaccurate
and ill-advised."
Taking a personal tack, Miller's letter went on to imply that the movie
star wife of media mogul Ted Turner inhabits an ivory tower.
"Maybe the view from your penthouse apartment is not as clear as it
needs to be."
"Finally, I personally feel used and betrayed," he continued. "I have
bent over backwards to work with you, sometimes to my detriment...
I have encouraged your efforts against teen pregnancy. For you now
to turn around and say such things about Georgia is personally
offensive to me."
For all her criticism of Georgia during her UN talk, which centered
largely on adolescent-pregnancy prevention, Fonda stressed that she
loved her adopted state. "I'm proud to be living there, and that's the
truth... But we have very special problems that some of you can
recognize."
Miller wasn't the only Georgian infuriated by Fonda's comments. "Did
she say that?" asked an unidentified man at the Atlanta Mayor's
Office, noting that Turner pledged a billion dollars to the UN last
year. "Why don't they put their money where their mouths are and
give some cash to fix up Georgia's problems."
This is hardly the first time Fonda has found herself embroiled in
controversy as a result of her involvement in hot-button issues. A
longtime social activist who has supported numerous
antiestablishment causes, the actress earned the pejorative moniker
"Hanoi Jane" for her 1972 visit to the Communist capital during the
war in Southeast Asia, when she posed at the controls of a North
Vietnamese anti-aircraft gun. She apologized some 16 years later.
- Sandra Contreras
tvgen.com
I think the Georgians know better than Jane. |
