Subject: Without a pie, Kim disses Kissinger--to his face!
From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner@interpac.net>
Date: Sat, 23 Jun 2001
:
> From: Kim Scipes [mailto:sscipe1@icarus.cc.uic.edu]
Folks--
I don't normally engage in individualistic-type actions, and generally
don't promote them, by I'm going to make an exception to the rule.
Although I got some publicity out of this--see below--that was not my
point: Henry Kissinger was in town, everyone was kissing his ass, and I
just wanted to personally let him know that this one person despises him
and everything he stands for. (Obviously, I'm in a very long line on this
one, but I didn't claim to represent anyone but myself.) I've decided to
resend a message I sent the other night (June 18, 2001) to a friend: if
you think the story deserves retelling, please feel free to pass it on!
Kim
Dear ____:
Henry Kissinger was in Chicago tonight at the Fairmont Hotel, and believe
it or not, in the Imperial(ist) Room, speaking for the Chicago Council on
Foreign Relations. Well, your's truly scored a ticket. :) (You can, I
trust, see where this is going!)
Unfortunately, I had to listen to his inane talk, but I was cool cause I
didn't want to piss the audience totally off at me. Then they had Q&A, but
all questions had to be submitted on cards. Anyway, the last question was
(and this was ALL kissy-face shit) that someone had stated that they had
slept well while Kissinger had been in power, and the questioner was
wondering how K slept with Donald Rumsfeld in power? Well, I stood up and
asked his Royalty how he slept at night since he was probably the biggest
war criminal in the world alive today? I pointed out to the audience that
he had killed hundreds of thousands (I started off conservatively) if not
millions in Viet Nam, Cambodia, Chile, Angola, Bangladesh and elsewhere
[note: I certainly meant to include East Timor on the list, but can't
honestly say I remembered to do it]. I said I thought he should be charged
and taken to the World Court in The Hague, tried and if convicted, hung by
the neck until dead. (That Kim, a fucking liberal....) And then I
politely sat down. (There was at least one person who clapped.)
I actually got about a 90 section rap out, because I sat in a section
sounded by people, so the security folks couldn't get me quickly--I was all
alone.
Anyway, three security types came up to me, and asked me to leave. Instead
of leaving quickly, I drew it out, blah, blah, and one finally said that
one of them was a Chicago cop. I asked to see his badge, and he showed it
to me, and said I could see his ID outside. Well, after disrupting things
quite a bit, I agreed to go (I was not wanting to be locked up). Anyway,
out in the lobby, I asked to see the cop's ID, which he showed me, but I
again made a big deal out of it. People were leaving around us, and
definitely got to hear more. By that time, a reporter from the Sun-Times
came over, asked if we could talk, and of course, I said, "Sure." (Mr.
Modesty.)
So, I lead the S-T reporter and another man over by the escalator, which
the cops wanted me to exit by, and instead of leaving, I held my
"interview" there, so everyone leaving by the escalator got to hear me
again! She asked me all these good questions, asked me to repeat my
statement, asked me if I'd read Hitchens' articles in Harper's, etc. I
told her I had, but while I wasn't sure about all he said, I told her about
my research about Chile and then I went off on my boy. I explained the
Yamashita principle: Yamashita was a Japanese general in the Phils that
first ordered his men to kill prisoners, and then rescinded them, but was
forced by the US to bear the responsibility for his initial order, and was
hanged. I don't know if it'll make the S-T, or if it does, whether it'll
be cut to shreads, but I did freak some people out. I did not get arrested.
And most importantly, I got to look Kissinger in the eye, and tell him I
thought he was the biggest war criminal living in the world today. While
we were probably 50 feet apart, he heard me. His face went blank.
_____
I don't know what impact this had on anyone in the audience: I was so
focused on K that I don't even know what the people next to me said or how
they responded. I did hear at least one person clap in support of my
statement, and I heard one person shout, "Throw him out!" But I know at
least some people heard me.
Anyway, in today's (June 19) Sun-Times, (p. 6), there was an article on
Kissinger's talk. The editors had cut it down to almost nothing--I thought
the speech was pretty inane, but they only focused on his comments re a
possible Middle East "deal," when that was a very small part of the talk.
Then at the end of the article was three short paragraphs (contrast this
with my full account above):
"Kissinger's speech was briefly interrupted when a man stood up, called
Kissinger the 'greatest living war criminal' and asked how he could sleep
at night.
"Kim Scipes, 49, of Chicago, was escorted out of the ballroom and outside
told reporters that Kissinger should be held accountable for the US policy
in the Vietnam War. [I didn't let him off so easily....]
"'There were millions of Vietnamese killed. There were thousands of
Americans that were wounded or killed and were messed up,' Scipes said.
'He is directly responsible for that'." [The end.]
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