Ted Turner has both his feet on the ground. He and his wife Jane were honored recently at a dinner hosted by ZPG in New York. We have included some excerpts and quotations from ZPG. This event is very good news. It represents the answer of Main Stream America to the corpulent gentleman's ad hominem attacks on Ted Turner because of his recent humanitarian activities and bold statements of truth.

Society Ball (previously published as "Ecology and Homo sapiens sapiens,") reprinted with the permission of ZPG. With font colors added by Buddycom.

"By the time Ted Turner brought down the house by declaring, "We're right and they're wrong," there was no question that a new day was being ushered in for ZPG. Hundreds of guests, including some of the most influential people in entertainment, business and government, packed the ball room of the Manhattan Center across the street from Madison Square Garden. They were joined by ZPG members, supporters and staff from all over the country on hand to see ZPG honor Turner and his wife Jane Fonda."

"The stage was graced with four of the most talented actresses in the world, Glenn Close, Vanessa Redgrave, Jane Alexander and Jane Fonda who between them have 22 Academy Award nominations and three Oscars. The dinner committee included such luminaries as Robert Redford, Rob Reiner, David Letterman, Joanne Woodward, Paul Newman, Oprah Winfrey and Pat Schroeder. The dinner program contained congratulations and thanks from HBO, MTV, Random House, New Line Cinema, Castle Rock Entertainment, NBC, UPS, Sony, Hilton and many others. This was a night about population, the environment, personal giving and public commitment."

"ZPG executive director, Peter H. Kostmayer said, "In a world that is growing by 168 people every minute of every day, there is no greater challenge facing us than that of stabilizing world population"."

"UN Ambassador Bill Richardson commented, "The ability to tackle social, economic and even political problems will be impossible, if we don't first get a handle on population growth."

"He stress the importance of ZPG's work in international family planning and invoked the vision in the Plan of Action from the Cairo Population Conference, "based on the core principles of human rights, gender equality and an improved standard of living."

"Gerald Levin, CEO of Time Warner praised Ted and Jane's "consciousness, compassion and commitment serves as a personal example in the cause of human dignity." He also announced the "Turner Fonda Project which will be coordinated by ZPG to focus on issues involving population and the environment by helping young people become informed participants in shaping public policy."

"In presenting Jane Fonda with the ZPG Humanitarian Award, actress and former chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, Jane Alexander said, "She is always a step or a day or a decade ahead of others in her thinking. She has kept us on our toes. And now she has turned her attention to the prevention of teen pregnancy and she will make a profound difference. She cares about kids. She knows how to talk to them and they respect her. She tells it like it is. She has already made her mark on the world because she cares so much about it and the land and the people and the legacy we leave our children. This will be her lifelong commitment. We are very, very proud that Zero Population Growth has chosen Jane Fonda for its first Humanitarian Award."

Jane Fonda said, "I think the work of Zero Population Growth is important beyond belief. I was especially happy that Peter Kostmayer and Ambassador Bill Richardson both mentioned not just family planning but the importance of educating and empowering young girls and women. We can't get anywhere in this area without family planning. This is a very complicated and comprehensive issue and it needs comprehensive solutions."

"Under Secretary of State, Timothy Wirth stressed the importance of population stabilization and told a story about Haiti. When the Haitian prime minister, had only a few seconds to tell the U.S. Secretary of State the most important thing about his country, he chose to tell the Secretary, "My country cannot sustain its population of 7 million people, yet in 18 years we will double to 14 million."

"That is a commentary on the continued need for the leadership of the United States of America to provide a very clear and strong voice at a time when people don't want to talk about the issue of population stabilization. At a time when it means that politicians have to talk about religion or sex--these are difficult issues and politicians are risk-averse. It is up to all of us and the great work of ZPG, the great work of all of you to continue to push our political institutions to take the leadership we expect of them."

"Larry King wished Ted a happy birthday and then lead the New York City Labor Chorus in singing, Happy Birthday. The Walt Disney Company CEO, Michael Eisner, sent along an original framed cartoon cell of Jiminy Cricket as a present--because Ted has said that he wants to be like Jiminy Cricket, "the conscience of the world."

"In her presentation of the ZPG Leadership Award to Ted Turner, Glenn Close said, "You are such a fierce, fierce visionary. Not only did you establish CNN and turn us into a global village. You then cared desperately about what goes into that village and we thank you."

"No area is more important than managing human numbers in a sensible way," said Turner in his acceptance speech. "We have to live in an intelligent manner so that we walk as lightly as we can on the earth."

"I really believe that there are huge forces arrayed against us. The forces of ignorance, lack of education and prejudice and hatred and fear. The forces of darkness in general.

"And then on our side we have the forces of light. The force of education, the force of understanding, the force of intelligence, the force of courage. How can we not win? We're smarter than they are.

"In the end, I'll put my money on the smart people against the dummies. If the smarts can't beat the dumbs, we're really not that smart, are we? And we have a lot more fun than they do, because we're right and they're wrong!" Mr. Turner said.

"ZPG board president, Dr. Judith Jacobsen stood in the center of the ballroom and remarked, "It was wonderful and heartening to see people of fame and stature use the phrase zero population growth as a household word. They accept as a matter of course that it is a good idea...something we have been working toward for three decades. I think that ZPG has stepped into another league. I love it!"

It has taken three decades just to get to this point.

zpg.org

One gentleman was moved by this article and has asked that we post his remarks. We are happy to oblige. As a matter of principle we support this gentleman's right to express his opinion. We wish to stress that we actually recieved this communication via email.

"Wow!!!!! I read your article about how great Ted Turner is and I was amazed. I had no idea people actually thought like that. How can you actually believe in that socialist crop. You have got to be an incredible idiot. Ted Turner is the biggest redneck piece of shoot that was ever born, if you think he's smart or worthy of praise you need a brain moron. People like Ted Turner should die, that darn communist boysterd. And if you can or can't handle it you've just heard another addition of the truth."

We had thought Mr Turner was one of the most successful and one of the richest capitalists ever. Well, you have to be flexible in your thinking. We hereby stand corrected. Ted Turner can not be considered a loathsome capitalist. Turns out he's a loathsome communist.

They do manage to utter the OP word now and again. It's hosted by Jane Fonda, and we know how she feels because she has demonstrated in years gone by but we've not forgotten. There's pollyanna aplenty and one might wonder why the effort had to wait till the top of the ninth inning, now three decades after the founding of the ZPG organization and at the very end of the twentieth century and after the human juggernaut had reached immense and seemingly unstoppable proportions.

Who gives a hoot about habitat?

But like Eco Buddy said, "Who really gives a hoot about habitat, anyway?" Too little, too late? Or the first step is the beginning of a thousand mile journey? Well heck, you can decide for yourself. We like Jane Fonda. We understand the constraints and pressures of societies. Perhaps we are too anxious to see substantive changes in our world. If we are to be called idiots and morons for supporting Ted Turner, Jane Fonda, Paul Ehrlich, Judith Jacobsen, Peter Kostmayer, or others like them we accept such vitriol humbly. We wish to see humans living in peace and harmony. Is that so terrible? We don't like to see the human juggernaut exterminating other life forms. We want it to stop. Is that so terrible?

Ted Turner is a man in tune with nature, a man in tune with the past, present and future, a man in tune with the needs of our planet, a man of courage and conviction, a man of bold action; a man willing the speak truth. Although it would be a worthless addition to one's resume in this day and time when a large and growing majority of Americans are so cynical and so steadfastly in denial of their addiction to habits which are related to the destruction of our planets life forms and ecosystems, this man can count as one source of his inspiration, a close personal friendship with Jacques Cousteau.

Who gives a hoot about habitat?

And yet, because Ted Turner puts the knowledge, understanding and insight gained from his association with the great mind of Jacques Cousteau into action, this is cause not for celebration, but rather for a rousing rebel yell against him, for the hurling of angry epithets, for the vilification of Ted Turner as the agent of evil. Buddycom has respect and admiration for this man. We know that he has the moral high ground. We know that eventually, as our environmental crisis widens to the point at which the four riders of the apocalypse are staring directly into the faces of increasing numbers of humans, denial of reality will become more difficult, although still within the realm of possibility.

You can search the Internet and find lots of pages devoted to Ted Turner. Most of the pages we found were disgusting and uncomplimentary. Our hearts go out to the disingenuous purveyors of ignorance, who denigrate this rare and precious human being with such gusto and relish. For some we pray, "God forgive them, they know not what they do." For others we pray, "Oh father, why hast thou visited these angry white men upon us, so evil in word, deed and influence. They care not what they do. Nor care they not for fellow man, beast, fish or fowl."

That these persons use our airwaves and world wide web to spread, deceit, half truths, disinformation, and ignorance, is made manifestly evident in their verbal persecution of Ted Turner. We can remember when Joan Baez and Jane Fonda made us cry with tears of joy (as we are doing even now as we right this page), when they did the right thing and openly visited Hanoi in an heroic effort to end our bloody and evil destruction in Viet Nam. does any body remember Samuel Clemens? Samuel Clemens has written a word or two about how men can be made to want to do such things in war. Dead men, women and children were put into black plastic body bags and were proudly proclaimed to be dead Viet Cong although everybody knew it wasn't so.

What do the Japanese think about Viet Nam?

They can't seem to shake the idea that Viet Nam was a race war started by the French and continued unsuccessfully by the Americans after Dien Bien Phu. Japanese people still haven't forgotten these atrocities. From time to time NHK airs documentary programming about the activities of the French and the Americans during that war. We shake our heads in shame as we listen to spin doctors whitewashing history and proposing that we could have won the war if only we had done it right. Doing it right would have involved more black plastic bags, more agent orange, more napalm and more accurately targeted ordnance; that is a certainty. Don't you just love the smell of napalm in the morning? Vietnamese have welcomed Americans back into their country with arms open wide, with smiling faces and with forgiving hearts. Americans and French say they do it because they smell money. Japanese say the Vietnamese are able to do this because they are Buddhists. Congratulations to Bill for righting a twenty five year old wrong and opening up to Viet Nam. The right people called him a draft dodger for doing the right thing during that evil war. And he did the right thing again twenty five years later. He who laughs last laughs best.

Buddycom wishes God Speed to the bold and courageous Ted Turner as he negotiates the Scylla and Charybdis of public opinion in America. Ted Turner may not necessarily agree with Buddycom opinions, but we know that he appreciates our right to freely declare that we admire him.

From a message at the Delphi.com forum on Overpopulation

From:EDGLAZE Jun-28 9:50 pm To: ALL

More good words from Ted Turner.

Though he did create CNN, ..., he recently resigned from the board and has been spreading the message of voluntary population reduction. It's rare for people of his class and power to hold such progressive ideas. Maybe he should consider running for office in 2004?

TURNER BLASTS BUSH ON THE ENVIRONMENT
The Associated Press
Monday, June 11, 2001; 1:40 p.m. EDT
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press
WEST YELLOWSTONE, Mont. ––
"The Bush Administration ignores clean technology and focuses on developing new oil and coal projects because the president wants to repay energy companies for helping finance his campaign, Ted Turner charged in a speech. "That's who owns them," Turner told the annual meeting of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition on Saturday night. "It's time we started acting intelligently or we aren't even going to be here in 100 years." He said the Bush Administration wastes too much time on "rogue nations" like North Korea, while refusing to comply with the Kyoto Accords, which call for reducing the output of greenhouse gases. "We're now being called a rogue state" because of that action, Turner told about 400 cheering people. "We should be worrying about global warming and environmental degradation, not North Korea." Turner, a board member of the GYC who has given billions of dollars to environmental causes, was the keynote speaker at the gathering. "My giving has exceeded my income by 10 to one" over the past several years, the billionaire CNN founder said. Turner, a father of five, also reiterated his belief that the world's human population could have adequate food, housing and medical care if couples voluntarily limited themselves to one child." http://wire.ap.org/

Ed Glaze Host of Overpopulation and Population Issues
Assistant Moderator of Bioethics and Society and The Savant Society
Delphi.com forums.