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by Dina Rashed CHICAGO (Islam Online) - Presidential candidate George W. Bush took his turn on Tuesday as the prime guest on the Oprah Winfrey show. Winfrey was to introduce the young Bush to the public, and especially to women, the majority of her viewers, as she did with his opponent, Al Gore, around a week ago. While opening up to Winfrey's questions, two members of the audience interrupted, raising their voices to ask Bush a question not expected by the show producers, Oprah, or even the audience. Nobody coming to the Oprah Winfrey show expected to hear about the Iraqi people's crisis. Members of Voices in the Wilderness, a Chicago based group that has been actively working to lift the economic sanctions on Iraq, had been standing in the line of audience members waiting to enter the studio from as early as 6 a.m. Group members offered each audience member a rose affixed to a postcard, urging that the flower be worn to commemorate children who have died due to economic sanctions against Iraq. The cards also suggested questions to ask Bush. Two other members of the group, Andrew Mandell and Danny Muller, were waiting in line with show tickets in hand. They felt it was not the best Oprah show to attend, yet they felt compelled to come and listen to the presidential candidate, and even more to be heard by him. As audience members entered the studio, most had already pined the roses to their clothes, but as they reached a metal detector at the entrance, they were asked to remove the roses before entering the studio. The show ran smoothly until just about halfway through when Muller stood up and asked, "Mr. Bush, would you continue the Democrat's policy of bombing and sanctions that kill 5,000 children a month in Iraq?" Cutting to a pre-arranged commercial time slot, Bush was spared having to answer the question. But he was not spared the question. Mandell then stood and asked about what Iraqi children burdened by sanctions can expect, a reference to Bush's earlier remarks about great expectations for those who support his campaign. Bush stared directly at Andrew while Winfrey said, "You can't do this." Muller then explained to Winfrey that he felt compelled to speak, that after traveling to Iraq and witnessing children die for lack of medicine, he needed to act. "The room was silent. Ms. Winfrey gave me a momentary look of concern before I was escorted out," Muller wrote in an email to activist friends concerned with American policies towards the Iraqi people, telling them what they could not see or hear from their TV sets because the cameras were not permitted to shoot them. The show resumed after they left the room, with first, a commercial break, and then a video clip of George W. offering to be the pilot of our Great Expectations - Bush's anecdote for his plan for the United States. Winfrey said that in 15 years of interviewing guests she was never interrupted from the audience unless it was part of the show. Tuesday was the first time it happened. Mandell, recalling how the audience reacted, said that the crowd was shocked, not because U.S. policy and economic sanctions were crushing a civilian population against a tyrant, but because anyone might consider such everyday activities the basis to interrupt a television show. |
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