At the Museum of Tolerance Dinner this week in Los Angeles, EGOT winner Barbra Streisand toasted chief of Universal Pictures and Hollywood's favorite favorite person, Ron Meyer.
Streisand not only had a lot of wonderful words and stories to say about Meyer, but also had a message for the audience about how times have changed, which can be seen in the video. She stated, "Current events are a reminder of how far we have to go. Hate crimes are high, we are living under an administration that deliberately omitted Jews from the Holocaust Day, he wants to ban people from a specific religion he wants to deport, deportation, what a horrible word, and he praises dictators and criticizes the press. He uses the bully pulpit to simply bully. Words coded and calibrated to incite the beast in people and not the best. Now more than ever we must heed the warning signs of the past to echo in the discourse of the present. History has shown us the horror of quiet whispers, we must be shouting from the rooftops, "never again."
Meyer, who's parents immigrated to the United States from Nazi Germany, was raised in a household of tolerance and respect for others. According to ShowBiz 411, in telling a story of how he was betrayed by a childhood friend who later became a Nazi, he raised the question, "How do we recognize the good from the bad and what do we do about it? We should embrace tolerance but can't turn the other cheek. We cannot surrender to bullies."
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