Harry Taylor

A gentleman named Harry Taylor became instantly famous when he stood up at one of President Bush’s notoriously scripted "town hall" events and said, among other things, this:

You never stop talking about freedom, and I appreciate that. But while I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water and eating safe food. If I were a woman, you’d like to restrict my opportunity to make a choice and decision about whether I can abort a pregnancy on my own behalf.

…

… in my lifetime, I have never felt more ashamed of, nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington, including the presidency, by the Senate, and … I feel like despite your rhetoric, that compassion and common sense have been left far behind during your administration, and I would hope from time to time that you have the humility and the grace to be ashamed of yourself inside yourself.

To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How

Taylor is also a member of the Sierra Club. According to Carl Pope, Taylor had this to say when asked about the event by club staff:

I’m just astonished at the reaction. It’s been overwhelming. My anxiety level is increasing, and I feel like it’s the start of something instead of the end.

When I voted for Al Gore against George Bush the first time he ran, I made a committed decision inside myself that my votes were going to be with the environment. My final acid test was that I was going to cast my votes for environment. Because it is going to be here a lot longer than I am going to be.

I didn’t even like Al Gore, and I thought that Bush was a likeable person but his environmental record is so terrible. And it’s been heartbreaking to see him win again, because of the environmental record, because of the war, Iraq…

To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How

I never walk into a voting booth if I don’t know how I’m voting. I try to study the issue; the issues are easier to vote on than the candidates…

I love the quote the Sierra Club has on their posters: that the world wasn’t given to us by our parents but borrowed from our children. That’s where I place my convictions, and that’s where I intend to place my convictions for the rest of my life.