Quote Of The Day, June 18, 2013

“I believe that any American who is in possession of [knowledge about Communist activities] has the obligation to make them known, either to the public or to the appropriate government agency. We must never let the Communists get away with the pretense that they stand for the very things which they kill in their own countries. I am talking about free speech, a free press, the rights of property, the rights of labor, racial equality, and, above all, individual rights. I value these things. I take them seriously. I value peace, too, when it is not bought at the price of fundamental decencies.”

- Film director Elia Kazan, in a 1952 open letter published in space he purchased in the New York Times, amid the House Un-American Activities Committee investigations. Kazan, who at one time had been a communist but left that party in disgust, was one of the few witnesses before that committee to name names of communist party members.