Mandy Patinkin Backs A Bus
Actor Mandy Patinkin is adding his voice to the call for an end to gun violence.
He is a spokesman for a charity organization called Pax, whose members work to eliminate gun violence in America. Every year, TDI, an outdoor advertising company owned by CBS, sponsors a consciousness-raising campaign. This year, TDI is collaborating with Pax to promote the elimination of gun violence.
Pop artist Robert Indiana has donated artwork with an anti-violence theme, painted on city buses across the United States. Patinkin and his son, Isaac, who is also involved in Pax, showed one of the special buses to The Early Show's Mark McEwen.
The Pax slogan is "Learn from Yesterday, Hope for Tomorrow, Stop the Violence," referring to the Columbine High School killings and other situations, "where gun violence is out of hand," says Patinkin.
"The information that Pax puts out there is (that) they want common sense solutions, common sense changes," explains the actor.
"It's not a gun-lobbying organization but an awareness organization. Every day, 14 children die in America from gun violence. That is a Columbine every day. Over one-third of the homes in America have guns in their homes unlocked and unloaded. We want locks on those," he says.
Ironically, says Isaac Patinkin, students are the most effective in communicating the anti-gun violence message, yet they are also the least represented. He started the first Pax Club at the Fieldston School, a high school where he is a senior this year.
Patinkin stars on the CBS-TV series Chicago Hope as Dr. Jeffrey Geiger, a role for which he won an Emmy in 1995. Before that, in 1990, he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of Che Guevara in the Broadway production of Evita.
He's preparing to appear in a new Broadway show, The Wild Party, and he's about to cut a new album called Kidults.
Patinkin serves on the board of Pax with his wife, who is the one who introduced him to the organization.
"She always manages to find the heart of the moment," says Patinkin. "I was playing a series of concerts when the Columbine shootings happened last year. I was so moved that I switched my concerts to benefit concerts. I told everyone about Pax and about Doctors Without Borders, another organization I'm involved with, and I managed to collect $150,000 for those two charities."