Last week on the Academy Awards, I watched you being honored for your contributions to the motion picture industry. I too have been touched by your fine work, including "On the Waterfront," "A Face in the Crowd," and "Gentlemen’s Agreement," the best film I’ve ever seen about anti-Semitism.

But back in the 50s, you gave the name of your colleagues to the House Un-American Activities Committee investigating communist infiltration in Hollywood. Accordingly, at the Oscars, several people refused to stand or applaud when your award was presented.

I understand that you were very well off back then, that you were a big success in film and theatre, and that you felt you had to join in the witch hunt that destroyed so many careers, so that your position would not be jeopardized. You were a willing participant in the blacklisting that took place, where writers, directors, and actors never worked again, fled the country, worked under aliases, or even, in extreme cases, committed suicide.

In Franz Kafka’s "The Trial," the main character, Joseph K., is on trial for unspoken crimes. He’s not really sure what he did, only that he’s being tried. Mr. Kazan, you do know what did, and you did it willingly. I view you as a traitor, an ally and accomplice to an infamous committee which shamed this country.

Accordingly, I don’t think you should have received an award for your work. There is no way for your films to be amputated from the rest of you. If there were any decency left in you at all, you would have refused the award so as not to once again sow discord and bitterness among those whose lives and devotion are given to art.

While pondering your actions, past and present, I couldn’t help make the comparison to my present dilemma. Although I’ve yet to achieve the success and level of artistic mastery that you embodied at the time of your betrayal, I too have been given the choice of either speaking the truth or remaining silent. I have chosen the path of truth teller, no matter what the consequences. Hence my nom de plume, THE PARIAH.

In my case, it isn’t a communist witch hunt at the heart of the matter, but artistic integrity. Like major studios that controlled the movie industry in your day, in today’s music industry, it’s the major record labels that set the agenda. And with this website, I’ve gone up against these powerful entities.

Perhaps a lesser man would have succumbed to either their temptations, or their pressures. In fact, when I started doing this website, after word got around that the content on Bird Lives would upset the power brokers, I was approached by someone in the industry and given a choice, either forget about the site, or watch my income slide. It was that simple.

Until this year, a portion of my income came from the sale of writing in the form of liner notes, bios and press releases from certain major record labels. Until this year. No more. That work has now disappeared. I am persona non grata in the corridors of power. My pariah status has become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m not the first person whose political perspectives have impacted on their income. And hopefully not the last. This is an era where sheep and not shepherds set the agenda. But times do change.