OT - 5 Years Later: The Speech Bush Should Have Given
- From: "mozark" <swooning@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 12 Sep 2006 06:24:52 -0700
By Doug Morris
Good evening, my fellow Americans.
St. Augustine said that "hope has two beautiful daughters: anger and
courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to struggle to create
things as they should be." These acts perpetrated against humanity on
Tuesday were acts of anger at the way things are. They were not
courageous acts, but horrendous atrocities, acts of anger laced with
hate. Our first response must be support and compassion for the
victims, and families and friends of the victims. But, in addition, we
should ask ourselves "what conditions led these fellow humans to
develop such anger and hatred, led them to commit such abominably
inhumane acts, and why was it directed at these particular targets in
the United States?"
We should not repress our anger and indignation at these hateful and
callous acts, or our anger and indignation at all hateful and callous
acts, but our anger must be accompanied not by hate, but with love, and
by the courage to struggle to create a more just world, and THAT my
fellow Americans will require a major effort to question, understand,
challenge, change and raise OUR national consciousness. Please, my
fellow Americans, listen with open ears, open minds and open hearts.
While no loving and decent human will tolerate acts of terror, we must
try to understand the extremely difficult question: why? For example,
what is the symbolic significance of the Pentagon and the World Trade
Center in the eyes of the world? And here, my fellow Americans we must
search deep into our own history, our own policies, our own pursuits,
our own impositions, and, our own hearts. It is painful, but, let us be
blunt: the war against terrorism has begun, violently. The two most
potent symbols of global military and economic violence, global
military and economic terrorism, have been struck. These were cowardly
and unconscionable acts, to be sure, and, as in most acts of terror,
the innocent suffer most, the working class, the toiling class, the
secretaries, the firemen, the rescue workers, etc. We must launch a war
against terrorism, non-violently. A.J. Muste, committed pacifist,
advised us that in a world built on violence "we must be
revolutionaries before we are pacifists." That is, we must work to
abolish the institutions of violence, non-violently.
However, make no mistake, my fellow Americans, the Pentagon IS the
center of world military violence and terrorism. The US is the world's
leading exporter of tools of death and destruction. Let us be honest,
we have been committed to violence as a way to address international
conflicts for many, many years. And a PARTIAL list of the results of
our commitment to violence includes: Korea millions killed. Vietnam
millions killed. Cambodia hundreds of thousands killed. Laos
hundreds of thousands killed. Iraq hundreds of thousands killed.
Guatemala hundreds of thousands killed. Hiroshima and Nagasaki
hundreds of thousands killed. East Timor hundreds of thousands
killed. Nicaragua tens of thousands killed. El Salvador tens of
thousands killed. Colombia tens of thousands killed. Dominican
Republic thousands killed. Somalia thousands killed. Haiti
thousands killed. Yugoslavia thousands killed. Panama hundreds
killed. And let us not forget the ways in which we have mistreated the
Cuban people for over 40 years now with our embargo and repeated acts
of terrorism. Let us remember my father's words during the buildup to
the US attack on Iraq: "there will be no negotiationswhat we say goes."
"No negotiations" simply means we prefer violence. "What we say goes"
expresses the arrogance, chauvinism and mystique of invincibility that
has separated the US from the world. Both views express the notion that
the US is above international law and the UN Charter, outside the
family of nations. Is it any wonder that Harvard professor Samuel
Huntington said that in the eyes of most of the world the US is seen as
"THE rogue superpower," considered "THE single greatest external threat
to their societies"? The world quakes in its boots wondering when we
will attack, and what form of violence will ensue: cruise missiles,
helicopter gunships, chemical or biological agents, nuclear bombs,
F18's, F22's, B52's, fumigation campaigns, IMF/World Bank "Structural
Adjustment Programs," or "Austerity Programs," embargoes, sanctions,
disappearances, assassinations, massacres, tortures, cultural
cooptation or erasure, etc., etc., etc.
The Bible warns us: "what ye sew, ye shall reap." Today, sadly, we have
experienced what we have sewn on much of the world. Today, as a
country, we have learned that raining death and destruction on another
country creates a toll far higher than simply destroyed buildings and
dead bodies. Today our freedom came under attack. We thought we were
free to impose military and economic violence anywhere we chose, with
impunity. The freedom from impunity appears to no longer exist. The
World Court attempted to sanction the US for our commitment to violence
but the Reagan Administration claimed that the World Court had no
jurisdiction over our actions. Yes, we have been, and we are a rogue
state, and, my fellow Americans, it must stop!
Tonight, while many are calling for vengeance, my fellow Americans we
must raise a call of humility, a humility that does not in any way
diminish humanity, but a humility that raises the respect for, and
dignity of, all people, a humility that allows us to celebrate all
human life. Let us recall the words of that great man of peace, Martin
Luther King, Jr., who said: "The ultimate weakness of violence is that
it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to
destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through
violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor
establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do
not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate...Returning
violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a
night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only
light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: Only love can do that."
It is time that we joined the world, not as its major purveyor of
violence and destruction, but as a peaceful participant who will work
to end violence, end racism, end classism, end sexism, rather than
increase them. The proposed Pentagon budget, the "violence" budget, for
next year is $330 billion dollars. I am tonight proposing an immediate
50% decrease in this spending that promotes violence, and calling for a
redistribution those funds to help ameliorate problems of hunger,
poverty and poor-health around the world. It is a call to reach out
with love, and a call to find the courage to struggle to create a more
just, peaceful, healthful and equitable world, a world in which human
creativity is celebrated rather than the human capacity for great
violence.
Tonight we must call on the world to forgive us OUR sins, forgive us
OUR sordid and calamitous acts of violence that we have pursued without
pause for over 50 years. Let this be the beginning of our
reconciliation with the world. We now, to some degree, understand the
pain, misery and suffering we have caused, the turmoil we have
perpetrated, the hate we have elicited, the destruction we have
imparted, the physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual scars
and unconscionable hurt we have created and that much of the world has
endured because of our rapacious and destructive pursuit of wealth,
power and privilege at the expense of human concerns and human lives.
We humbly beg the forgiveness of all humanity, as we pray that you will
offer your support, your compassion, your understanding, and your love
in our time of suffering, mourning and loss.
This is not a time, as it is never a time, to seek vengeance, but a
time to seek the courage to forgive, to harbor the power of anger to be
used in acts of love, and to uncover insights that will allow us to
direct our indignation at the institutions of power, violence and
greed, many of which, sadly, are centered in the US, and begin to
transform them in order to increase our love for the victims of that
power, violence and greed, including those who died and were injured in
the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.
When I attended the G8 meetings in Genoa recently I saw a banner in the
street that said, "you are 8, we are 6 billion," and it struck me
deeply. We have pursued for too long the interests of the few at the
expense of the many. Wealth, privilege and power inequalities
exacerbate every day. We have created, protected, endorsed and now
imposed on the rest of the world an economic system, symbolized by the
World Trade Center, and protected by the Pentagon, that must produce
and expand in order to profit and survive, an economic system that
treats everything as a commodity to be exploited whether it is water,
food, air, soil, the rest of the environment, animals, fish, or our
fellow humans, a system that puts corporate profit interests above
human interests. This must stop. We, who represent and serve power,
should have listened sooner.
Let this horrible tragedy serve as our wake up call. Let us begin
tonight to transform this monster before it is too late. This act of
terror, infamous and abominable, will pale in comparison to the growing
terrors of increasing global militarism of which we are the primary
cause, increased global warming of which we are the primary cause, and
intensifying environmental destruction of which we are the primary
cause and which may soon make much of the world uninhabitable for
humans, and surely increase human suffering, misery and death.
If we are to overcome these acts of terror, and more importantly
prevent future acts of terror against humanity, we must act out of a
sense of hope and faith that the future is unfinished, that it is there
to be created; and, we must be driven by a judicious anger at the way
things are, anger at the monster we have created, anger that can be
harbored in momentous acts of love, and the courage to struggle in
cooperation, understanding, support and solidarity with the rest of
humanity to create a world in which all will be happy to live.
Tonight, and in the days and weeks to come, we must find the courage to
not only reach out with love and understanding, but to find the courage
to self-reflect honestly about what WE have done to the world so that
we can understand why things are the way they are, and what we can and
will do to struggle to create things as they should be a world of
less violence and greater peace; a world of diminished arrogance and
greater humility; a world where more people do not die of hunger every
two years than were killed in both World Wars combined, but a world in
which all people have access to the great and nourishing bounties of
the earth; a world of less disease and greater health; a world of less
hate and greater love; a world of less vengeance and greater
understanding; a world of less greed and greater sharing; a world of
less destruction and greater creativity; a world of less disparity and
greater equality; a world of less fundamentalism and more
progressivism; a world of less mysticism and more humanism; a world of
less criminality and greater justice; a world of less separatism and
more solidarity; a world in which we live both an examined life and a
committed life; a world of less militarism and more artistry; a world
of less vilification and more celebration; a world in which life is
worth living; a world in which we understand well the lesson of
Rousseau who said "the fruits of our labor belong to us; the fruits of
the earth belong to everyone; and, the world itself belongs to no one."
So, in closing, my fellow Americans, allow us to support one another in
our quest through hope, and anger, and courage, to make love our aim
during this time of crisis, and in the future. And, let us remember and
reflect upon the words stated in Corinthians 13:1-3: "though I may
speak with the voice of angels; though I may understand all the
mysteries; though I may have all the knowledge; though I may give all
to feed the poor; though I may give my body to be burnedif I have not
love, I have nothing at all."
Thank you. Good night, and blessings, peace, justice, solidarity and
love for all humanity.
.
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