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A
Sad Day for America
By
Congressman
Dennis J. Kucinich
Republished by THE MODERN TRIBUNE
March 20, 2003
A Prayer for America
By
Congressman
Dennis J. Kucinich
Republished by THE MODERN TRIBUNE
February 22, 2003
A
Sad Day for America
By
Congressman
Dennis J. Kucinich
Republished by THE MODERN TRIBUNE
March 20, 2003
Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-OH),
who leads opposition in the House to the war in Iraq,
issued the following statement upon the American attack
against Iraq:
"This is a sad day for America, the world community, and
the people of Iraq. Tonight, I hope and pray for the safe
return of our troops and the end to this unjustified war."
"President Bush has launched an unprovoked attack against
another country. Iraq does not pose an imminent threat to
the United States or any of its neighboring nations. Iraq
was not responsible for the terrorist attacks of September
11. Tonight, President Bush has commanded U.S. forces to
go to war in violation of American traditions of defensive
war that have lasted since George Washington. This war is
wrong; it violates the Constitution and international
law."
Congressman Kucinich will issue daily statements on the
war in Iraq. Please pass these statements on to your
friends. Help empower America's leading spokesperson for
peaceful resolution of international conflict.
Please visit
http://www.kucinich.us now to contribute to the
campaign. Your financial help will spread the message and
enable a new vision for America to be brought forward.
A Prayer for America
By
Congressman
Dennis J. Kucinich
Republished by THE MODERN TRIBUNE
February 22, 2003
Speech by Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich
February 17, 2002
_____
"My country 'tis of thee.
Sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. . . .
From every mountain side, let freedom ring. . . .
Long may our land be bright.
With freedom's holy light. . . ." "Oh say does that
star spangled banner yet wave.
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
"America, America,
God shed grace on thee.
And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining
sea. . .. "I offer these brief remarks today as a
prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a
celebration of our country. With love for our country.
With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of
freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of
us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a
democracy each time we speak freely. With the
understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear
stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk
in fear and faith at the same time. With the understanding
that there is a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the
United States. That implicate in the union of our country
is the union of all people. That all people are
essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only
on the material level of economics, trade, communication,
and transportation, but interconnected through human
consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart
of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and
yearning to be and to breathe free. I offer this prayer
for America. Let us pray that our nation will remember
that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our
nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is
why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act. We
must ask why should America put aside guarantees of
constitutional justice? How can we justify in effect
canceling the First Amendment and the right of free
speech, the right to peaceably assemble? How can we
justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable
cause, the prohibitions against unreasonable search and
seizure? How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth
Amendment, nullifying due process, and allowing for
indefinite incarceration without a trial? How can we
justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right
to prompt and public trial? How can we justify in effect
canceling the Eighth Amendment, which protects against
cruel and unusual punishment? We cannot justify widespread
wiretaps and Internet surveillance without judicial
supervision, let alone with it. We cannot justify secret
searches without a warrant. We cannot justify giving the
Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror
groups. We cannot justify giving the FBI total access to
any type of data which may exist in any system anywhere
such as medical records and financial records. We cannot
justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in
this country for intelligence surveillance. We cannot
justify a government which takes from the people our right
to privacy and then assumes for its own operations a right
to total secrecy. The Attorney General recently covered up
a statue of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to
underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself
at this time, before this administration.Let us pray that
our nation's leaders will not be overcome with fear.
Because today there is great fear in our great Capitol.
And this must be understood before we can ask about the
shortcomings of Congress in the current environment. The
great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on
September 11. It continued when we had to leave the
Capitol again when a bomb scare occurred as members were
pressing the CIA during a secret briefing. It continued
when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly from a
government lab, arrived in the mail. It continued when the
Attorney General declared a nationwide terror alert and
then the Administration brought the destructive Patriot
Bill to the floor of the House. It continued in the
release of the Bin Laden tapes at the same time the
President was announcing the withdrawal from the ABM
treaty. It remains present in the cordoning off of the
Capitol. It is present in the camouflaged armed national
guardsmen who greet members of Congress each day we enter
the Capitol campus. It is present in the labyrinth of
concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we
go to vote. The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a
state of fear, ill equipped to deal with the Patriot
Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected
President and his unelected Vice President. Let us pray
that our country will stop this war. "To promote the
common defense" is one of the formational principles of
America. Our Congress gave the President the ability to
respond to the tragedy of September the Eleventh. We
licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror
of September the Eleventh. But we the people and our
elected representatives must reserve the right to measure
the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the
response, and to correct the response.Because we did not
authorize the invasion of Iraq.
We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.
We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.
We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in
Afghanistan.
We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo
Bay.
We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva
Convention.
We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due
process and habeas corpus.
We did not authorize assassination squads.
We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.
We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights. We
did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.
We did not authorize national identity cards.
We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from
cameras throughout our cities.
We did not authorize an eye for an eye.
Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who
perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of
innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize the administration to wage war
anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases.
We did not authorize war without end.
We did not authorize a permanent war economy. Yet we are
upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The
President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in
military spending. All defense-related programs will cost
close to $400 billion. Consider that the Department of
Defense has never passed an independent audit. Consider
that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the
Pentagon cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in
transactions. Consider that in recent years the Dept. of
Defense could not match $22 billion worth of expenditures
to the items it purchased, wrote off, as lost, billions of
dollars worth of in-transit inventory and stored nearly
$30 billion worth of spare parts it did not need. Yet the
defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems
to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search
of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do
with fighting terror. This has everything to do with
fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of
our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking
democracy itself with the militarization of thought which
follows the militarization of the budget. Let us pray for
our children. Our children deserve a world without end.
Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free
of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health
care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the
terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness,
free of the terror of policies which are committed to a
world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a
free people, not appropriate for the survival of
democratic values, not appropriate for the survival of our
nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the world.
Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a
people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim
from the ruins of September the Eleventh our democratic
traditions. Let us declare our love for democracy. Let us
declare our intent for peace. Let us work to make
nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society.
Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work
of statecraft, which sees peace,
not war as being inevitable. Let us work for a world where
someday war becomes archaic. That is the vision which the
proposal to create a Department of Peace envisions.
Forty-three members of congress are now cosponsoring the
legislation. Let us work for a world where nuclear
disarmament is an imperative. That is why we must begin by
insisting on the commitments of the ABM treaty. That is
why we must be steadfast for nonproliferation. Let us work
for a world where America can lead the way in banning
weapons of mass destruction not only from our land and sea
and sky but from outer space itself. That is the vision of
HR 3616: A universe free of fear. Where we can look up at
God's creation in the stars and imagine infinite wisdom,
infinite peace, infinite possibilities, not infinite war,
because we are taught that the kingdom will come on earth
as it is in heaven. Let us pray that we have the courage
to replace the images of death which haunt us, the layers
of images of September the Eleventh, faded into images of
patriotism, spliced into images of military mobilization,
jump cut into images of our secular celebrations of the
World Series, New Year's Eve, the Superbowl, the Olympics,
the strobic flashes which touch our deepest fears, let us
replace those images with the work of human relations,
reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here at
home, lifting the plight of the poor everywhere. That is
the America which has the ability to rally the support of
the world. That is the America which stands not in pursuit
of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of
hope and faith and peace and freedom. America, America.
God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America. Not with
weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an
axis of evil. Not through
breaking international treaties. Not through establishing
America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good,
America. America, America. Let us pray for our country.
Let us love our country. Let us defend our country not
only from the threats without but from the threats within.
Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good with brotherhood,
and sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and
restraint and forbearance and a commitment to peace, to
democracy, to economic justice here at home and throughout
the world. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good,
America. Crown thy good.
Thank you.
Kucinich Asks White House To Explain Contradictions On
Iraq, North Korea Nukes |
Peace Through Ideas - Ideas Through
Debate
