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Contributor: marl
Date: 2003-01-24 14:40:29
Words from an American statesman
SWEARING-IN CEREMONY SPEECH OF U.S. REPRESENTATIVE DENNIS KUCINICH, SUNDAY, JANUARY 5, 2003
"My fellow Americans, the America I envision seeks world unity instead of unilateralism. It gains its power through being the first to help, not the first to strike. It extends itself to the peoples of the world to lift their burden. It is an America, which when asked for help, dispenses bread instead of bombs, medical assistance instead of missiles, and food instead of fissile materials.
There is a role for America in the world. It is in working with the community of nations to achieve the security of all nations. It is in restoring the promise of the Non Proliferation Treaty to lead the way to get rid of all nuclear weapons. It is in helping to assure international order. It is through strengthening and abiding by international treaties. It is in assuring control and eventual elimination of biological and chemical weapons, and landmines. It is in protecting our global climate by cooperating with the rest of the world in reducing carbon emissions. America can help protect the world. America can help save the world. But America cannot control the world, nor should we want to do so.
Yet our Administration would project American power for the purpose of domination. Their National Security doctrines call for America to strike anywhere it pleases and to be the first to use nuclear weapons.
Our nation is now poised to go to all-out war against Iraq. Iraq has not committed any act of aggression against the United States. Iraq was not responsible for 911. No credible evidence exists linking Iraq to Al Queda's role in 911. Iraq was not responsible for the anthrax attack on our nation. The United Nations has yet to establish that Iraq has usable weapons of mass destruction. There is no intelligence that Iraq has the ability to strike at the United States. According to the CIA, Iraq has no intention to attack America, but will defend itself if attacked.
Why then, is our nation prepared to send three hundred thousand of our young men and women into house to house combat in the streets of Badhdad and Basra? Why is our nation prepared to spend 200 billion or more of our hard-earned tax dollars for the destruction of Iraq?
Why is our nation preparing to use the most powerful military machine in history to wage an assault against the people of Iraq, to destroy their houses and buildings, to wipe out their water and electric systems and to block their access to food and medical supplies?
There is no answer which can separate itself from oil economics, profit requirements of arms trade, or distorted notions of empire-building.
War with Iraq is wrong. But if war is prosecuted further in Iraq, we must be prepared to advance the cause of peace in this country. We must be prepared to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to march, to demand an end to the war, or to demand an end to an administration which insists on war.
It is urgent we oppose this war. It will dominate our nation's priorities. It will threaten Social Security. It will threaten Medicare. It will block a prescription drug benefit for the elderly. It will stop America from providing jobs for all, health care for all, education for all.
There are some who believe that it is unpatriotic to challenge the Administration on the war. They believe it is politically wiser to debate the economy. but how can one reasonably separate war from the budget, war from the economy, war from America's ability to meet the needs of the people of this nation?
The Administration's own top economic adviser said the war could cost up to $200 billion. Our federal budget is already close to a $200 billion deficit due to huge tax cuts for the wealthy. Remember when we had a budget surplus?
Each time the administration talks about war, fear is created and when fear goes up, the market goes down. War will mean a sharp increase in oil prices, which will hurt jobs in manufacturing and transportation. One economic study with a worst-case scenario puts the cost of an all-out war, plus long-term occupation of Iraq at $1.6 trillion.
You cannot separate war from the economy. You cannot separate war from America's future, from its role in the world and its ability to meet the needs of our own people here at home.
We need to ask the questions. Why does America have hundreds of billions to ruin the health and take the lives of innocent people in Iraq but no money to provide health care for all Americans?
Why would America spend hundreds of billions to retire Saddam Hussein, but no money to protect the retirement security of its own people?
Why does America have money to blow up bridges over the Euphrates River in Iraq, but no money to build up bridges over the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland?
The path America must take is one of peace which leads to prosperity. It is one which understands that creating a structure of peace ensures that economic structures can be sound, affirmative of human needs and restorative of human values.
This is the dream of a Department of Peace which can help America take the first step towards making nonviolence an organizing principle in our society -- making the work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a reality -- and working to make war itself a thing of the past. It is this ethnic of peace seeking and peace building which will cause us to take down weapons from the heavens and work to create a heaven on earth full of new possibilities.
Peace and prosperity shall be as two pillars in a newly rebuilt America which provides for the economic and social security of its own people as a cause of nationhood and for the economic and social progress of peoples of other lands as a cause of brotherhood.
This confirmation of the purpose of nation was the dream of Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal, Lyndon Johnson and the Great Society, and John F. Kennedy and the New Frontier. This shall continue to be our dream in the days ahead, that no matter the darkness, we shall hold up the light of America's higher purpose, which calls to us across the ages from Washington, Jefferson and Adams through Lincoln to the present day.
Our nation has always had a higher calling, despite the darkness of 911 and the official response to it. It is a calling to maintain the quest for democracy, for freedom and liberty at times of peril as well as times of peace. We can sense that higher calling. That higher calling is our heritage. The words of Francis Scott Key still echo:
"Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" In this he celebrated the link between freedom and bravery: That it takes courage to live in a democracy. It takes courage to stand up to terrorists and maintain basic liberties. It takes courage to lead the way toward global disarmament while some are bent on destruction. It takes patience to face dictators around the world and not be tempted to bomb them into submission. It takes wisdom to have great power and to make gentle its presence in the world. And it takes compassion to understand the plight of peoples world wide who themselves are trying to survive, to live out their own humble lives despite having conditions which are challenging or governments which are oppressive.
Thank you."
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Contributor: apierre
Date: 2003-03-18 10:47:56
Hi,
Please find hereunder copy of a message I received from friends in the US and which you might use for your own inspiration and/or forward to your contacts in the US.
Friendly and peaceful regards,
Alain ( from France )
---
( Part 1 of 2 )
WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN:
LOBBY WASHINGTON TO CREATE A U.S. DEPARTMENT OF PEACE.
APRIL 6-8 CONFERENCE IN D.C.
SIMULTANEOUS CALLS, FAX'S, EMAILS FROM AROUND THE NATION
At this critical time in our nation's history, righteous action is
the antidote to despair. Please participate in a powerful citizen
lobbying effort to create a U.S. Department of Peace,
sponsored in the House of Representatives by Congressman
Dennis Kucinich. This bill establishes nonviolence as an
organizing principle of American society, cultivating an array of
peace-building policies and procedures. On April 8th, this
historic legislation will be introduced for a second time;
whether or not it becomes law is dependent on whether we,
the people of the United States, take the time to make phone
calls, lobby our Congresspeople, and in other ways create the
political will to make it happen.
Please join us, either in Washington D.C. for the bill's
introduction and our initial lobbying campaign, or in your local
area, as we blanket every Congressional district with a strong
message of support for a Department of Peace.
Let us stand as passionately for peace, as some now stand so
passionately for war.
WHAT IT IS:
The Department of Peace focuses on individual and group
responsibilities for establishing nonviolence as an organizing
principle in society. The Department would focus on
nonmilitary peaceful conflict resolutions, prevent violence and
promote justice and democratic principles to expand human
rights. Domestically, the Department would be responsible for
developing policies which address issues such as domestic
violence, child abuse, mistreatment of the elderly, and other
issues of cultural violence. Internationally, the Department
would gather research, analyze foreign policy and make
recommendations to the President on how to address the root
causes of war and intervene before as or before they begin,
while improving national security, including the protection of
human rights and the prevention and de-escalation of unarmed
and armed international conflict.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
I. COME TO THE GLOBAL RENAISSANCE ALLIANCE CONFERENCE
IN WASHINGTON D.C. ON APRIL 6-8. During our conference
we will hold seminars on Non-Violent Principles and
Civics/Lobbying Training, led by Marianne Williamson and Lynn
McMullen along with a presentation by Congressman Kucinich
on the Department of Peace legislation. In addition, we will
travel together to the Capitol to lobby our representatives. It
is particularly important that as many people as possible come
to this event in order to lobby our Congresspeople on April 8
when the bill is "dropped." There is no political act more
powerful than actually meeting with your Congressperson. Set
a meeting with you Member of Congress for April 8th. You can
visit www.renaissancealliance.org to learn more about how to
set a meeting with your representative and to register for the
conference. Web link here!
II. If you cannot come to Washington SET UP A MEETING IN
YOUR HOME DISTRICT WITH YOUR CONGRESSIONAL OFFICE on
April 8th. Recruit as many people as you can to attend this
meeting with you. Doing this, we will blanket the nation with
meetings in support of the bill, both in DC and beyond. Our
goal is a meeting with every single member of Congress or
members of their staff so we need people from every
Congressional district in the country to come forward and help.
III. GET AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO CALL, FAX AND
EMAIL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE on April 8th. Your job between
now and April 8 is to make sure that everyone has the name
and phone and fax number of their Congressperson (easy to
find...visit www.Congress.org), and to call them on April 7 to
remind them to make the call. It is a good idea for you to keep
a list of the people who have agreed to call and the needed
numbers in case they misplace the contact information.
to be continued...
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Contributor: apierre
Date: 2003-03-18 10:49:06
( Part 2 of 2 )
WE CAN MAKE IT HAPPEN:
LOBBY WASHINGTON TO CREATE A U.S. DEPARTMENT OF PEACE.
...
IV. PRINT FLYERS (on the GRA website at
www.renaissancealliance.org) Hand them out at Peace
marches and post them in coffee houses, universities,
churches, bus station, staff break room, everywhere you can
think of!
As soon as Congressman Kucinich "drops" the bill, we will post
its number on our website. Between now and April 8, e-mail as
many people as you can, giving them the information about
the Department of Peace lobbying effort. Ask them to help us!
Most importantly, FOLLOW UP. It is not enough to merely let
people know that the legislation is being introduced; our job is
to lobby for it, so that it passes. Congress is a reactive body,
but if our Congress people do not hear from us directly, then
there is nothing for them to react to.
Please send us an email to peace@renaissancealliance.org and
let us know you will be a DOP Activist Leader. This means you
will adopt your Member of Congress and stay with this process
for the duration of this legislative session. You will be
contacted within a week, to follow up. We will give you a new
action each month to forward the bill. On the GRA website you
will also find many additional ways in which you can participate
in your community on an ongoing basis-- to help educate,
speak up, and lobby for this important legislation.
There is much to do, to change the direction of our country.
Each of us can make a difference. The time to do it is now.
For more information on this campaign, or for general or
registration information on our peace gathering in Washington,
visit our website at www.renaissancealliance.org, email us at
peace@renaissancealliance.org or call us at (586) 754-8105.
Please help us spread the word! You can share this information
with everyone you know. If you are a part of an activist
network, please consider sharing this information. To sign-up
to receive email updates on the campaign, send a blank email
to: join-gra-enews@lists.renaissanceunity.org
Global Renaissance Alliance
P.O. Box 3259
Center Line MI 48015
Phone: (586) 754-8105
Fax: (586) 754-8106
www.renaissancealliance.org
peace@renaissancealliance.org
READ THE BILL:
Please visit our website at www.renaissancealliance.org to
read the latest draft of the proposed legislation.
HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PEACE LEGISLATION
-Hold peace as an organizing principle in our society;
-Endeavor to promote justice and democratic principles to
expand human rights;
-Strengthen non-military means of peacemaking;
-Work to create peace, prevent violence, divert from
armed conflict, use field-tested programs, and develop new structures
in non-violent intervention, mediation, peaceful resolution of
conflict, and structured mediation of conflict;
-Address matters both domestic and international in scope;
-Submit to the President recommendations for reductions in
weapons of mass destruction, and make annual reports to the
President on the sale of arms from the United States to other
nations, with analysis of the impact of such sales on the
defense of the United States and how such sales effect
peace;
-Encourage the development of initiatives from local
communities, religious groups, and nongovernmental
organizations;
-Facilitate the development of peace summits at which parties
to a conflict may gather under carefully prepared conditions to
promote non-violent communication and mutually beneficial
solutions;
-Develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges
of school violence, guns, racial or ethnic violence, violence
against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations
disputes.
-Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute
resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on
local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and
programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled
areas;
-Provide for the training of all United States personnel who
administer postconflict reconstruction and demobilization in
war-torn societies;
-Sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and dispute
resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on
local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and
programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled
areas.
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