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From:
From:
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Sent: Saturday, November 10, 2007 4:11 PM
Subject: 'We the People won't take it anymore! "
*Address by Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson*
October 27, 2007 -City & County Building, Salt Lake City, Utah
Today, as we come together once again in this great city, we raise our voices in unison
to say to President Bush, to Vice President Cheney, to other members of the Bush
Administration (past and present), to a majority of Congress, including Utah's entire
congressional delegation, and to much of the mainstream media: "You have failed us
miserably and we won't take it any more."
"While we had every reason to expect far more of you, you have been pompous, greedy,
cruel, and incompetent as you have led this great nation to a moral, military, and
national security abyss."
"You have breached trust with the American people in the most egregious ways. You have
utterly failed in the performance of your jobs. You have undermined our Constitution,
permitted the violation of the most fundamental treaty obligations, and betrayed the
rule of law."
"You have engaged in, or permitted, heinous human rights abuses of the sort never before
countenanced in our nation's history as a matter of official policy. You have sent
American men and women to kill and be killed on the basis of lies, on the basis of
shifting justifications, without competent leadership, and without even a coherent plan
for this monumental blunder.
"We are here to tell you: We won't take it any more!"
"You have acted in direct contravention of values that we, as Americans who love our
country, hold dear. You have deceived us in the most cynical, outrageous ways. You have
undermined, or allowed the undermining of, our constitutional system of checks and
balances among the three presumed co-equal branches of government. You have helped lead
our nation to the brink of fascism, of a dictatorship contemptuous of our nation's
treaty obligations, federal statutory law, our Constitution, and the rule of law."
"Because of you, and because of your jingoistic false 'patriotism,' our world is far
more dangerous, our nation is far more despised, and the threat of terrorism is far
greater than ever before. It has been absolutely astounding how you have committed the
most horrendous acts, causing such needless tragedy in the lives of millions of people,
yet you wear your so-called religion on your sleeves, asserting your God-is-on-my-side
nonsense - when what you have done flies in the face of any religious or humanitarian
tradition. Your hypocrisy is mind-boggling - and disgraceful.
What part of "Thou shalt not kill" do you not understand? What part of the "Golden rule"
do you not understand? What part of "be honest," "be responsible," and "be accountable"
don't you understand? What part of "Blessed are the peacekeepers" do you not understand?
Because of you, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, many thousands of
people have suffered horrendous lifetime injuries, and millions have been run off from
their homes. For the sake of our nation, for the sake of our children, and for the sake
of our brothers and sisters around the world, we are morally compelled to say, as loudly
as we can, 'We won't take it anymore!' "
"As United States agents kidnap, disappear, and torture human beings around the world,
you justify, you deceive, and you cover up. We find what you have done to men, women and
children, and to the good name and reputation of the United States, so appalling, so
unconscionable, and so outrageous as to compel us to call upon you to step aside and
allow other men and women who are competent, true to our nation's values, and with high
moral principles to stand in your places - for the good of our nation, for the good of
our children, and for the good of our world."
In the case of the President and Vice President, this means impeachment and removal from
office, without any further delay from a complacent, complicit Congress, the Democratic
majority of which cares more about political gain in 2008 than it does about the
vindication of our Constitution, the rule of law, and democratic accountability. It
means the election of people as President and Vice President who, unlike most of the
presidential candidates from both major parties, have not aided and abetted in the
perpetration of the illegal, tragic, devastating invasion and occupation of Iraq. And it
means the election of people as President and Vice President who will commit to return
our nation to the moral and strategic imperative of refraining from torturing human
beings.
In the case of the majority of Congress, it means electing people who are diligent
enough to learn the facts, including reading available National Intelligence Estimates,
before voting to go to war. It means electing to Congress men and women who will
jealously guard Congress's sole prerogative to declare war. It means electing to
Congress men and women who will not submit like vapid lap dogs to presidential requests
for blank checks to engage in so-called preemptive wars, for legislation permitting
warrantless wiretapping of communications involving US citizens, and for dangerous,
irresponsible, saber-rattling legislation like the recent Kyl-Lieberman amendment.
We must avoid the trap of focusing the blame solely upon President Bush and
Vice-President Cheney. This is not just about a few people who have wronged our country
- and the world. They were enabled by members of both parties in Congress, they were
enabled by the pathetic mainstream news media, and, ultimately, they have been enabled
by the American people - 40% of whom are so ill-informed they still think Iraq was
behind the 9/11 attacks - a people who know and care more about baseball statistics and
which drunken starlets are wearing underwear than they know and care about the
atrocities being committed every single day in our name by a government for which we
need to take responsibility.
As loyal Americans, without regard to political partisanship -- as veterans, as
teachers, as religious leaders, as working men and women, as students, as professionals,
as businesspeople, as public servants, as retirees, as people of all ages, races, ethnic
origins, sexual orientations, and faiths -- we are here to say to the Bush
administration, to the majority of Congress, and to the mainstream media: "You have
violated your solemn responsibilities. You have undermined our democracy, spat upon our
Constitution, and engaged in outrageous, despicable acts. You have brought our nation to
a point of immorality, inhumanity, and illegality of immense, tragic, unprecedented
proportions."
"But we will live up to our responsibilities as citizens, as brothers and sisters of
those who have suffered as a result of the imperial bullying of the United States
government, and as moral actors who must take a stand: And we will, and must, mean it
when we say 'We won't take it any more.'"
If we want principled, courageous elected officials, we need to be principled,
courageous, and tenacious ourselves. History has demonstrated that our elected officials
are not the leaders - the leadership has to come from us. If we don't insist, if we
don't persist, then we are not living up to our responsibilities as citizens in a
democracy - and our responsibilities as moral human beings. If we remain silent, we
signal to Congress and the Bush administration - and to candidates running for office -
and to the world - that we support the status quo.
Silence is complicity. Only by standing up for what's right and never letting down can
we say we are doing our part. Our government, on the basis of a campaign we now know was
entirely fraudulent, attacked and militarily occupied a nation that posed no danger to
the United States.
Our government, acting in our name, has caused immense, unjustified death and
destruction.
It all started five years ago, yet where have we, the American people, been? At this
point, we are responsible. We get together once in a while at demonstrations and
complain about Bush and Cheney, about Congress, and about the pathetic news media. We
point fingers and yell a lot. Then most people politely go away until another
demonstration a few months later.
How many people can honestly say they have spent as much time learning about and
opposing the outrages of the Bush administration as they have spent watching sports or
mindless television programs during the past five years? Escapist, time-sapping sports
and insipid entertainment have indeed become the opiate of the masses. Why is this
country so sound asleep? Why do we abide what is happening to our nation, to our
Constitution, to the cause of peace and international law and order? Why are we not
doing all in our power to put an end to this madness?
We should be in the streets regularly and students should be raising hell on our
campuses. We should be making it clear in every way possible that apologies or
convoluted, disingenuous explanations just don't cut it when presidential candidates and
so many others voted to authorize George Bush and his neo-con buddies to send American
men and women to attack and occupy Iraq.
Let's awaken, and wake up the country by committing here and now to do all each of us
can to take our nation back. Let them hear us across the country, as we ask others to
join us: "We won't take it any more!"
I implore you: Draw a line. Figure out exactly where your own moral breaking point is.
How much will you put up with before you say "No more" and mean it?
I have drawn my line as a matter of simple personal morality: I cannot, and will not,
support any candidate who has voted to fund the atrocities in Iraq. I cannot, and will
not, support any candidate who will not commit to remove all US troops, as soon as
possible, from Iraq. I cannot, and will not, support any candidate who has supported
legislation that takes us one step closer to attacking Iran. I cannot, and will not,
support any candidate who has not fought to stop the kidnapping, disappearances, and
torture being carried on in our name.
If we expect our nation's elected officials to take us seriously, let us send a powerful
message they cannot misunderstand. Let them know we really do have our moral breaking
point. Let them know we have drawn a bright line. Let them know they cannot take our
support for granted - that, regardless of their party and regardless of other political
considerations, they will not have our support if they cannot provide, and have not
provided,principled leadership.
The people of this nation may have been far too quiet for five years, but let us pledge
that we won't let it go on one more day - that we will do all we can to put an end to
the illegalities, the moral degradation, and the disintegration of our nation's
reputation in the world.
Let us be unified in drawing the line - in declaring that we do have a moral breaking
point. Let us insist, together, in supporting our troops and in gratitude for the
freedoms for which our veterans gave so much, that we bring our troops home from Iraq,
that we return our government to a constitutional democracy, and that we commit to
honoring the fundamental principles of human rights.
In defense of our country, in defense of our Constitution, in defense of our shared
values as Americans - and as moral human beings - we declare today that we will fight in
every way possible to stop the insanity, stop the continued military occupation of Iraq,
and stop the moral depravity reflected by the kidnapping, disappearing, and torture of
people around the world.
"The individual is handicapped by coming face to face with a conspiracy so monstrous he
cannot believe it exists". -- J. Edgar Hoover, FBI Director 1924-1972, quoted in The
Elks Magazine (August 1956). "It is the duty of the patriot to protect his country from
its [corrupt feudal] government." -- Thomas Paine. "Each of you, for himself, by himself
and on his own responsibility, must speak". -- Mark Twain. "The money powers prey upon
the nation in times of peace and conspire against it in times of adversity. It is more
despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than
bureaucracy. It denounces as public enemies all who question its methods or throw light
upon its crimes. I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me and the
bankers in the rear. Of the two, the one at my rear is my greatest foe." -- President
Abraham Lincoln. "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary
act." -- George Orwell
John Swinton New York journalist at a banquet (1880's): "What folly is this, toasting an
independent press? There is no such thing, at this date of the World's history, in
America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who
dares to write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would
never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinion out of the paper I
am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any
of you who would be so foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets
looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my
paper, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the
journalists is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at
the feet of Mammon [Biblical ref.], and to sell his country and his race for his daily
bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press?
We are the tools and vassals of "rich men" [Biblical ref.] behind the scenes. We are the
jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and
our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes."
"It is perfectly possible for a man to be out of prison, and yet not free - to be under
no physical constraint and yet to be a psychological captive, compelled to think, feel
and act as the representatives of the national state, or of some private interest within
the nation, wants him to think, feel and act. "The nature of psychological compulsion is
such that those who act under constraint remain under the impression that they are
acting on their own initiative. The victim of mind-manipulation does not know that he is
a victim. To him the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be
free. That he is not free is apparent only to other people. His servitude is strictly
objective." Brave New World Revisited, Aldous Huxley, 1958
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