Address by Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson on October 27, 2007
By David Swanson
AfterDowningStreet.org Monday 29 October 2007
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 any more!'
"
"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.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/110907E.shtml
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