permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lflj@intrex.net>]

http://www.slcgov.com/mayor/speeches/2007%20Speeches/102507octoberdemonstration.pdf
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 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.