ANYMORE"
This one ought to be read at every patriotic meeting and get-together!
It is guaranteed to send shivers down your spine!
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Address by Mayor Ross C. "Rocky" Anderson
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 anymore."
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.
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 anymore! 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 warrant-less 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 not 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
anymore.' 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 anymore!" 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.
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