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09/27/2005:
"Cynthia McKinney: They Can't Fool Us Anymore"
Remarks at the Anti-war Rally, Washington, DC, September 24, 2005If we didn't know it before, we certainly know it now.
A cruel wind blows across America. Starting in Texas and Montana, and sweeping across America's heartland, it's settled here in Washington, DC. And despite our presence today, it continues to buffet and batter the American people.
This cruel wind blew disenfranchisement into Florida and Ohio.
It blew hardheartedness into the Capitol.
Division across our land. And wretchedness in high places.
The American people have been forced to endure fraud in the elections of 2000 and 2004, criminal neglect on September 11th, a war started on deliberately-faked evidence, the outing of a CIA agent to cover up the truth, and now criminal incompetence in providing our security.
When hurricane survivors had lost everything, and it was there for all America to see, sybaritic men, wrapped in self-righteousness, worked to save their jobs instead of the people.
As dead bodies lay strewn about the New Orleans Superdome, military recruiters blew into Houston's Astrodome to reap the harvest.
This ill wind that engulfs our country is also global in its impact. It dipped into the Caribbean hitting Haiti and Cuba; it reached into Latin America to slap Venezuela; it swept death, greed, and destruction across Africa into Eastern Congo; and it breathes occupation onto the peoples of Iraq and Palestine.
But just as sure as an ill wind now blows, it doesn't always have to be so.
The people, united, can stop wars.
We can stop injustice; and we can stop indifference. The people, united, can tear down the mightiest walls of oppression.
These ill winds have brought us high crimes and more than misdemeanors. But they've also brought us together: one answer, united for peace and for justice.
Let's stay together. Because we have to get rid of these ill winds and breathe fresh breath into a new jet stream of life.
We can do it, ya'll, because they can't fool us anymore.
Cynthia McKinney is the US representative from Georgia's fourth congressional district.
counterpunch.org
Democrats Flee Peace Protests
I have been thinking for a while now that the Democrats really should sit down and consider changing their mascot from a donkey to a marmot. A rodent really is more emblematic or their provincial habits than a donkey could ever be. Think about it. Just this past weekend antiwar rallies were held across the country and the Democratic leadership was nowhere in sight. They had high-tailed it out there. They hid in their holes and were afraid to be seen.
In all fairness, a few elected Democrats did show face, mainly two: Reps. John Conyers and Cynthia McKinney. But I wouldn't constitute either as party leaders. The better-known Democrats, like Senators John Kerry and Hillary Clinton, two likely candidates for 2008, were nowhere to be seen. Even more striking were the absences of DNC Chairman Howard Dean, Russell Feingold and Ted Kennedy -- all occasional critics of the Iraq war.
Of course the Democrat's collective criticism only goes so far. They certainly don't want to be photographed with any militant protestors. By God, that would taint their reputations! They've got campaign contributions to worry about here. No, the Democrats aren't about to take to the streets. They'd rather sit back and project the illusion that they care.
On her way out to Washington, the anti-war movement's leading lady Cindy Sheehan offered a tepid excuse for Senator Clinton's refusal to attend the protest, "She knows that the war is a lie, but she is waiting for the right time to say it. You say it and you risk losing your job."
Well, sorry, but I think the time to speak out against the war is right now and if it means Clinton could lose her job (even though that's highly unlikely, given that almost half of all Americans, according to a recent Pew research poll, think we should end the occupation and come home), so-be-it.
This isn't to say that the Democratic grassroots don't oppose the war. The majority does--but then so do nearly half of all Republicans. So this begs the question: why are anti-war activists so loyal to a Democratic Party that supported Bush's war and still refuses to oppose it?
Much of the Democrat's cognitive dissonance has to do with the success of Howard Dean at the DNC. He's been able to corral anti-war Democrats into the fold, making sure they don't flee en masse over the war issue even though they should. Many still see Dean as a sign of future hope, where party leadership stays in touch with the grassroots. Plus, Dean's early criticisms of the Iraq war earned him significant street-cred with party advocates.
It was un-deserved. Dean, like the rest of the Democratic leadership, is pro-war and pro-occupation, and it couldn't be more damaging for the peace movement to continue putting faith into this futile party. If Democratic activists really want to make some change -- the best thing they could do would be to get up and leave their party. Only then will Democratic leaders start to think twice about the monstrous policies they endorse.
