A Prayer for America.
by United States Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio)
A Prayer for America.
(to be sung as an overture for
America)
"My country 'tis of thee. Sweet
land of liberty of thee I sing. . . . From every mountain side, let freedom
ring. . . . Long may our land be bright. With freedom's holy light. . . ."
"Oh say does that star spangled
banner yet wave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?"
"America, America, God shed
grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea. . .
. "
I offer these brief remarks today as
a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our
country. With love for our country. With hope for our country. With a belief
that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us.
With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak
freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear
stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at
the same time.
With the understanding that there is
a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the United States. That implicate in
the union of our country is the union of all people. That all people are
essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only on the material level
of economics, trade, communication, and transportation, but interconnected
through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the
world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe
free.
I offer this prayer for America.
Let us pray that our nation will
remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled
the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of
the Patriot Act. We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of
constitutional justice?
How can we justify in effect
canceling the First Amendment and the right of free speech, the right to
peaceably assemble?
How can we justify in effect
canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, the prohibitions against
unreasonable search and seizure?
How can we justify in effect
canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying due process, and allowing for
indefinite incarceration without a trial?
How can we justify in effect
canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to prompt and public trial?
How can we justify in effect
canceling the Eighth Amendment, which protects against cruel and unusual
punishment?
We cannot justify widespread wiretaps
and Internet surveillance without judicial supervision, let alone with it. We
cannot justify secret searches without a warrant. We cannot justify giving the
Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror groups. We cannot
justify giving the FBI total access to any type of data which may exist in any
system anywhere such as medical records and financial records.
We cannot justify giving the CIA the
ability to target people in this country for intelligence surveillance. We
cannot justify a government which takes from the people our right to privacy and
then assumes for its own operations a right to total secrecy. The Attorney
General recently covered up a statue of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to
underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself at this time, before
this administration.
Let us pray that our nation's leaders
will not be overcome with fear. Because today there is great fear in our great
Capitol. And this must be understood before we can ask about the shortcomings of
Congress in the current environment. The great fear began when we had to
evacuate the Capitol on September 11. It continued when we had to leave the
Capitol again when a bomb scare occurred as members were pressing the CIA during
a secret briefing. It continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax,
possibly from a government lab, arrived in the mail. It continued when the
Attorney General declared a nationwide terror alert and then the Administration
brought the destructive Patriot Bill to the floor of the House. It continued in
the release of the Bin Laden tapes at the same time the President was announcing
the withdrawal from the ABM treaty. It remains present in the cordoning off of
the Capitol. It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who greet
members of Congress each day we enter the Capitol campus. It is present in the
labyrinth of concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we go to
vote. The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear, ill equipped
to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected
President and his unelected Vice President.
Let us pray that our country will
stop this war. "To promote the common defense" is one of the
formational principles of America. Our Congress gave the President the ability
to respond to the tragedy of September the Eleventh. We licensed a response to
those who helped bring the terror of September the Eleventh. But we the people
and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response,
to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the
response.
Because we did not authorize the
invasion of Iraq.
We did not authorize the invasion of
Iran.
We did not authorize the invasion of
North Korea.
We did not authorize the bombing of
civilians in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize permanent detainees
in Guantanamo Bay.
We did not authorize the withdrawal from
the Geneva Convention.
We did not authorize military tribunals
suspending due process and habeas corpus.
We did not authorize assassination
squads.
We did not authorize the resurrection of
COINTELPRO.
We did not authorize the repeal of the
Bill of Rights.
We did not authorize the revocation of
the Constitution.
We did not authorize national identity
cards.
We did not authorize the eye of Big
Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.
We did not authorize an eye for an eye.
Nor did we ask that the blood of
innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of
innocent villagers in Afghanistan.
We did not authorize the administration
to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases.
We did not authorize war without end.
We did not authorize a permanent war
economy.
Yet we are upon the threshold of a
permanent war economy. The President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in
military spending. All defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion.
Consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an independent audit.
Consider that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the Pentagon
cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in transactions. Consider that in
recent years the Dept. of Defense could not match $22 billion worth of
expenditures to the items it purchased, wrote off, as lost, billions of dollars
worth of in-transit inventory and stored nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts
it did not need.
Yet the defense budget grows with
more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems
in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with
fighting terror. This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial
machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation,
risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the
militarization of the budget.
Let us pray for our children. Our
children deserve a world without end. Not a war without end. Our children
deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health
care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free
of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are
committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free
people, not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate
for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the
world.
Let us pray that we have the courage
and the will as a people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from
the ruins of September the Eleventh our democratic traditions. Let us declare
our love for democracy. Let us declare our intent for peace. Let us work to make
nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society. Let us recommit
ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace, not
war as being inevitable. Let us work for a world where someday war becomes
archaic. That is the vision which the proposal to create a Department of Peace
envisions. Forty-three members of congress are now cosponsoring the legislation.
Let us work for a world where nuclear disarmament is an imperative. That is why
we must begin by insisting on the commitments of the ABM treaty. That is why we
must be steadfast for nonproliferation.
Let us work for a world where America
can lead the way in banning weapons of mass destruction not only from our land
and sea and sky but from outer space itself. That is the vision of HR 3616: A
universe free of fear. Where we can look up at God's creation in the stars and
imagine infinite wisdom, infinite peace, infinite possibilities, not infinite
war, because we are taught that the kingdom will come on earth as it is in
heaven.
Let us pray that we have the courage
to replace the images of death which haunt us, the layers of images of September
the Eleventh, faded into images of patriotism, spliced into images of military
mobilization, jump cut into images of our secular celebrations of the World
Series, New Year's Eve, the Superbowl, the Olympics, the strobic flashes which
touch our deepest fears, let us replace those images with the work of human
relations, reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here at home,
lifting the plight of the poor everywhere. That is the America which has the
ability to rally the support of the world. That is the America which stands not
in pursuit of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of hope and faith
and peace and freedom.
America, America. God shed grace on
thee. Crown thy good, America. Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with
invocations of an axis of evil. Not through breaking international treaties. Not
through establishing America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good,
America.
America, America. Let us pray for our
country. Let us love our country. Let us defend our country not only from the
threats without but from the threats within. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy
good with brotherhood, and sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and
restraint and forbearance and a commitment to peace, to democracy, to economic
justice here at home and throughout the world. Crown thy good, America. Crown
thy good, America. Crown thy good.
Thank you.
Southern California Americans for Democratic Action
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, California
Sunday, February 17, 2002
United States Congressman Dennis J.
Kucinich (D-Ohio)
Email responses to Dkucinich@aol.com
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