Representative Dennis Kucinich of Ohio
offers a prophetic prayer for America
[3-8-02]
Congressional Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio spoke
to the Americans for Democratic Action on February 17 at the
University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
Presbyterian minister Charles
Henderson, host of the Christianity section of about.com, has posted
a thoughtful comment
about Kucinich's speech.
The text of the speech is in the public domain, and we're happy to share
it here, with thanks to onReligion.com,
where we first learned about it.
A
Prayer for America
Program note: (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 implicated 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 innerconnected 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 day 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.
