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CounterPunch
November
25, 2002
Bush and International
Law
The Global Stick-Up
by REP. CYNTHIA McKINNEY
(Remarks at November
21 Peace Rally in New York City.)
It is fitting and appropriate and just that we
bring our activism for peace and against war to The Church.
For it is in The Church where America's
conscience resides.
And it is the black church in particular
which helped America find its soul.
In the molehills of Alabama and at Stone
Mountain Georgia, it was the black church that demanded that
America stand for her truest and boldest ideals.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. preached
against hatred and he preached against war. But let no one fool
you into thinking that he was the only one.
Thousands and thousands of brave individuals
inside The Church became leaders in the struggle for justice
and dignity and peace.
And like them, we all are gathered here
for justice and for dignity and for peace.
Let's talk about justice for a moment.
The United States wants to submit the
world to its form of justice but refuses to submit to the world's
justice.
How can this Administration enforce international
law when it doesn't adhere to it?
While other nations, even our allies,
dream of an international criminal court, where all can be treated
equally before the law and where all can receive justice--even
the smallest against the biggest--the US obstructs, dissembles,
obfuscates, and turns the dream into a nightmare.
Why would the US not want to be a part
of the community of nations standing for justice for all?
Could it be that we really don't want
justice for all?
I think to get that answer we need only
look at the administration of justice here at home.
Why is it so hard for the authorities
to say we might have made a mistake in prosecuting the young
men in the Central Park Jogger case? Is it more a case of damage
control for the government than justice for the people?
The United States ought to stand for
dignity in the world. Our mission ought to be to lift up others
and to so be lifted up ourselves. Through the good that we do
in the world, we gain the respect and admiration of the world.
That's one way to do it.
And then there's the Bush Way: which
has America feared more than loved.
I wonder if this is the way he treats
his children?
For we are graced to be the most powerful
country in the world. Kind of like parents and children.
We are the leader of the world. But effective
leadership metes out justice without favoritism; supplies love
equitably to all; asks not what can be done for you, but asks
what you can do for others.
As it stands now, the poor of the world
are being asked to give up their resources, for little or nothing--or
lose their lives.
It is a stick-up of global proportions.
And we are being asked to go along with
it.
And so, in the absence of justice, and
in the absence of dignity; we are the ones who must stand up
for peace.
Can you imagine that when World War II
and Korean War veterans asked the US to keep its promise of lifetime
healthcare, our government just this week, in our name, said
"sorry" and denied their request for healthcare?
Yet, on any given night, there are at
least a quarter of a million veterans who are sleeping on our
streets. Suffering from the ill health effects of Agent Orange,
Gulf War Syndrome, depleted uranium, and post-traumatic stress
syndrome, too many of them are just a stone's throw from the
Oval Office.
That's the thanks of a grateful nation.
It's easy to send people off to war when
you haven't been to war.
George Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz,
Richard Perle . . . where were you when your country needed you?
We have a right to say no to George Bush's
brand of patriotism and to yield to the words of our founding
father George Washington who warned us to beware the false patriots.
We, who hold America to her promise,
are the true patriots.
We not only have a right to be here,
standing for peace; we have the responsibility.
I am with you and will be with you until
we stop the war before it begins!
Yesterday's
Features
Susan Davis
Now About
That Big Stick
Caoimhe Butterly
I Was
Shot While Escorting Jenin's School Children
Kurt Nimmo
Bush &
the Canadians
Chris Floyd
Rough Beast
Slouching
Francis Boyle
On Behalf
of Iraq's 4.5 Million Children
Dave Marsh
Spirit
in the Light
Behzad Yaghmaian
The Rebirth
of Student Protest in Iran
Mark Hand
Dr. Alterman,
I Presume
Ralph Nader
Back Alley
Loan Sharks
Elaine Cassel
The Shameful
Treatment of John Malvo
Adam Engel & Ian
Harvey
Poets'
Basement
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
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The Case of the Pompous
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Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
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