A Freedom Prayer For America
By Dennis Kucinich
United States Congressman
D-Ohio
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My country 'tis of thee. Sweet land of lib-erty 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 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 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
[in] 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 [U.S.] 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, and so 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.
To reach Congressman Dennis Kucinich contact: info@thespiritoffreedom.com