Revolution #61, September 17 2006
Voices from the September 7th Meetings Called by World Can’t Wait—Drive Out the Bush Regime
On September 7, in 50 cities around the country, more than 1,200 people came to meetings to get serious about organizing to make October 5th a great leap in the movement to drive out the Bush regime. Reports on the meetings, along with the speech given by World Can’t Wait, and audio and video of speakers, are available at worldcantwait.org. Correspondents from Revolution newspaper attended a few of these events, and forwarded the following excerpts from speeches they heard:
Daniel Ellsberg, who revealed the Pentagon Papers, exposing the U.S. crimes in Vietnam (San Francisco):
What we need at home of course is people who will change their lives, risk their careers and their jobs and their relationships with their families and their bosses and their church groups by taking a stronger stand than most people were ready to take; by saying truths that most people were not ready to hear. Without that courage things like this can’t be changed. With it, they may still not be changed, they may fail, but without it, and without mass mobilization there is no chance.
Jed Stone, progressive lawyer known for his anti-death penalty activities (Chicago):
We stopped Lyndon B. Johnson from running for reelection. It can be done. We got Spiro Agnew to resign in disgrace. These are history lessons we can’t forget. The first abolitionists refused and resisted and destroyed slavery. The new abolitionists have brought an end to the death penalty in Illinois for the time being with a moratorium…. On October 5th, we will stand up. And our collective voices will drown out the voice of a tyrant.
Timuel Black, historian, civil rights activist, photojournalist, and retired professor (Chicago):
When I was in DuSable High School, we had a teacher who used to send us home to listen to the radio—we didn’t have television in those days. And so I would go home, because we had to do a report, and I would listen to the radio. And I heard this man talking. I couldn’t understand German, but I heard him talking and I knew something was wrong with this guy. His name was Adolf Hitler. And at the end of each speech, he would say something like this: “Deutchland, Deutchland, Deutchland Uber Alles.” As I was listening to the President of the United States this evening, I heard that same concept in English. “We are the best. We are going to make them do what we want them to do”… The world can’t wait, folks—we must do something to stop this movement in the wrong direction with our movement, which will be going in the right direction, a humane movement to give freedom, equality, and justice to all people, wherever they may be.
Bob Watada, father of Iraq war resister Lt. Ehren Watada (Seattle):
Here’s a President who feels he’s above the law… It’s fascism that we have. I’m sure you people have seen the parallels between what Hitler was doing and what’s happening today in the United States.
Judith Shattuck of Progressive Democrats of America (Seattle):
New Orleans is still in ruins, the President is raping the environment… If we don’t bring this regime to its knees we are teaching the children that this is alright.
Chris Daly, San Francisco Supervisor and author of measure on the San Francisco ballot calling on the Congress to impeach and remove from office Bush and Cheney (San Francisco):
I’m proud to work alongside the sisters and brothers of World Can’t Wait to make sure that the Bush administration and members of Congress realize the extent of the discontent of the American people. We know that worldwide this administration is incredibly unpopular. It’s also incredibly unpopular in the United States of America among everyday people. The atrocities of the illegal war in Iraq, the illegal wiretapping, the illegal torture, the complete malfeasance in response to Katrina in New Orleans and the entire Gulf Coast—the discontent of the American people is enormous. And anything less than Bush and Cheney gone from office and institutions of justice and righteousness in the country, anything less than that is not sufficient. The World Can’t Wait!
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