Statement at San Francisco Nov. 2nd Rally (excerpts):
Let’s give it up to Casey and the over 2000 others who have been stolen from us by
George W. Bush.
I remember the first time George Bush got elected, when he was
selected by the Supreme Court. I was devastated. How many of you were
devastated when that happened? I thought, who in the hell gave them the
right to choose a president. I didn’t think that one of the duties of
the Supreme Court was picking a president. That right belongs to the
people of the United States of America and we did not pick George Bush.
When Congress gave up, when Al Gore gave up, and the Supreme Court
selected George Bush, I thought, how much damage can this idiot do in
four years. And I had no idea. That was the most ironic thought of my
life. He’s damaged the world, he’s damaged our country, he’s damaged my
family. He turned us all upside down.
He’s not only stolen tens of thousands of innocent lives from this
country, he’s trying to steal our humanity and we can’t let him. We
have to resist that. The people being killed in Iraq are not
terrorists. They are citizens of Iraq. They are members of the human
race. They are our brothers and sisters.
Last year I worked really hard to defeat George Bush. But you know
what? He refuses to be defeated. If he loses he cheats. So he cheated
himself into a second term. I wrote a letter on November 4. I took a
day off. I was very devastated, very depressed. The next day though I
was out in the rain in Sacramento in front of the Federal Building
holding a sigh that said ‘Bush Lied, My Son Died.’ The next day I wrote
a letter to George Bush and I said, if you were an honorable man you
would resign. But we know you’re not an honorable man because you used
your family to get into an elite National Guard unit during Vietnam (
which I don’t blame him for, I
think everybody should try and get out of war. But that was too much for him and he
went AWOL from that. He is not an honorable man and he should not be
allowed to be our commander-in-chief. He doesn’t know the meaning of
the word courage and honor like the people that he is sending over
there. I said, you know what George (
because I don’t call him Mr. President, I don’t call him Mr. Bush,
because he’s not my President and I don’t believe someone deserves
respect just because of their office. They have to earn respect and he
didn’t earn any respect . I said, you know what George, if you don’t
resign I’m going to do everything in my limited power to have you
impeached. If he hasn’t committed high crimes and misdemeanors, who
has? If people can have articles of impeachment voted against them for
lying about inappropriate sexual contact, what about lying that leads
to the death of tens of thousands of innocent people?
I’ve been arrested already two times in front of the White House and that is my
house. We have these rights and we can’t give them up. We have the
right to freedom of speech not just in permitted freedom of speech
zones. This is America and every inch of land is a freedom of speech
zone. It’s up to us to claim our rights and not let them be taken away.
I was arrested for ‘demonstrating without a permit.’ You know what? We
have the right to peaceably assemble. That’s what we were doing. And
when I was arrested I said, ‘I’m being arrested for demonstrating
without a permit when there are people who live and work in that house
who are committing crimes against humanity, who are committing war
crimes? And they’re allowed to run amuck. And you’re arresting somebody
who means no harm to anybody and who wants to save lives by driving
that regime out of power?’
The only place for moral people is to resist immoral laws and immoral leaders. When
George Bush lied to us he lost all of his authority over this country. He has no authority. When you lie it’s over.
This isn’t the beginning of the end of the Bush regime because they are unraveling. This is a step in the process. We have to keep the pressure up. We have to exercise our rights as Americans. We have to fight for our country, because it’s
worth fighting for and to make it better, not killing and dying in an
unjust war. We have to fight peacefully for our rights. We have to sit
down when we need to sit down and we need to stand up when we need to
stand up. And we need to use our voices when we need to use our voices. And we won’t let anybody shut us up any more.
We need to go to Senator Feinstein’s office. We need to go to any politician who
isn’t saying ‘out now,’ and we need to say, we’re sitting here until you call for the troops to come home. We need to do everything within our power,
nonviolently, to get our troops out of Iraq. And if that brings down
the Bush regime then that’s a bonus.
And we can’t stop with George Bush. Every single person who lied to us has to go.
Don’t let them steal your humanity and don’t let them steal your
rights. Resist, stand up, speak out. We’re going to Camp Casey on
Thanksgiving. Join us.