To My friends in the Faith Community,
I’m writing to ask you to take up
the call to ‘Drive Out the Bush Regime’ and to join in local and national activities
being planned around Bush’s State of the Union speech on January 31st.
I think getting involved in this
movement, with its very broad base, should be a top priority for all people who
understand or are beginning to see the horrific direction things are headed
under this present government. I’ll
explain why I think it’s ‘the’ top priority in a moment.
Enclosed is the Call which appeared
as a full page ad in the New York Times
on Monday, December 12th. Its words are
sharp and forceful and the ad received much praise and support from around the
world. It also drew the wrath of the
other side and was the subject of many articles and a large segment of FOX news’s
Bill O’Reilly show that very night.
These are not ordinary times. Just take a good hard look at where things
are going in this country under the leadership of the Bush regime. Imagine if you had fallen asleep five years ago and had just now opened
your eyes. Would you have thought that
there was a horrendous war and occupations occurring, killing untold thousands? Or the use of white phosphorous and other war
crimes committed by U.S.
soldiers in Fallujah? Would you have
imagined the loss of basic civil liberties and a country where even librarians
are now required to monitor and turn over to the government lists of names of
people who used public computers or inquire about certain literature? Or the indefinite detentions, round ups and the
racist demonization of yet another group of people?
What about the unapologetic admission
of the use of torture and an open debate of where and when it is
‘appropriate’ and how international treaties ‘didn’t apply’ to the United
States?
Would you have dreamed that a new Supreme Court was about to outlaw safe
abortions and nullify affirmative action as its new beginning? Who could
have imagined five years ago that this government would abandon 100,000 Black
people in New Orleans and give
‘shoot to kill’ orders to those who tried to escape and/or survive?
And finally, would you have
imagined that some in this leadership openly would state that they are on a ‘Mission
from God’ and be moving to impose a narrow, hateful brand of Christian
Fundamentalist rule on the people. Even
basic scientific truths are being suppressed when it doesn’t fit their
religious, political and economic agenda.
This regime has embarked on a
global power grab. There is no other superpower standing in its way. It has unleashed something that was planned
long before
to either ignore or deflect criticism
No! These are not an ‘ordinary times’
in history. This bad dream is a reality today and what’s more frightening is
wondering where things will be at five
years from now. I think people have
to realize that these are ‘Niemoeller
Times‘ where we have to ask ourselves what we intend to do about this
unprecedented direction. Sinclair Lewis said, ‘When fascism comes to America
it will be wrapped in the American flag and carrying a cross’. Is this only a
dream?
I look at these times in the U.S.
as similar to those in Germany
in the 1930’s. Hitler didn’t kill
(officially) the first Jew until 1941. And
Pastor Niemoeller, who had originally supported Hitler and then changed his
mind, was now in prison. My question to you is what would have been the difference if an influential institution such as
the Church had acted in the 1930’s against Hitler. Could they have sounded an alarm and educated
millions against such a disastrous direction?
Would the direction have changed and unprecedented horrors been averted?
It’s heartening to see national
religious councils and groups issuing statements against war and torture. Several clergy and lay people and groups like
Global Justice and Peace Ministries, Riverside
Church in NY signed the World Can’t
Wait Call. Around the world more people
of faith are standing against the frightening direction taken by the U.S.
government. Articles are appearing in
widely circulated religious journals and newsletters. Religious studies departments at universities
are beginning to be more public and vocal in their concerns. But this ‘beginning’, while encouraging,
falls far short of what’s needed given the pace that the Bush agenda is being
implemented.
In Greensboro,
what would be the difference if the Faith Community joined in and took a
LEADING ROLE in the effort to drive out the Bush regime? Could churches, large and small, make their
voices heard and actually join with others around this issue? Would they take this on, making it their central focus right now?
Why do I ask this when I know that
many of the churches and people of faith in Greensboro
are involved in many needed and worthwhile endeavors? I think it’s because if this direction is not
checked, if this freight train isn’t derailed, most all of the things people
are trying to change will be set back or even nullified. And as the Call
states: ‘That which you will not resist
and mobilize to stop, you will learn ( or be forced ( to accept.’ Let me give a few examples of what I mean.
Efforts against the death penalty
are getting trumped by the proposed
makeup of the Supreme Court. Further,
the recent execution in California
showed an uncompromising stand by the government in the face of new evidence
and what most had come to see as an actual transformation and ‘rehabilitation’
of an individual. It’s also important to
note that this execution of a Black man sent a chilling message, the likes of
which was sent to Black people caught in Katrina’s wake. It begs the question of genocide. The Bush regime intends to step up executions
and it has continued to oppose any suggestion of a ‘moratorium’. Add to this William Bennett’s statement about
reducing the crime rate by aborting Black babies and you can see that ‘new
ground’ is being excavated.
Women’s right to safe, legal birth
control and abortion runs counter to an enslaving, literalist brand of
Christianity promoted by the Bush regime that views women as the property of
men, primarily for breeding and raising children. The Democrats have even retreated from their
previous retreat of ‘legal but rare’.
Bush trumped a congressionally sanctioned committee that had approved
over the counter access to ‘Plan B’ as a birth control method. Where does all this leave women, especially
poor women?
Don’t many in Greensboro’s
Faith Community support the fight against HIV/AIDS? But
this government’s insistence on ‘abstinence only’, support for shipping Bibles
to Africa, and thwarting scientific experimentation that could lead to
breakthroughs on this front, condemns literally millions here and around the
world to a disastrous fate. Uganda,
where some progress had been made by the liberal distribution of condoms, now
has virtually stopped giving them out.
Bush had previously insisted that those receiving U.S.
aid in this fight must ensure abstinence only education for at least 33% of the
funds given. But now, almost any real
effective education and preventative measures have ceased. Again, can the question of genocide be raised?
So what I’m proposing is not to
stop the good work that people are doing BUT to come to grips with precisely what is the main thing in the world
standing in the way of any real change for the better. And how all peoples’ good work can be made
‘null and void’ if the Bush regime is able to march, unchecked, on its
disastrous path.
Again, I ask, what would be the
difference if people of faith took a courageous position and stood against this
regime as an example to many thousands here and millions more in these
‘Niemoeller Times’?
Join us! Build this movement. Sign the Call. The future is unwritten, which one we get is
up to us! Visit the website: www.worldcantwait.org
Another World Is Possible,
Tim Hopkins
Some plans for the State of the Union Speech: We want Churches to Join This!
Aren’t you envious of those countries where if people don’t
like something that their government is doing, they hit the streets and stage
actions raging from big demonstrations to candlelight marches? Remember the â60’s? We want people to be in downtown Greensboro on January 31st during Bush’s speech at
We want to make the news and not have the media broadcast
Bush’s speech and then only turn its cameras to the ‘loyal opposition’ of the
Democratic Party for their reaction. We
want to make it where they will have to notice the people who have a lot to say.
Slogans (in addition: Bring any signs and banners etc.)
‘Bring the Noise (
Drown Out the Lies’
‘Bush Step Down and
Take Your Whole Program with You’
That night: January 31st
8:00PM Rally at 604
South Elm Street in front of ‘The Scene’ where
Bush’s speech will be broadcast. Open
mike & music. Creative anti-Bush
videos will be shown inside.
through Downtown. Bring drums and
other things that make noise.
Fundraising: Sell chances where people guess how many
times Bush will use phrases like ‘terrorist’ ‘Sept. 11th‘ etc. Money raised before could pay for an ad in
News & Record printing the World Can’t Wait Call and inviting people to
come downtown on the night of the speech and announcing the national
demonstration in Washington DC.
Saturday: February 4th,
Demonstration in Washington D.C.
demanding:
‘Bush Step Down! And Take your Whole Program with
You!’