9/27/06: This statement from Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of TIKKUN Magazine and a signer of the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime, was sent out to his whole email list of over 50,000 people. What follows is an excerpt about the Oct. 5 protests. The full statement is below.
So why do I think we should participate and help
mobilize others to participate?
Because, frankly, the danger from the Bush
administration, its possible extension of the war to Iran, its active
dismantling of the human rights we”ve held sacred for centuries, its
destructiveness toward the planet itself, its continuing war in Iraq, its
refusal to push for Middle East peace, its total insensitivity to the needs of
the poor, and its destruction of human rights and civil liberties constitute a
clear and present danger to the survival of our beloved country and to the
survival of the human race.
So, as long as we conduct ourselves with
non-violence, it is imperative that we get out into the public arena, and this
is the first of many non-violent activities in the coming years until there has
been a dramatic change in US policies.
I’ll be there-will
you?
Listen to Rabbi Lerner interviewed along with World Can’t Wait organizer Travis Morales on WPFW Pacifica radio in Washington DC about the upcoming Oct. 5 protests:
Full statement:
Action Alert on Torture, War, and What YOU can Do NOW.
Torture, War, and New Vision: Action Alerts
There are things you CAN do:
Torture:
Last Thursday, President Bush and several members of the
Senate struck a deal on human rights. In the process, they dealt away America’s commitment
to fundamental human rights principles.
Make no mistake about it, this deal is a betrayal of the America
we believe in. No human rights activist can remain on the sidelines in the days
ahead. Call on your Senator to oppose these dangerous provisions.
We are literally days away from action in Congress on a
proposal to:
*Abandon the rule of law and give the President the freedom
to interpret the Geneva Conventions any way he sees fit.
*Provide immunity to those responsible for past human rights
abuses
*Exempt from prosecution those who authorize treatment
traditionally considered torture.
*Strip detainees of access to US courts.
If America
renounces the Geneva Conventions like President Bush wants to do, nations all
over the world will follow. American soldiers will be placed in greater threat
of torture and cruel treatment when captured, not just by one or two rogue nations,
but by many nations that follow America’s
lead. Amnesty makes all these points on its website.
Please call both your local Congressional representative and
your two U.S.
Senators (even if you don’t think they’ll agree with you). Call 1-202-224-3121
and ask the Congressional switchboard to connect you with the offices of the
Senators and Congressperson. Then, when that office answers, let the person on
the phone know that you are a constituent, and tell them that the deal
President Bush has struck is a betrayal of the America you believe in. Ask your
Senator and representative to stand firm in defense of human rights, including
joining in a filibuster if necessary, or any other delaying or deflating tactics.
Tell them that on this one you don’t want just pious statements – you want them
to do every legal thing possible to stop this attempt to give official sanction
to torture. And if they say, “but it’s not torture,” say right back,
“I know it is allowing the president to override the Geneva Convention,
and that is unacceptable to me.”
***
WAR
There is a mass mobilization being planned for October 5th
which you can join. There are already events planned in 90 cities, and if there
is nothing in your area, contact the organizers and they’ll tell you who in
your area you might work with to create something.
Although I’ve signed the appeal for this demonstration, and
will participate in it, I’ve repeatedly made the critique both of its harsh language
(“drive out” may sound sexy, but it feels too violent in undertone to
make me satisfied, and although the organizers have assured me that this will
be totally non-violent, I believe that it should have used said explicitly that
it supported militant, disruptive, but totally non-violent behavior) and for
its lack of a positive vision (such as the Global Marshall Plan). I also object
to pointing to Bush’s misuse of God in defending his militarism, because one
could point at the secular militarism of Vice President Cheney and Sec. of Def.
Rumsfeld.
You can, however, ask to speak at the local demonstrations
and present the Spiritual Covenant (as developed in our Spiritual Covenant with
America
and more fully articulated in the book The Left Hand of God).
So why do I think we should participate and help mobilize
others to participate? Because, frankly, the danger from the Bush
administration, its possible extension of the war to Iran, its active
dismantling of the human rights we’ve held sacred for centuries, its
destructiveness toward the planet itself, its continuing war in Iraq, its
refusal to push for Middle East peace, its total insensitivity to the needs of
the poor, and its destruction of human rights and civil liberties constitute a
clear and present danger to the survival of our beloved country and to the
survival of the human race. So, as long as we conduct ourselves with
non-violence, it is imperative that we get out into the public arena, and this
is the first of many non-violent activities in the coming years until there has
been a dramatic change in US policies.
So below is the call from The World Can’t Wait organization.
I’ll be there – will you?
***
FRIENDS:
The hour is late.
Endless Wars! Torture! Katrina! Theocracy! Bring This To a Halt!!
October 5th: PROTEST and MARCH in over 80 cities and towns
nationwide to
DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME.
On October 5, 2006, people in over 80 cities & towns
will take off work and school, gather in the city center, and march. We will
declare our determination to bring the whole Bush program to a halt and drive out
this regime.
The World Can’t Wait Call is signed by Gore Vidal, Cornel
West, US
Senator John Conyers, Sean Penn, Paul Haggis, Jane Fonda, Jonathan Kozol, Mark
Ruffalo, Esther Kaplan, Alice Walker, Rabbi Michael Lerner and thousands more.
“There is not going to be some magical ‘pendulum
swing.’ People who steal elections and believe they’re on a ‘mission from God’
will not go without a fight. There is not going to be some savior from the
Democratic Party. This whole idea of putting our hopes and energies into ‘leaders’
who tell us to seek common ground with fascists and religious fanatics is
proving every day to be a disaster, and actually serves to demobilize people.
“But silence and paralysis are NOT acceptable. That
which you will not resist and mobilize to stop, you will learn – or be forced –
to accept. There is no escaping it: the whole disastrous course of this Bush regime
must be STOPPED. And we must take the responsibility to do it.”
– from the World Can’t Wait- Drive Out the Bush Regime CALL www.worldcantwait.org
“THE FUTURE IS UNWRITTEN. WHICH ONE WE GET IS UP TO US.”
Right
now: 1. Raise Funds! 2. Get the Word out! 3. Volunteer!
4.
Sign the Call to Drive Out the Bush Regime:
***
POSITIVE VISION
Popularizing within the liberal and progressive circles a
positive vision of what we are for, not just what we are against, is an urgent necessity.
For that reason, I urge you to get people to sign and endorse The Spiritual
Covenant with America.
Create a petition (we’ll soon have it on line, but not by Oct. 5th) to endorse
the Covenant, and bring it to the attention of people at the demonstrations or
planning meetings – in particular the plank calling for a Global Marshall Plan
as a manifestation of what a strategy of generosity would look like as the alternative
to the Bush/Cheney strategy of domination and control of the “evil
Other.” This is the time to educate people about that, to get them to join
a local NSP chapter or, if there is none, to form one yourself (yes, yourself –
and we have a members’ guide that will help you: call Allyson@tikkun.org,
510-644-1200).
Create an Evening or Weekend Party at YOUR Home to Introduce
People to the NSP
We have a video you can show to friends and family and
people from your church, synagogue, mosque, ashram, community center, union, professional
organization, etc. to help you launch a conversation about the NSP, The
Spiritual Covenant With America, and The Global Marshall Plan as a positive
alternative to war. Contact Allyson@tikkun.org
510-644-1200.
SPIRITUAL FOUNDATION For Social Action and Tikkun (healing
and transformation) of our World:
If you are looking for a spiritual foundation for this
activity, almost every religious tradition has such a foundation. I urge you to
read (not just own it) my book The Left Hand of God, and some of the other
books that I recommend that are on our website www.spiritualprogressives.org,
and to JOIN our Network.
I also invite you to come out to California
(no, it won’t be on the web or available in other ways) for the course I’m
teaching on a Re-Introduction to a Judaism of Love, October 13-15 in Berkeley. Details on the
course and how to register at www.BeytTikkun.org. It’s for non-Jews too, and its
ideas are easily translated into every other religious or spiritual tradition.
And yes, there’s still space at our Yom Kippur services Sunday night Oct. 1 and
Monday Oct. 2 – at the Monday all day event we have (in the service led by me
and along with other talks) Jack Kornfeld, prominent Buddhist founder of Spirit
Rock Meditation Center who will teach about how to use spiritual practice in sustaining
the life of political activists, and Daniel Ellsberg speaking about the current
global mess, and me speaking about spirituality and politics. Registration in
advance only: www.beyttikkun.org (and, no, it’s not a drop in event, it’s a
whole day experience and you have to register for the whole thing, which does include
as major part a religious service).
If you can’t come to any of this, you can still help us.
Join the NSP, help create a local chapter, or tell us what else you’d like to
do (after reading and completing The Left Hand of God and the members’ guide
which you will get a month after you join).
Many blessings for a saner world and for a new spirit of
kindness, generosity and open-heartedness!
Love,
Michael
RabbiLerner@tikkun.org