FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 3, 2006
WORLD CAN’T WAIT– DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME
Contact: Connie Julian, 718-825-9119, www.worldcantwait.org
Emergency Response to Torture Bill by Sean Penn, Mark Ruffalo, Alice Walker, Daniel Ellsberg, Craig Murray, Bill Goodman, Olympia Dukakis Builds for Nationwide Protest October 5
On Monday evening, October 2, over 1200 people filled halls in New York City and San Francisco for emergency meetings in response to the passage of the Military Commissions Act 2006, and to build for October 5 protests happening in over 180 cities across the country.
Sean Penn sent a statement to the meetings indicting Bush for the war, the lies, torture, Katrina, and the gutting of democracy in America. An excerpt: “”At the U.S./Mexico border, we panic at the notion of illegal entry, without blinking an eye as our elderly line up every Saturday morning with wheelchairs, walkers, canes and joint pain, queued up in the desert heat to enter Mexico where they can purchase affordable medication. In the human family, this President is indeed pushing his wheelchair-bound grandmother down the stairs with a smile on his face. Everyone knows that these are true statements”What an exciting thing to reverse this as one America and show the world who wears the pants in this house. Stand up as an American and join World Can’t Wait and those demonstrating this Thursday, October 5.”
On Thursday October 5th, people will walk out of school, take off work, gather in town squares, and MARCH, declaring their intention to bring the Bush program to a halt. Ads running on Air America radio are broadcasting: “Endless Wars… Torture… Katrina… Theocracy… The Bush regime is remaking the world, very quickly, in a fascist way and for generations to come””
Sunsara Taylor, a spokesperson from World Can’t Wait: “Something new is rising in this country. In the last 2 weeks, protests have multiplied from 50 to over 175, nearly half in RED states including 10 Southern states, with 9 in Florida, 11 in North Carolina and 9 in Bush’s home state of Texas. People don’t want to live in a theocratic new Rome. People are fed up with this regime and through with waiting for the Democrats.”
Full-page ads have appeared in USA Today, New York Times, and on MySpace.
At the New York City meeting, Sean Penn’s statement was read by Mark Ruffalo (co-star in All the King’s Men). Ruffalo’s own remarks reflect the journey many people are taking in joining up with this movement: “I don’t want to be up here today but I feel I have exhausted the way we have been taught to affect change in the way our government conducts itself”. I have voted, I have called, I have written letters, I have given of myself with my time and my money, and still we have a government that refuses to respect the Constitution, a Government that engaged in a war with illegal justification, a government that abandoned its own during Hurricane Katrina, a Government that now condones torture, a government that favors big corporations before it favors my children or yours. Step down, Mr. Bush, We are not torturers. Step down Mr. Bush, We are not war profiteers” We are Americans and we Demand you Step Down.”
Check
www.worldcantwait.org for continually expanding list of locations for October 5 protests.
STATEMENTS from some of the Speakers at the October 2 events:
Former UK Ambassador to Uzbekistan who risked his life and forfeited his career to blow the whistle on US sponsored TORTURE, Craig Murray said, “They revoke our civil rights and patronize Muslims as non-humans so that when they arrest and torture humans we accept this, so that when they tell us habeas corpus is gone we will accept this, so that when they invade Muslim countries to get their oil and gas we will accept this”we are not accepting it anymore! It is the anti-war movement in the United Kingdom that has caused Tony Blair to have to leave office. The architects of this crusade are being driven out. Aznar is gone, Berlusconi is gone, Blair has gone and now Bush!”
Bill Goodman, a lead attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights who represents Guantanamo detainees, spoke about the Military Commissions Act passed last week: “Congress has to its everlasting discredit laid down on its back, stuck its arms and legs up in the air and whined and swallowed everything the president has fed it” if we lose these rights, we have lost democracy. . . tyranny thrives and democracy dies in the midst of 3 things: silence, secrecy and fear. I’m here to tell you and you’re here to tell me, we are not afraid, there are no more secrets, and we will speak out!”
Alice Walker at the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland:
“Who are we becoming? Who are we becoming? What does it mean to be a human being? We are completely right at the verge of really not having a clue.
“And that is why it is so essential to stop the people who have taken our government. They are not people who can take us, as a species, where we need to be going. They don’t know where they are supposed to be going. They have no clue. And so it is really truly up to us — and I keep wanting to say to everyone, it is up to us, and lovingly — as horrendous and as terrifying as this is — I say this peacefully and lovingly because of the peace that I’m saying we need to embody if we expect to see it in the world.”
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