US Rep. John Conyers, Jr. speaking at the rally in Detroit in Oct. 5:
Listen (full speech): [wav]
(Note: heckler in the background does not in any way represent World Can’t Wait or its political viewpoint)
Transcript of the speech:
To our friends all over the United States, that are doing exactly what we’re doing here in Detroit, let’s give them a big shout out! Detroit joins you in this great outpouring in which we begin the long and hard fought path to end the George Bush regime in the United States of America. This is the beginning. What we’ve done is demonstrate that people are aware and sensitive to the fact that we got into a war we should never have gotten into. How can you, when you think about it, how could Iraq attack the United States? The whole thing gets almost ludicrous. In all deference to some of my colleagues, whose naivete is beyond belief, I think they knew what I knew, they knew what you knew, we didn’t need a preemptive strike because they had no weapons of mass destruction, they had nothing.
We are here today to consolidate our friends who are coming over to our
side. For that reason, I will talk about the President of the United
States in the most deferential terms that I can, because we”re trying
to get independents and Republicans to vote with us on November 7. So
we want you to be on your best behavior, whatever that means to you, to
get as many people to come out and vote on November 7. What is it 32
days yet?
(a heckler yells that Democrats voted for the war). My dear brother –
that’s what we”re trying to change. I can only tell you that not
voting is the worst thing anybody can do. Let me get this in. Every
Democrat running for Congress in the 3 districts around me, are all
against the war (cheers). It’s also true that all 3 Congressional
candidates running for Congress are all against the war. I want you to
help them. We have to grow the seeds. At the rate the scandals are
coming out in Washington, somebody is going to pull an upset in
Michigan. We have may a new Democratic Congressperson. That is quite
possible.
What I am here today to do is to urge you to do couple of things. One
of them is to remember Proposition #2, the affirmative action
proposition that Ward Connerly is behind, at a fee that he charged his
non-profits in access of one million dollars per year, to spread it
from California, to Oregon, to Michigan. We”ve got to turn this back
because the affirmative action for the nation started in Ann Arbor for
the nation. So we”re not going backward on this, we”re going forward.
While we were being cut out of all the decisions about how the
legislature ought to be run, we put together a little manual called
George Bush v. the U.S. Constitution. It contains information about
the Downing Street Minutes, what did they say in that? That they would
make the facts and the circumstances accomplish the objective of going
to
war in Iraq, That was way before the war ever started. Then we have
an introduction by Ambassador Wilson, who was sent to Niger to look for
the uranium, and guess what he found – there wasn’t any. He reported
it, and they reported his wife as a covert CIA agent.
So, we gather here today and I consider you among the best of our
patriots, because, I don’t see anyone holding elected office besides
myself. You”re here because you know we have to persuade the rest of
our citizens that we”ve got to take back the country, and move in a new
direction. And that’s what this election is about. The only thing we
have is the election process. To invite you to join with me these last
32 days”I’m at Livernois between 7 and 8 Mile Road across from Sherwood
Forest/Coney Island. What we need to do is replicate ourselves.
There’s nothing more disturbing to the enemy within those who are
holding powerful offices in Washington who are dedicated to staying the
course on an impossible no-win situation in the war. We need some
people that are willing to use some diplomacy. We need some people that
are willing to stand up for the Geneva Accords, and to cut out the
signing statements that the President has done on hundreds and hundreds
of bills he signed into law that we didn’t not anything about. More
than any other president, way more. And we need most of all to be able
to stand up against the President as a part of our First Amendment
rights to free speech. If you disagree with the President, it is
exactly your prerogative to say so.
You have done that, and you have done is with great distinction and
great clarity. And so I want to let you know I identify with you,
100%. I am working now to prevent any persons from coming into office
that would turn us away from the goals of Martin Luther King. It’s
ironic that a religious person would give me my political philosophy,
but it boiled down to jobs, justice, and peace. And that’s what I”ve
been working on for all of these years, and that’s why I’m going to
continue to work on. And I want to invite all of you down to my office.
What we”re going to do is provide us with coffee, snacks, telephones,
let’s work on getting the vote out. That to me is very important. And
I can say this is not a political rally, but voting is a Constitutional
responsibility, without which we cannot maintain a democracy. So it’s
in that spirit that I’m happy to join you. I”ll be working with you.
I”ll be coming to your meetings at the café in Ferndale, and I want you
to leave me some literature so that we can get new people out.
The whole thing is most people are hip to George Bush, and Cheney and
Rumsfeld. They should have never been in office in the first place.
Two elections! You know, he can fool all he wants, but Florida and
Ohio, twice. And we”re mad as hell about it and we are taking our
country back. Today, across America, people like you and me come
together to reinforce our commitment to do what has to be done. As
Americans that want our democracy to be a Constitutional democracy. We
don’t want one in which the pres takes power and keeps assuming more
power.
And we want to thank 3 judges, as I close. One is judge is Damon Keith,
about 3 blocks away, who long ago said you cannot wiretap an American
on U.S. soil without a warrant. That’s what he said a long time ago.
As a result, the Congress passed the FISA act. The FISA courts were
created because of him. So let’s give the judge a round of applause.
Number 2, a courageous woman in the Eastern District Court just came
out recently and said, Mr. President, you do not have the power if it’s
not in the Constitution, if it’s not in the federal laws, you do not
have the inherent power, even if there was a war, which there isn’t, to
assume that you have powers that are not identifiable in print. And
so, your acts of having people wiretap Americans on American soil is a
violation of the Constitution of the U.S. and I order you to stop the
warrant-less wiretaps immediately. Judge Anna Diggs Taylor. And number
3, another judge, a woman, Bernice Page Hood, said that the Patriot Act
provisions in which you think you can go into libraries and find out
what people are reading, and that you can surveil people and break into
their homes and offices without a warrant is illegal and
unconstitutional. And this trial brought by the American civil
liberties union, will go forward right here in Detroit.
And so there are people like you and I, not enough of them, in
government and public office, trying to make this Constitutional
democracy work. As our numbers grow, and as people realize where their
self interest is, maybe it’s in some of these, look, maybe, where the
10 Commandments go is the most important thing in your world, there are
some who believe that. Maybe there are people who are so worked up
that the most important thing is who may marry whom. That’s that the
most troublesome thing on their mind that they can think of. Maybe
there are people who worry that the American flag may be burned
somewhere by somebody somehow, and that’s the only thing they want to
understand. But we understand one thing, that this Constitution is the
basis for the rule of law, and we”re going to carry it beyond just the
US, because there are other nations who are trying to have some respect
for all for the things we stand for, and we”ve lost a lot of respect
around the world. Thank you for coming out. I”ll be with you at the
coffee house on Thursday.