Around 100 to 150 New Mexicans of all walks of life, white
and blue collar workers, students to the elderly (and even a three-year old boy
joining his first march in support of public health care), all races and
religions, peoples of all political parties (yes, even Republicans for
Impeachment were represented) gathered for a rally at University and Central
where the World Can’t Wait Call was read by organizer Paul Eichhorn and poem was
read a few speakers addressed the growing crowd to the sounds of support from morning
commuters. The speakers included a local
woman whose brother had just returned from a horrifying stint in a Chinese
prison only to learn that within a week his own government embraced the death
of habeas corpus and torture. Another
local organizer, Paul Linnenburger, provided an address (the text of which is
included below).
The local press did send representatives (although no
television crews arrived). However,
interviews were given to the Albuquerque Tribune, the University paper (The Daily
Lobo), KUNM as well as a few other independent media outlets.
After the rally, the group proceeded to march to the Federal Building
in downtown Albuquerque. Throughout the morning, it was clear by the
response from the community that for everyone actively participating in the
rally and march there were scores more who embraced the cause.
“Why We Are Here”
The fundamentalist and fundamentally un-American leadership
in the White House is attacking everything positive that America once
stood for. They are doing so without regard for the loud and gathering voices
of opposition among the population, your voices. But now those voices are
gathering in over 200 cities nationwide, and they are marching in solidarity as
True Americans that believe in the rule of law rather than the rule of the
sword, that believe in true liberty, equality and freedom, and that abhor Bush
turning the Beacon on the Hill into the flashpoint of a muzzle.
We are here to tell Mr. Bush to stop hindering the
scientific community in its attempts to cure disease.
We are here because we are concerned for our children.
Children who, if Mr. Bush has his way, will continue to fall farther behind the
global community because they will not be taught science that conflicts with
his fundamentalist beliefs. Children who are being poisoned by the polluted air
they breathe and water they drink. Children who will be left to suffer the
wrath of mother nature because Mr. Bush refuses to accept that global warming,
a preventable catastrophe, is looming just over the horizon.
We are here because women enjoy the strides this nation has
made towards gender equality and we refuse to accept that a woman must be
forced into child-rearing and left unable to choose the path of her life the
same as a man.
We are here because we recognize that when two adults are in
love they should be entitled to publicly declare that love and maintain equal
status with other couples in the same position.
We are here to denounce attempts to rewrite discrimination
into the Constitution.
We are here to stand against xenophobia which defines
hard-working, law-abiding peoples seeking a better life as a threat to security
simply because English is not their first language.
We are here to condemn a President who stood by and did
nothing as thousands in New Orleans
were left for dead by their government.
We are here to declare that anyone who works for a living
should earn a living.
We are here because the right of habeas corpus granted in
the Magna Carta was an advancement of freedom that should never have been
reversed.
We are here because the founders of this nation meant what
they wrote in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment,
and when the protections they guaranteed are brushed aside it is the innocent
that have the most to fear.
We are here because we dread nuclear war and the suicidal
path Mr. Bush has laid out for the human race, ensuring continued proliferation
of nuclear weapons and a return of escalating arms races and being one itchy
trigger finger away from nuclear holocaust.
We are here because democracy within nations cannot be had
whilst the President denigrates democracy among nations.
We are here because, as this country laid out at Nuremberg, the launching
of aggressive, preventive war is one of the greatest crimes a nation’s leaders
can commit.
We are here because torture is always wrong, incredibly
inhuman and inherently evil.
We are here because tens of thousands of innocent humans are
not “collateral damage.”
We are here because thousands of American families will
never see their loved ones again because of the lies of Mr. Bush.
We are here to send a message to President Bush. We are here
to say “You do not represent us. We are not torturers. We are not
fascists. We are not war-mongers. Step down Mr. Bush! America was a
great country. We want it back!”
October 5, 2006 – Albuquerque,
NM