My NO WAR on Syria speech

When I saw the pictures of the children, women and men lying dead, murdered by chemical weapons, I wretchedly wept.

And wept, and wept.

Not only did I wail for those murdered human beings, but I keened for the people of this country, because I know, seeing the media’s willingness to print those pictures, I know what this means for us – as I knew in September 2001 what the towers falling meant for us.

I know we are being shown those pictures of people being murdered in Syria so that those in this country - who try really hard not to see - will be swiftly co-opted into justifying our military invading that country.

Real eyes realize real lies! Do we have real eyes???

The media did not show us pictures of the Iraqi victims of U.S. chemical warfare, did it? We do not see the victims of U.S. greed – the 12 babies around the world that every MINUTE die from starvation because we in this country are using 7 pounds of grain to make one pound of meat; the victims of genocide in Sudan, the Congo killed by U.S. weapons manufactured in this country and exported around the world; the victims of the SOA School of America graduates that are trained and armed by us to kill their own people.

No, we don’t see these pictures.

I am enraged; I’m outraged; I am sooooooooo angry.

Not as much at our legislature; not at Bush – I mean Obama; not at our media & corporations & everyone else that we clearly know are so invested in using genocide to increase their profits, but I’m so angry at us, we the people of this country.

How many times over the past 12 years have I gotten up in the morning and read about something outrageous, appalling, so atrocious that has happened in our country and/or been inflicted by our country on others, and ran to wildly throw open the front door, burst onto the streets, positive that the good people of this country would never allow this injustice to happen?

I could list a few of those things: the stealing of the presidential election, the patriot act, evisceration of Voting Rights Act, the impunity of zimmerman, the 20 year imprisonment of Marissa Alexander, the 90% of ocean life dead, Fukushima, Haiti, New Orleans, the prison industrial complex, hunger strike, Guantanamo, global warming, Monsanto, racism, misogyny, how about HR 347 recently passed unanimously by our ENTIRE senate, with only 3 no votes in the house, 42 congresspeople not voting, and all the rest voting yes – do you know 347, 347 takes away our right to protest at “national” events and wherever the “secret service” is present??? Are you serious? etc.etc.etc.

Instead of talking about all these fights we must engage in, I want to talk about the “american dream” which I call the “amerikkan nitemare”.

For where are the people, my people, the people I share this nation with, where are they? I’ll tell you where:  pursuing the american/kkan dream/nitemare: continuing our lives as usual – we must go to work, we must go to school, we have meetings, children to raise, relationships to work on, houses to buy, careers to advance.

Which makes it okay/justifiable even, for us to prioritize number 1 most important to continue our lives as usual pursuing the a.n. no matter the cost to other peoples.

So that while we are pursuing the amerikkkan nitemare, we ignore the underside of that nitemare: the forces that prevent others not just from their work, their school, their children - do you think the Syrian people want to go to work??? - but the forces that destroy their lives, their countries, their land and resources.

We HAVE to stop looking up to the billionaires, millionaires, 1% of our country. We HAVE to stop peering at those that have more then we do and mindlessly coveting what they have, striving for what they have, thinking we in some way deserve what they have.

If you have a roof over your head, raise your right hand; if you have a daily source of clean water, raise your left hand; if you have any food in your home that you will not consume today, keep your hands in the air; and lastly if you have shoes on your feet, keep your hands raised.

You with your hands raised, are living among the 15% richest people on this planet. Look around you.

In addition, if you have cash in your pocket, lower your right hand; a bank account, lower your left hand; if you have spare change – change you can spare if you so desire – raise both your hands. You are the 1% of our planet.

We HAVE to acknowledge that most of us, the everyday people of this nation, are living as the 1% of our world. We HAVE to look at those that have less than us and compare ourselves with them, not the billionaires.

Who wants to pay the costs of this amerikkkan nitemare? We know how the rest of the world is forced to pay the costs of our nitemare, but who wants to choose to pay the costs of this nitemare by actively pursuing it?

How many people here are over 22 years old? Or easier, how many are under? So as I look around I see that most of us have been youth, young adults, or grown during the past 12 years. I ask you, how many invasions of other peoples’ countries are we as a nation willing to allow?

We have invaded, occupied, bombed at least 7 countries over the past 12 years. That’s more then one every two years. And now we know that Bush, I mean Obama is about to invade another country.

Who gives a fuck who were the ones who used chemical weapons in Syria and how DARE our government use this horrible slaughter to justify using military force to kill more human beings?

Our government should be taking immediate steps to shut down all U.S. weapons manufacturers in this country and in any other country these manufacturers are using slave labor and no- or deregulation to manufacture weapons.

Our government should be taking immediate steps to halt the export of all chemical weapons to other countries. Our government should be dismantling any U.S. corporation involved in the production, distribution of these weapons.

We should be going to Syria, in our every day clothes, with our arms full of food, medical supplies, shovels, love, asking the people of Syria how we can help, offering our services and resources in any way they want.

We should be going to Syria and offering, no demanding, to buy back any chemical weapons, any weapons of war and violence – especially the 65% of which are produced by us – and destroy those weapons once and for all.

We should be doing anything other than another military invasion.

Womyn raise your fists, and take one giant step forward. Now shout with me: “I will lead” “I will lead”

 Men raise your fists and take one step backward. Now shout with me “I will follow”, “I will follow”

We have to return to the activism of 40 and 50 years ago: and the organizing – we MUST take to the streets, we must go knocking door-to-door, to setting up ironing boards on busy corners, to parks, to churches/synagogues/mosques, to buses and barts, PTA meetings, coffee houses, high schools and colleges, every fucking where.

We must EDUCATE, AGITATE, ORGANIZE! Fuck pursuing the amerikkkan nitemare! Pursue the fight to demolish injustice, violence, inequity that our amerikkkan nitemare produces; that our amerikkkan nitemare has to promote; that is as entwined with our amerikkkan nitemare as salt is entwined in the ocean.

EDUCATE, AGITATE, ORGANIZE!