Democracy is Under Attack—Let's Take it Back
Excerpts from a speech by former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney in
Harlem, N.Y., July 31, 2003
Our people are dying. On the streets of America our people are dying.
Gathered tonight in this room are people from all walks of life; and for
that reason, this is a very dangerous meeting for the powers that be. They
would like to see us divided. I'm not just saying that. They wrote that in
their COINTELPRO [FBI's domestic counterintelligence programs] papers; about
how they would keep blacks separated from each other, and separated from
Africans, and separated from other people of color, and most importantly,
separated from progressive activist whites. They wrote that they would
discredit black activists so they would lose favor within their community
and within our American community. They also wrote that they would replace
authentic black leaders with what they called "clean Negroes." whom they had
groomed to be more loyal to them than to us. Those aren't my words, they're
their words....
Dialogue must be followed by swift and deliberate action to root out racism
at its very core. From a California gas station to a Mississippi Lockheed
plant; from Cincinnati, Ohio to Benton Harbor, Michigan; to New York City,
New York. And in Belle Glade, Florida where a young black man was found
hanging from a tree, with his hands tied behind his back and the authorities
call it suicide. In the 21st Century, America's trees still bear Strange
Fruit....
And so, placing troops in Cincinnati Ohio or in Benton Harbor to restore
calm and "protect property" is about as helpful for the resolution of the
problems of Ohio, or Michigan, or for that matter Black America as it is to
place US troops in Liberia to resolve the problems on West Africa's oil-rich
shore. Or, for that matter, in the hot, oil-rich desert sands of Iraq. And
while the South Bend Tribune blared on its editorial page that Benton Harbor
rioters must be held accountable, who will blare, if not us, that America
must be held accountable for the sick and depraved conditions under which
millions of our people now live.
Moreover, since that newspaper called for "accountability," I wonder, have I
ever seen that word in the corporate press when describing the Bush
Administration? I'm wondering where are the no-knock warrants for the
Carlyle Group, Enron, DynCorp, Halliburton, Worldcom, HealthSouth, all the
off-shore companies that fled our country to avoid paying taxes yet continue
to get billions in federal contracts? Where are their no-knock warrants? And
further, on this matter of accountability. George Tenet recently "fell on
his sword" as they say, and took responsibility for the 16 untrue words that
happened to find their way into George Bush's State of the Union Address.
But who among this Administration will take responsibility for the tragic
events of September 11th and the tremendous intelligence failures that cost
the lives of thousands of people who lived and worked in New York City? Both
President Bush and Vice President Cheney asked Tom Daschle not to
investigate what went wrong on September 11th. To this day, that I know of,
no one in any decision-making position in the whole of this Administration
has accepted responsibility for failing the American people. Instead, from
this Administration we have obstruction, obfuscation, dissembling, and
deception.
Meanwhile, George Bush and Dick Cheney, who remain in office, have the nerve
to launch two simultaneous wars, at least one that is against international
law; award no-bid contracts to their friends in the defense industry; erode
our Constitution and our Bill of Rights; put Paul Wolfowitz in charge of
military tribunals (that same travesty of justice that we have excoriated
other countries for in the past); put a felon, convicted of lying to
Congress, in charge of our privacy; and lie about the rescue of Jessica
Lynch, as well as the landing of America's top gun-George W—on the deck of
the USS Abraham Lincoln, which supposedly was out at sea, but that was
really in San Diego harbor.
And this all comes after they stole the Presidency on the uncounted chads of
black and Latino voters in a scheme that was orchestrated at the top.
Republicans rewarded [Former Florida Secretary of State] Katherine Harris
with a Congressional seat.
In Georgia, 48,000 Republicans crossed over and voted in the Democratic
Primary for the black woman Republican that they had drafted to run in my
Democratic Primary. Georgia and national Democrats failed to protect the
integrity of their own primary. [Chairman of the Democratic National
Committee]Terry McAuliffe crows today about protecting [California Governor]
Gray Davis from any Democratic challenge in a primary, but where was he when
he could have protected this black loyal Democratic woman from a known
Republican shill acting for the Bush Administration?
[The text of an ad Cynthia McKinney is running in newspapers says] "Beware
the Land of Oz. For it is only in the land of Oz that a handful of
vainglorious men could send hundreds of thousands of young soldiers off to
fight in an illegal war. And only in the Land of Oz can The Grand Wizard
erode basic civil rights and call it enhanced security. And where but in Oz
could a felon, convicted of lying in public, be put in charge of Total
Information Awareness? 75 million Americans had no health insurance in 2001
or 2002. Unemployment is at an 8-year high. Meanwhile, at the Wizard's
court, men of dubious reputation gorge themselves at the people's expense.
Expose the Grand Wizard; this is our America, not Oz."
In 1776, it was King George III who drove the titans of the American colony
to write our Declaration of Independence. They wrote that there are certain
unalienable rights and that it is the responsibility of government to
protect, preserve, and promote these rights. However, in the words of its
signers, "when a long train of abuses and usurpations, . . . evinces a
design to reduce [a people to life] under absolute Despotism, it is their
right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new
Guards for their future security."
And with that, a rebellion became a revolution.
Back to Peace Talk Index, Fall,
2003