When will we listen?

I am reminded of that anonymous quote: "Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everybody agrees that it is old enough to know better." It's not really Déjà Vu, all over, again... is it?

Something to think about:

We Still Don’t Hear Him

Bob Herbert, NYT:

“I come to this magnificent house of worship tonight,” said the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “because my conscience leaves me no other choice.”

This was on the evening of April 4, 1967, almost exactly 43 years ago. Dr. King told the more than 3,000 people who had crowded into Riverside Church that silence in the face of the horror that was taking place in Vietnam amounted to a “betrayal.”

He spoke of both the carnage in the war zone and the toll the war was taking here in the United States. The speech comes to mind now for two reasons: A Tavis Smiley documentary currently airing on PBS revisits the controversy set off by Dr. King’s indictment of “the madness of Vietnam.” And recent news reports show ever-increasing evidence that we have ensnared ourselves in a mad and tragic venture in Afghanistan.

Dr. King spoke of how, in Vietnam, the United States increased its commitment of troops “in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support.”

It’s strange, indeed, to read those words more than four decades later as we are increasing our commitment of troops in Afghanistan to fight in support of Hamid Karzai, who remains in power after an election that the world knows was riddled with fraud and whose government is one of the most corrupt and inept on the planet. [...]

His bold stand seems all the more striking in today’s atmosphere, in which moral courage among the very prominent — the kind of courage that carries real risk — seems mostly to have disappeared.

More than 4,000 Americans have died in Iraq and more than 1,000 in Afghanistan, where the Obama administration has chosen to escalate rather than to begin a careful withdrawal. Those two wars, as the Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz and his colleague Linda Bilmes have told us, will ultimately cost us more than $3 trillion.

And yet the voices in search of peace, in search of an end to the “madness,” in search of the nation-building so desperately needed here in the United States, are feeble indeed.

Dr. King would be assassinated exactly one year (almost to the hour) after his great speech at Riverside Church. It’s the same terrible fate that awaits some of the American forces, most of them very young, that we continue to send into the quagmire in Afghanistan.

“I think that people want peace so much that one of these days government had better get out of their way and let them have it.”

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

Remembering Bobby

Robert F. Kennedy
November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968

Tribute By Senator Edward M. Kennedy

St. Patrick's Cathedral
NYC – June 8, 1968

"The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects. Rather it will belong to those who can blend vision, reason and courage in a personal commitment to the ideals and great enterprises of American Society.

"Our future may lie beyond our vision, but it is not completely beyond our control. It is the shaping impulse of America that neither fate nor nature nor the irresistible tides of history, but the work of our own hands, matched to reason and principle, that will determine our destiny. There is pride in that, even arrogance, but there is also experience and truth. In any event, it is the only way we can live."

This is the way he lived. My brother need not be idealized, or enlarged in death beyond what he was in life, to be remembered simply as a good and decent man, who saw wrong and tried to right it, saw suffering and tried to heal it, saw war and tried to stop it.

Those of us who loved him and who take him to his rest today, pray that what he was to us and what he wished for others will some day come to pass for all the world.

As he said many times, in many parts of this nation, to those he touched and who sought to touch him:

"Some men see things as they are and say why.
I dream things that never were and say why not."

May Your Days Be Merry

Let Christmas not become a thing
Merely of merchant's trafficking,
Of tinsel, bell and holly wreath
And surface pleasure, but beneath
The childish glamour, let us find
Nourishment for heart and mind.
Let us follow kinder ways
Through our teeming human maze,
And help the age of peace to come.

~Madeline Morse

From Sea to Shining Sea

Antiwar activist and Vietnam war veteran Ron Kovic, Singer Jackson Browne and actor Mike Farrell marched for Peace in Los Angeles.

Cindy Sheehan with Ron Kovic

San Francisco protestors of the war head to Embarcadero

NBF

March On

Jeff in VA has a whole album of pictures from today's protest in DC.

Rep. Maxine Waters D-CA, Jesse Jackson,
Rep. Lynne Woolsey D-CA and Mayor Rocky Anderson (Utah)

AMERICAblog has some pictures and video, well worth look at.

Tracy Joan has a post up on Daily Kos. Her flicker is here.

RenaRF's post is also worth looking at as we thank them for sharing their pictures with all of us.

NBF

Calling for Peace

Certainly most people won't be reading this post because they are emerging on our Nation's Capital. But just in case you were unable to attend this historic event, it can be viewed on C-Span.

C-Span will cover it from 11:00 am to 2:15 pm

Some of the confirmed speakers are Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Jane Fonda, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Reps. Kucinich, Rep. Waters, and Rep. Woolsey.

Wapo has some earlier pictures.

Truer words were never written than by Medea Benjamin - read the whole thing, but the beginning says it all:

The January 27 anti-war rally in Washington DC could have become yet another symbolic peace march in the freezing cold through a city where no one was listening. But then two things happened: On November 7, the voters gave Congress an unmistakable mandate to end the war. And George Bush, ignoring the will of the voters, the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, and the advice of his own generals, announced an escalation of the war.

People who had planned to watch this protest on C-Span from the comfort of their homes are now cramming onto buses, planes and trains to converge on the nation’s capitol. Thanks to George Bush’s latest blunder, we’re now expecting the biggest march in Washington DC since the war began.

NBF

Democratic SOTU Response

UPDATE:

A YouTube version of the response by Sen. Webb.

The joint statement released by Pelosi and Reid.

Some facts debunking parts of the 2007 State Of The Union.

_ _ _ _ _

Here is the text of the Democratic response (as prepared for delivery) to the State of the Union address given by Senator Jim Webb.

Good evening.

I'm Senator Jim Webb, from Virginia, where this year we will celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown – an event that marked the first step in the long journey that has made us the greatest and most prosperous nation on earth.

It would not be possible in this short amount of time to actually rebut the President's message, nor would it be useful. Let me simply say that we in the Democratic Party hope that this administration is serious about improving education and healthcare for all Americans, and addressing such domestic priorities as restoring the vitality of New Orleans.

Further, this is the seventh time the President has mentioned energy independence in his state of the union message, but for the first time this exchange is taking place in a Congress led by the Democratic Party. We are looking for affirmative solutions that will strengthen our nation by freeing us from our dependence on foreign oil, and spurring a wave of entrepreneurial growth in the form of alternate energy programs. We look forward to working with the President and his party to bring about these changes.

There are two areas where our respective parties have largely stood in contradiction, and I want to take a few minutes to address them tonight. The first relates to how we see the health of our economy – how we measure it, and how we ensure that its benefits are properly shared among all Americans. The second regards our foreign policy – how we might bring the war in Iraq to a proper conclusion that will also allow us to continue to fight the war against international terrorism, and to address other strategic concerns that our country faces around the world.

When one looks at the health of our economy, it's almost as if we are living in two different countries. Some say that things have never been better. The stock market is at an all-time high, and so are corporate profits. But these benefits are not being fairly shared. When I graduated from college, the average corporate CEO made 20 times what the average worker did; today, it's nearly 400 times. In other words, it takes the average worker more than a year to make the money that his or her boss makes in one day.

Wages and salaries for our workers are at all-time lows as a percentage of national wealth, even though the productivity of American workers is the highest in the world. Medical costs have skyrocketed. College tuition rates are off the charts. Our manufacturing base is being dismantled and sent overseas. Good American jobs are being sent along with them.

In short, the middle class of this country, our historic backbone and our best hope for a strong society in the future, is losing its place at the table. Our workers know this, through painful experience. Our white-collar professionals are beginning to understand it, as their jobs start disappearing also. And they expect, rightly, that in this age of globalization, their government has a duty to insist that their concerns be dealt with fairly in the international marketplace.

In the early days of our republic, President Andrew Jackson established an important principle of American-style democracy – that we should measure the health of our society not at its apex, but at its base. Not with the numbers that come out of Wall Street, but with the living conditions that exist on Main Street. We must recapture that spirit today.

And under the leadership of the new Democratic Congress, we are on our way to doing so. The House just passed a minimum wage increase, the first in ten years, and the Senate will soon follow. We've introduced a broad legislative package designed to regain the trust of the American people. We've established a tone of cooperation and consensus that extends beyond party lines. We're working to get the right things done, for the right people and for the right reasons.

With respect to foreign policy, this country has patiently endured a mismanaged war for nearly four years. Many, including myself, warned even before the war began that it was unnecessary, that it would take our energy and attention away from the larger war against terrorism, and that invading and occupying Iraq would leave us strategically vulnerable in the most violent and turbulent corner of the world.

I want to share with all of you a picture that I have carried with me for more than 50 years. This is my father, when he was a young Air Force captain, flying cargo planes during the Berlin Airlift. He sent us the picture from Germany, as we waited for him, back here at home. When I was a small boy, I used to take the picture to bed with me every night, because for more than three years my father was deployed, unable to live with us full-time, serving overseas or in bases where there was no family housing. I still keep it, to remind me of the sacrifices that my mother and others had to make, over and over again, as my father gladly served our country. I was proud to follow in his footsteps, serving as a Marine in Vietnam. My brother did as well, serving as a Marine helicopter pilot. My son has joined the tradition, now serving as an infantry Marine in Iraq.

Like so many other Americans, today and throughout our history, we serve and have served, not for political reasons, but because we love our country. On the political issues – those matters of war and peace, and in some cases of life and death – we trusted the judgment of our national leaders. We hoped that they would be right, that they would measure with accuracy the value of our lives against the enormity of the national interest that might call upon us to go into harm's way.

We owed them our loyalty, as Americans, and we gave it. But they owed us – sound judgment, clear thinking, concern for our welfare, a guarantee that the threat to our country was equal to the price we might be called upon to pay in defending it.

The President took us into this war recklessly. He disregarded warnings from the national security adviser during the first Gulf War, the chief of staff of the army, two former commanding generals of the Central Command, whose jurisdiction includes Iraq, the director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and many, many others with great integrity and long experience in national security affairs. We are now, as a nation, held hostage to the predictable – and predicted – disarray that has followed.

The war's costs to our nation have been staggering.

Financially.

The damage to our reputation around the world.

The lost opportunities to defeat the forces of international terrorism.

And especially the precious blood of our citizens who have stepped forward to serve.

The majority of the nation no longer supports the way this war is being fought; nor does the majority of our military. We need a new direction. Not one step back from the war against international terrorism. Not a precipitous withdrawal that ignores the possibility of further chaos. But an immediate shift toward strong regionally-based diplomacy, a policy that takes our soldiers off the streets of Iraq's cities, and a formula that will in short order allow our combat forces to leave Iraq.

On both of these vital issues, our economy and our national security, it falls upon those of us in elected office to take action.

Regarding the economic imbalance in our country, I am reminded of the situation President Theodore Roosevelt faced in the early days of the 20th century. America was then, as now, drifting apart along class lines. The so-called robber barons were unapologetically raking in a huge percentage of the national wealth. The dispossessed workers at the bottom were threatening revolt.

Roosevelt spoke strongly against these divisions. He told his fellow Republicans that they must set themselves "as resolutely against improper corporate influence on the one hand as against demagogy and mob rule on the other." And he did something about it.

As I look at Iraq, I recall the words of former general and soon-to-be President Dwight Eisenhower during the dark days of the Korean War, which had fallen into a bloody stalemate. "When comes the end?" asked the General who had commanded our forces in Europe during World War Two. And as soon as he became President, he brought the Korean War to an end.

These Presidents took the right kind of action, for the benefit of the American people and for the health of our relations around the world. Tonight we are calling on this President to take similar action, in both areas. If he does, we will join him. If he does not, we will be showing him the way.

Thank you for listening. And God bless America.

John Edwards on "Realizing the Dream"

UPDATE: 1/23/07

My apologies to those who have been deceived and misled here by Toby Harnden, of blogs.telegraph.co.uk, and were expecting to see a post wherein John Edwards does any direct "slapping" of Hillary Clinton.

This post is about responsibility, accountability and standing up for doing the correct things when leaders of this country deceive and mislead us into a wrong war against a country that did not attack us, about those who have gone wrong by remaining silent about it, about those that still continue to support this wrong war and about taking a stand for working towards Peace on our planet.

If Mr. Toby Harnden is man enough to stand up and also do the correct thing and take responsibility and accountability for himself in regard to my calling him out for abusing my post in such a manner, he is certainly invited to place his most humble apology in the comment section.

* * * * *

On another note, Night Bird's Fountain most certainly and sincerely does appreciate the recognition this post was given in Chris Richardson’s post at the John Edwards blog. Thank you.

* * * * *

"I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed..."

~Martin Luther King, Jr., on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

John Edwards "Realizing The Dream" Ceremony

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. was above all things a Man of Peace. Forty years ago as others have said a year to the day before Dr. King was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee he stood in the Riverside Church and with the full force of his conscience and his conviction and his love for Peace he denounced the war. He called it a national tragedy. That threatened to drag American down. To drag us to dust.

As Dr. King said then: "There comes a time, not just for Dr. King but for all of us, when silence is betrayal. Not just betrayal of your own personal convictions, not just betrayal of your country, but a betrayal of our, all of our joint responsibility to each other, to our brothers and sisters, not just in America, but all across the globe."

Actually, the thing John Edwards remembered most about that sermon, is that Dr. King did not direct his demands to the Goverment of USA which was about to escalate the war in Vietnam, instead he spoke to the American People. Calling on us to break our silence. Calling on us to except our own responsibility. And to help lead what he spoke of as a revolution of values. A revolution whose starting place is with each of us, but the force of that revolution is the belief that we cannot, cannot stand by and hope that someone else will right the wrongs of the world. This is my view. It is the heart and soul of realizing the dream.

There does come a time, for all of us, when silence is betrayal. There does come when we have to each one of us, refuse to wait for others to act.

A moment when we realize as Ghandi said to Dr. King, "We have to be the change they will see in the world." That time is here again. It is with us today and Dr. King taught us well. It is a betrayal to stand silent, and watch 37 Million of our own brother and sisters, who literally worry about surviving every single day. It is a betrayal to stand silent while the disperity between the rich and the poor gets worse and worse and worse. In America in the richest nation on the face of the planet.

It is betrayal, not to speak out against an escalation of the War in Iraq. The issue is not only how we got into Iraq but how do we get out of Iraq.

The best way to make clear that we are leaving Iraq, and the best way to make clear is to actually start leaving Iraq.

It is why Congress must step up now and stop this President from putting more troops in harms way.

If you are in Congress, and you know that this war is going in the wrong direction, and you know that we should not escalate this war in Iraq. It is not longer OK to study your options and keep your own private counsel. Silence is betrayal. Speak out and stop this escalation now. You have the power, Members of Congress to prohibit this President from spending any money to escalate this war.

USE THAT POWER, use it now. Do not allow this president to make another mistake and escalate this war in Iraq.

Listen to the speech here.

View the speech at YouTube, recorded at Riverside Church in New York on Sunday, January 14, 2007.

Read about the speech at the New York Times.

* * * * *

John Edwards released the following statement today in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day:

Today, we honor the life and work of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - a man of faith and fiery principle; a man of profound conscience; and above all, a man of peace.

As I said yesterday at the Realizing the Dream celebration at the historic Riverside Church in Harlem, now is the time to heed Dr. King's charge that no patriot stands silent when he or she sees injustice, inequality, or -- as he saw then and as we see now -- a wrong-headed escalation of war.

Today, as President Bush prepares to escalate the war in Iraq, I reiterate Dr. King's message from forty years ago: Silence is betrayal. I hope every American who hears these words takes them as a personal challenge to speak out and do what he or she knows is right.

You can speak up with Senator Edwards and honor the memory of Martin Luther King -- sign the petition to block funding for escalation and call your senators directly.

Click here to find your senators' phone number.

Waiting for Peace

On this Christmas Eve
As the world prepares
The hope is in what we have already learned.
That every man is our brother,
Every woman is our sister,
And every child is ours.

War has brought forth
The killing of our neighbors
We now see the scars on the people
And scars upon the lands
And perhaps the scar upon our dream.

We dream for peace
For all mankind.
We dream that the killing cease
On the souls and upon the land.

One can find that dream ever present
When they listen to the music.
It brings the hope of our dreams
as we listen to the notes played.

We truly are waiting....For PEACE!

A Christmas Wish

What is Christmas?

It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future.

It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace. ~Agnes M. Pharo