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Video Transcript: Zeese & Sheehan - 9/28/05 |
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Monday, 10 October 2005 |
The Iraq War: The Effects at Home and
How We Can Change Politics in AmericanUniversity of Maryland at College Park, September 28, 2005
ZEESE: This is the defining mission of our times. REPORTER: And tonight, what do you hope to accomplish here in Maryland? SHEEHAN: I'm here to help my friend Kevin. ZEESE: She's going to make the anti-war issue a major issue in the Maryland election. ZEESE: I hope people will vote for what they believe in and not for what they fear. Vote for their hope that the war will end, I think that Cindy being here gives me a chance to tell a lot of people that. People in the media, people in the audience here, let them know that there are actually options. You're not going to be stuck with two pro-war candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties. I'm a unity candidate that represents multiple parties advocating an end to the war and a more compassionate society. ZEESE: We see international trade agreements designed not to create real free trade - that's what they call them, but that's just one of those false terms, it is designed to empower international corporations, indeed to make international corporations more powerful than governments. A government can pass a labor law, or an environmental law, a consumer protection law, or a human rights law, and a corporation called the WTO can say "restraint on trade" and that law can be erased. The corporate interests are more powerful than the democratic governments. That's what our government is giving us, they are selling us out. They are selling us out. John McCain, who you met with today (gestures to Cindy Sheehan), described American politics as a "huge influence pedaling scheme where both parties conspire to sell the country to the highest bidder." Now you know you have a choice. You can be part of that system or you can challenge that system. I say its time to challenge that system. It's time to take our country back! Who represents the people in this democracy? The Congress? There was a poll released this summer that asked question, do you think your elected representatives represent your interests? Seventeen percent said "yes." We call ourselves the greatest democracy on earth, and eighty-three percent of the people feel like the elected officials don't represent us. Eighty-three percent unrepresented in this so-called greatest democracy on earth. In the Senate, not one Senator has spoken to stop the funding for the Iraq war, despite the majority of Americans saying its time to get out. Despite the majority saying its time to get out, not one Senator has spoken for the majority. Are we represented by that vote? I think not. We know our elected officials are failing us. They are failing us morally, they are failing us spiritually, economically, and with callous disregard for our fellow humans and the planet Earth. They are taking us down the wrong path. How do we change that direction? We must engage in the political process. We must engage in the electoral process. I never planned to be a candidate for anything. But after 30 years of working to try to improve this country, changing to end the war on drugs, trying to make sure there is a paper record for our voting, trying to make sure we have a fair economy, trying to end these obscene wars, the one lesson that I've learned - and its a sad lesson - is that you can have the facts on your side, you can have common sense on your side, you can have the majority of the people on your side, and our elected representatives will still ignore us. They will put the special interests before the people's interest, and that's what has to change. Now is the time to challenge them in their power, to threaten to take away their power. The only place to do that is in the electoral community. The first step to changing American politics is understanding that you can make a difference. You have the power. You have to use that power. Cindy Sheehan shows, one person can make a difference. SHEEHAN: I will never ever hear Casey's voice again. I will never ever be able to touch him, or hug him, or kiss him. For almost a year after he died every time the phone rang my heart would skip a beat, I would think it would be Casey. And then my heart would be broken again because I knew that he wouldn't be calling me. This is real life. I'll never get to see grandchildren from Casey. My future and Casey's future was robbed from him for lies, and that's what I tell Congress. The only way we can honor Casey's sacrifice is by bringing our troops home before any more families have to go through this. I know that's what Casey would want. Casey was a gentle, speak boy who did not want to go war, who told everybody that he could not kill anybody, and five days after he arrived in Baghdad he was killed himself. We need to end this before George Bush makes any more Gold Star Families. Thank you. ZEESE: This war was perceived by a government that is incapable of planning basic logistics. Soldiers are still without adequate armor three years into this war. By World War I we were finished, the war was over at this point. World War II, we were looking toward d-day. There are so many things to do. We have a congressmen in Maryland that need convinced, Congressman Ben Cardin for example, in Baltimore County, refuses to stop voting for the war. Refuses to support an exit strategy. He needs to know his constituents care about that. So let him know that. I have an interview coming out very soon on DemocracyRising.US between Ralph Nader and Reverend Sloan Coffin who is an antiwar activist from the Vietnam war era, and what Rev. Coffin says is because this is an immoral war where civilians are being killed, we need to get more aggressive. ZEESE: President Bush is the most impeachable president in our history. Not one member of Congress will stand up and say that. The most impeachable president in history and they won't say that. Do they think the president is above the law? Or is it because they know they are complicit? That they are part of the problem. What I will do if I am elected will be to take my 30 years of organizing and advocacy experience and hire the best organizers to work on the issues that I am going to focus on. And when I do that I will be inside the Senate organizing national movements to affect the Senate. And so finally the people have a foot in the door to try to change the outcome of these votes. And additionally because I won't be affiliated with either party, Democrat or Republican, both parties will receive my support, they won't know where I'm coming from, I'm not going to be a DLC Democrat, I'm not going to be a conservative Republican, they will have to convince me to get my vote. So my vote will be vied for in a very close Congress. The combination of organizing and being independent, as a result of being independent I will not be controlled by the party leadership, I'll be able to tell the truth to the American people. From sea to shining sea, this is our country. This is supposed to be your government, this is not supposed to be their government.
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