I participated in a rally and march in Toms River, Ocean County, New Jersey on September 15th in support of peace. It is so frightening to me that none of the mainstream candidates or their fans are stepping up and speaking out about the devastating effects of war and our military-industrial complex around the world.
Here is the text of my speech:
“When bombs fall from the sky and tanks plow through the land, what do people do? We run and try to find safety.
When global corporations drive down our wages, exploit our workers, pollute our water and soil, what do people do? Try to find survival and a future elsewhere.
We have always migrated, as have other species, when our homes are no longer livable. This is natural and this is our right.
In addition to the other damage done, the US military is a major contributor to climate change. Instead of doing anything to fix this, the military is preparing for the effects of climate change by shoring up their own defenses in their hundreds of bases around the world and finding ways to keep climate refugees in place in harm’s way.
The same military-industrial complex that is terrorizing and killing people and separating families around the world is also working to prevent people from fleeing for safety. Our government is not only militarizing our own borders, we are helping other countries to build walls and militarize their own borders, to keep refugees out and to bring profits to the manufacturers who are building the weapons, the ammunition, the vehicles, and the walls.
The biggest threat to this country does not come from abroad. It comes from within our own borders. From our reluctance to question what our government is doing in other countries. It comes from our blind allegiance to capitalism and the status quo. It comes from the anger and suffering of communities here that have been neglected for so long. It comes from partisan politics, where debates between candidates are more of a game of putdowns then a discussion of issues that affect us all. It comes from the xenophobia and misinformation put out continuously in the media, including social media. It comes from the increasing number and power of hurricanes and other climate-related disasters we face and the fact that this administration has diverted 100 million dollars from programs that can help us deal with these disasters, like FEMA and the Coast Guard, into ICE’s programs of detentions and deportations of people who are simply trying to find a better life for themselves and their families.
This is not the way to behave in a shared world where our differences are superficial but our needs are the same. We all need peace. We need shelter and clean water and food and security. War has never brought any of those things. War only brings more war. Cooperation and compassion can bring peace and allow us to provide for everyone so that there will be no more need for war and no need for borders to keep each other at a distance. We can achieve this. But only together, and so it’s great to see all these different movements come together and use your voices to demand real change in all the ways that we need right now. Thank you all for being here.”
The United States has neither the moral authority nor a people’s mandate to police the world. We have no business trying to influence other countries and change other cultures when we’ve failed our own so much. When we look at the poverty, hatred, xenophobia, inequality, racism, sexism, homophobia, illness, desolation, materialism, consumerism, pain and suffering and hopelessness in our own country, how can we say ours is a system worth exporting to the world?
We say that we are out there defending democracy, and we know this is a lie even as we’re selling it. But the profits are high and in this system, that’s what really matters.
No amount of profit is worth this violence to me. Is it worth it to you?
