It's More Important Than Ever: Speaking Out in NYC

First published August 2004


Explaining the decision to use three-year-old information to raise the alert status to Code Orange, George Bush told the country, "We are a nation in danger."

And so we are.

Bush was talking about the threat of terrorism. And it's real, to be sure. But just as real is the ominous threat looming large over the vast majority of Americans nationwide - the danger of losing a viable future for our children due to the disastrous environmental, fiscal, social, and international policies that are the Bush Agenda. But this agenda supplies more than a threat; far too many of us are already living the loss of a viable present. Countless numbers of our nation¹s children currently find themselves in dilapidated school rooms with outdated books and underpaid teachers, their promised monies diverted to war. Our veterans find the thanks they get for risking their lives is a greatly reduced benefits package. Workers of all kinds are laboring in an environment that until recently was unthinkable, no longer guaranteed overtime pay or guaranteed a safe working environment. The middle class and poor find a downturn in their economic picture, with any upturn only felt by the wealthiest 2%. And each and every one of us breathe increasingly unsafe air and drink unsafe water due to Bush¹s relaxation of more than 200 environmental regulations.

The threat of the Bush agenda extends beyond our borders. Waging two wars in four years, the Bush administration has irreparably harmed the lives of the people of Afghanistan and Iraq, destroying infrastructure and economies, killing thousands of innocent people and torturing and detaining others. And in exploiting the tragedy of 9.11, implementing a policy of preemptive strikes and permanent war, backing out of treaties years in the making from the International Criminal Court Treaty to the Kyoto Protocol, Bush has squandered the good will of the world, violated international law, and imperiled global security.

In his statement, George Bush also proclaimed, "We have an obligation: When we find out something, we got to share it."

Like George Bush, activists and protestors of conscience, too, have an obligation. But, unlike Bush, ours is an obligation that all of us have to one another in this country and across the globe. And unlike Bush, it is not an obligation cloaked in an agenda of secrecy, lies and distortions, but it is an agenda of the people to speak out and to spread the word that another world outside of the Bush agenda is possible. Enough is enough. It's time to take our country back, to create policies that truly respect those at home and abroad.

That's why CodePink will join countless thousands of individuals, veterans, military families, faith-based groups, workers¹ rights groups, and organizations of all kinds who have come from across the country to speak out in NYC on August 29th. And that, too, is why CodePink has sounded a CodePink Alert in New York City that will reverberate through the election and beyond. But, leave your duct tape in the drawer. Our alert is not one of color-coded, self-serving fear-mongering. It doesn't ask us to be suspicious of one another, it doesn¹t bully nations, and it doesn¹t cater to the "haves and have-mores," Bush¹s self-proclaimed base. It¹s a call for compassion-in-action, for people of all ages and races and agendas to set aside their differences and come together to sift through the rhetoric, the doublespeak, and the distortions and get down to what's really going on and what we can do about it. It's a call borne from the belief that in coming together in peaceful protest we show George Bush, the RNC, the country, and the world that so many of us say no to the Bush agenda.

In our protest we represent the innumerable Americans in every state who agree with us, those that the media so often fail to give voice to. We speak for the countless thousands who can¹t be with us, but who stand in solidarity in events, protests, rallies, and vigils nationwide. And in our protest we model the democracy our country was founded on. We remind the world that all of New York City and the U.S. is a free speech zone and the First Amendment is our permit. And in our protest we create a dialogue, an open door that aspires to be accessible to all, one that can lead us down a vastly different path than the treacherous one the Bush agenda is attempting to drag us down.