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Truth Spoken in US Capitol printable version

18 Mar 2011: posted by the editor - United States

On the week that we mark going into another year of war, two peace activists, Joy First and Malachy Kilbride, from the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance interrupted US Capitol tours in the rotunda. While on a tour the activists walked to the center of the rotunda and laid a funeral shroud on the spot where the US Presidents lie in state. They laid a copy of the US Constitution and Bill of Rights on top of the shroud and covered them. They read the statement below. Though the US Capitol police quickly surrounded them and questioned them, the activists were able to walk away. It is important for us to continue speaking out and know that we can do things like this and not get arrested.

"Attention fellow citizens, members of Congress, and friends. We are here today to express our call for peace, our broken heartedness over our wars, and the brokenness of our political system that does not listen to the will of we, the people, but to the military-industrial-corporate-security-congressional-complex which impoverishes us in so many ways.

"After 20 years of bombing and waging war on Iraq, almost 10 years of war with Afghanistan, the drone bombing of civilians in Pakistan, illegal detention and torture in Guantanamo, Bagram, and black sites, our violent intervention in the Americas, and military plans for Africa, we come to the Capitol Rotunda, referred to as 'The Temple of Liberty' because liberty and justice are values our government does not share with its people.

"For years we have in so many ways petitioned our congress calling for peace to no avail. They have depleted the people’s treasury because of their moral bankruptcy and service to wealthy corporate special interests and a war economy causing suffering and death to millions of innocent people all over the world.

"From the heartland of our republic to North Africa and the Middle East, to the actions of Veterans for Peace, the people are crying out for justice, showing the way to a better world. We are all a part of that interconnected struggle. Working people know that a sustainable world cannot be built through war and empire.

"Today we symbolically bury our Constitution and Bill of Rights to show that our elected leaders have abandoned the principles embodied in these documents. It is our hope that the people will now show the way to peace by raising up true justice and liberty from the ashes of war and destruction wrought by our leaders.

"It is clear. Now is the time. We must act!"

http://warisacrime.org/content/truth-spoken-us-capitol

Tags: US Consitution, Bill of Rights

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