Ron Kovic, who led the peace march down to the Pepsi Center, praised those in attendance and thanked them for the march today saying:
“Today was a wonderful day and a victorious day for us. They tried to stop us. They told us we couldn’t march on the Pepsi Center. They tried to silence us. They tried to silence dissent. They tried to silence democracy. But democracy triumphed today. You triumphed today. And dissent triumphed. They did not put us into a cage today. And for all those who were on the fence---for all those who might have been afraid to come to the demonstration today---because of all that you did, they have more courage and are ready to step over the line now because of what you did today. Not only people in Denver but people from all over this country and people all over this world were affected by what you did today. Remember that.”
Ron Kovic then proceeded to read the introduction from his autobiography “Born on the Fourth July”, which was possibly one of the most moving readings I have ever been present for in my life.
Jeremy Scahill later described how Ron Kovic actually blocked journalists from getting into the convention center when the march he led ended right in front of the Pepsi Center. He also addressed some of the illusions Obama supporters and Democrats are harboring right now.
“What we’re seeing here in Denver and as we are going to see in St. Paul is a microcosm of how this war operates and how this society operates. The corporations are in total control. The corporations are driving the agenda. When it comes to war and political conventions, there is not a Democratic Party and Republican Party. There’s a Corporatist Party, which represents both of those constituencies. And as much as the rhetoric of the Obama campaign is about hope and change, he put the nail in the coffin of any honesty to that statement when he selected Joe Biden as his running mate.”
Scahill described how Joe Biden cheerleaded this war from the very start and cited the fact that Biden was the Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 2002 and refused to call any witnesses to testify at those crucial hearings that he chaired that would say anything different than bomb the hell out of Iraq or bomb them and invade them. (*This is worth an article, which I intend to write next week after the convention is over.)
Cynthia McKinney came on and praised World Can’t Wait for having this event and really being on target. She went on to say thank you to everyone who has accepted her.
“Thank you to everyone who has accepted me because I really did make a gross mistake. I started out my political career as a Democrat. And I really believed in the Democratic Party. How silly I was?”
McKinney said “what she saw inside the Democratic Party was really the way this notion of empire worked.”
“Inside the belly of the beast, however, I was able to see this phenomenon of hollow women of the hegemon. I supported Nancy Pelosi as she sought to rise in the House of Representatives. And I thought that my support for Nancy Pelosi was reflection of the values that I had. Maybe they were a reflection of the values, but what I learned is that women don’t automatically don’t automatically share the values that we think ought to be prevailing in our public policy. And so Nancy Pelosi has become one of these breeds of these hollow women of the hegemon.”
She didn’t stop with Nancy Pelosi.
“These hollow women of the hegemon. These women like Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice, whom at first we thought were going to represent the nobler ideals of this country and then they sought to betray them. And they actively betrayed them when Madeleine Albright that the price was worth it, the price of half a million Iraqi children dead. The price was worth it. And Condoleezza Rice prancing around on the international stage, an African-American woman, a betrayal of everything the civil rights movement stood for---A betrayal of all the people of color and all the people who had confidence in her.”
She moved on to Jane Harman and assailed her for putting together the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. She highlighted how this bill that would control how people use the Internet used the community of example 7 young men who were mostly poor and Haitian in Miami to justify the organization of such an act.
The young men were accused of plotting to attack the Sears Tower in Chicago, but the Liberty City 7 were not found guilty, but the government is trying a third time now to find some way to find them guilty despite two trials that have failed.
Cindy Sheehan came up after Cynthia and asked, “What the hell’s the matter with this country?” Recounting her day, she described how she had been feeling sick. She talked about a person following her around who came up to her and told her that her son is fighting in Iraq so that she can have free speech. She said she responded to that by saying, “That’s bullshit! Your son’s fighting for oil companies and war profiteers could get rich.”
She wasn’t out on the streets too long and chose not to march to the Pepsi Center due to health reasons. She told us how when she returned to the hotel she found her door open and a person holding her hotel phone and a screwdriver. And she said, “What the hell are you doing? Are you trying to rewire my phone?” And he said, “Uh, no, we’re having phone problems.” She responded, “What are you gonna do? Open it up and rewire the circuits?” And she called the front desk who said that they were indeed having phone problems.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
