Speech by The Honorable Barbara Lee, Representative of California, Democrat

Speech by The Honorable Barbara Lee, Representative of California, Democrat

At the "No War on Iraq" March in San Francisco: Saturday, January 18, 2003.

"My Brothers and Sisters:

Thank you for being here today. Thank you for joining with people throughout the globe ---- people in Spain, and France, and Canada and Washington D.C. The silent majority has become the vocal majority because of you.

And today we come together to say NO! to the loss of innocent lives in a war that is totally unnecessary or needed. We come together to say NO! to a war against Iraq. It's wrong!

We are here today to say NO! to wasting hundreds of billions of dollars.

Hundreds of billions on a war that could go to educating our young people.

Hundreds of millions of dollars that could go to housing the homeless!

We are here to say NO! to a war against Iraq that would cost hundreds of billions of dollars that keeps us from insuring those 44 million people in America who need insurance coverage and health care.

And we're here today to say YES! to peace. YES, TO PEACE! That's what we're here today for.

George Bush has woken up a sleeping giant in our country.

And we come together today --- YES! ---- To honor, to say YES! to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. his vision--- his vision for eliminating the real axis of evil --- POVERTY, RACISM, AND WAR. We honor Dr. King's legacy.

And, you know, Dr. King recognized the costs of war in terms of human lives, in terms of costs to our economy.

Let me just read you a quote which Dr. King made over 35 years ago. He said, "In the wasteland of war, the expenditure of resources knows no restraints."

Now, that was nearly 35 years ago. He was a visionary. Let us honor him by making sure that we tell our government we want restraints on spending billions of dollars in a war that is senseless and useless against Iraq! We're not going to stand for it! WE'RE NOT GOING TO STAND FOR IT!

And now, this weekend, you are standing on a wasteland of war, but we don't have to throw ourselves in, and that's why you're here today. We don't have to lose ourselves, and our young people, and our country in this wasteland. You know what? Because we are fighting back. You are fighting back today. You are fighting back. You are fighting back.

It's not too late for this administration to heed our call. It's really not too late. Let us tell President Bush, and Secretaries Cheney, and Rumsfeld, and Powell that it takes leadership. It takes leadership to solve conflicts peacefully. Let us tell them to be real leaders. That's what they should do.

It does not take leadership to drop bombs. It does not take leadership to send our young men and women off to fight or die. It does not take leadership to do that. It takes leadership to solve the world's conflicts peacefully, and that's what you are here to tell our administration.

So today you carry Dr. King's legacy. You are ensuring that his prophesy becomes real this year, next year, and in the future, on behalf of our children of the world. Dr. King showed us a different way. He showed us a better way. You are showing us a better way. We can end poverty in this country and throughout the world. We can end it.

We must eliminate racism in this country and throughout the world. We must do that. We must do that.

Wasn't it insidious that President Bush on Dr. King's birthday, January 15th, came out against affirmative action. Wasn't that insidious of him to do that! How could he do that? How could he do that?

So, we're here to say NO! to Racism.

We're here to say, NO! to Poverty.

We're here to say that we insist that there be Peace in the world forever.

And finally let me just say one thing, my brothers and sisters: We're going to take back the House and the White House in 2004!"

Transcribed by e.c.harvey