U.S.Ê Representative Dennis J.Ê Kucinich

Swearing-In Ceremony Speech

Sunday, January 5, 2003

Cleveland, Ohio

 

 

ÊMy fellow Americans, in this ceremony we recognize the power of the

people in a democracy to create self-government.Ê For you have truly

lifted me, as a lowly servant, up from your midst to serve our

nation.Ê You have entrusted in me the duties of national service.

You have asked me to stand as a sentinel to safeguard our rights.

You have expected me to tell the truth, even if that truth shall

disturb established economic, political and social structures.Ê I

accept your trust with humility and with resolve.Ê I shall proceed inÊ

my duties each day with courage, with unshakable faith and with love

of you, my dear constituents, love of our country, love of freedom

and love of our brothers and sisters worldwide.

 

For the America I envision seeks world unity instead of

unilateralism.ÊÊ It gains its power through being the first to help,

not the first to strike.Ê It extends itself to the peoples of the

world to lift their burden.Ê It is an America, which when asked for

help, dispenses bread instead of bombs, medical assistance instead of

missiles, and food instead of fissile materials.

 

There is a role for America in the world.Ê It is in working with the

community of nations to achieve the security of all nations.Ê It is

in restoring the promise of the Non Proliferation Treaty to lead the

way to get rid of all nuclear weapons.Ê It is in helping to assure

international order.Ê It is through strengthening and abiding by

international treaties.Ê It is in assuring control and eventual

elimination of biological and chemical weapons, and landmines.Ê It is

in protecting our global climate by cooperating with the rest of the

world in reducing carbon emissions.

 

America can help protect the world.Ê America can help save the world.

But America cannot control the world, nor should we want to do so.

 

Yet our Administration would project American power for the purpose

of domination.Ê Their National Security doctrines call for America to

strike anywhere it pleases and to be the first to use nuclear weapons.

 

Our nation is now poised to go to all-out war against Iraq.Ê Iraq has

not committed any act of aggression against the United States.Ê Iraq

was not responsible for 911.Ê No credible evidence exists linking

Iraq to Al Queda's role in 911.Ê Iraq was not responsible for the

anthrax attack on our nation.Ê The United Nations has yet to

establish that Iraq has usable weapons of mass destruction.Ê There is

no intelligence that Iraq has the ability to strike at the United

States.Ê According to the CIA, Iraq has no intention to attack

America, but will defend itself if attacked.

 

Why then, is our nation prepared to send three hundred thousand of

our young men and women into house to house combat in the streets of

Baghdad and Basra? Why is our nation prepared to spend $200 billion

or more of our hard-earned tax dollars for the destruction of Iraq?

 

Why is our nation preparing to use the most powerful military machine

in history to wage an assault against the people of Iraq, to destroy

their houses and buildings, to wipe out their water and electric

systems and to block their access to food and medical supplies?

 

There is no answer which can separate itself from oil economics,

profit requirements of arms trade, or distorted notions of

empire-building.

 

War with Iraq is wrong.Ê But if war is prosecuted further in Iraq, we

must be prepared to advance the cause of peace in this country.Ê We

must be prepared to stand up, to speak out, to organize, to march, to

demand an end to the war, or to demand an end to an administration

which insists on war.

 

It is urgent we oppose this war.Ê It will dominate our nation's

priorities.Ê It will threaten Social Security.Ê It will threaten

Medicare.Ê It will block a prescription drug benefit for the elderly.

It will stop America from providing jobs for all, health care for

all, education for all.

 

There are some who believe that it is unpatriotic to challenge the

Administration on the war.Ê They believe it is politically wiser to

debate the economy.Ê But how can one reasonably separate war from the

budget, war from the economy, war from America's ability to meet the

needs of the people of this nation?

 

The Administration's own top economic adviser said the war could cost

up to $200 billion.Ê Our federal budget is already close to a $200

billion deficit due to huge tax cuts for the wealthy.Ê Remember when

Êwe had a budget surplus?

 

Each time the administration talks about war, fear is created and

when fear goes up, the market goes down.Ê War will mean a sharp

increase in oil prices, which will hurt jobs in manufacturing and

transportation.ÊÊ One economic study with a worst-case scenario puts

the cost of an all-out war, plus long-term occupation of Iraq at $1.6

trillion.

 

You cannot separate war from the economy.Ê You cannot separate war

from America's future, from its role in the world and its ability to

meet the needs of our own people here at home.

 

We need to ask the questions: Why does America have hundreds of

billions to ruin the health and take the lives of innocent people in

Iraq but no money to provide health care for all Americans?

 

Why would America spend hundreds of billions to retire Saddam

Hussein, but no money to protect the retirement security of its own

people?

 

Why does America have money to blow up bridges over the Euphrates

River in Iraq, but no money to build up bridges over the Cuyahoga

River in Cleveland?

 

The path America must take is one of peace which leads to prosperity.

It is one which understands that creating a structure of peace

ensures that economic structures can be sound, affirmative of human

needs and restorative of human values.

 

This is the dream of a Department of Peace which can help America

take the first step towards making nonviolence an organizing

principle in our society -- making the work of Dr.Ê Martin Luther

King Jr.Ê a reality -- and working to make war itself a thing of the

past.Ê It is this ethic of peace seeking and peace building which

will cause us to take down weapons from the heavens and work to

create a heaven on earth full of new possibilities.

 

Peace and prosperity shall be as two pillars in a newly rebuilt

America which provides for the economic and social security of its

own people as a cause of nationhood and for the economic and social

progress of peoples of other lands as a cause of brotherhood.

 

This confirmation of the purpose of nation was the dream of Franklin

John F.Ê Kennedy and the New Frontier.Ê This shall continue to be our

dream in the days ahead, that no matter the darkness, we shall hold

up the light of America's higher purpose, which calls to us across

the ages from Washington.Ê Jefferson and Adams through Lincoln to the

present day.

 

Our nation has always had a higher calling, despite the darkness of

911 and the official response to it.ÊÊ It is a calling to maintain

the quest for democracy, for freedom and liberty at times of peril as

well as in times of peace.Ê We can sense that higher calling.Ê That

higher calling is our heritage.Ê The words of Francis Scott Key still

echo:

 

ÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊÊ "Oh say does that Star Spangled Banner yet wave, o'er the land

of the free and the home of the brave?"

 

In this he celebrated the link between freedom and bravery: That it

takes courage to live in a democracy.Ê It takes courage to stand up to

terrorists and maintain basic liberties.Ê It takes courage to lead the

way toward global disarmament while some are bent on destruction.

 

It takes patience to face dictators around the world and not be

tempted to bomb them into submission.Ê It takes wisdom to have great

power and to make gentle its presence in the world.

 

And it takes compassion to understand the plight of peoples world

wide who themselves are trying to survive, to live out their own

humble lives despite having conditions which are challenging or

governments which are oppressive.

 

My friends.Ê This is still your government.Ê You have a right to have

a say in how its destiny is being charted.Ê That right derives from

our very Declaration of Independence, which claimed self-governance

as a basic right.Ê Government does not just happen in Washington, DC.

It is the result of a process which takes place in thousands of

cities, villages and townships.Ê It is also a process which also

takes place in our hearts, which is brought to life by our love of

country, and our love of each other.Ê It is your love which enables

me to carry those hopes and dreams forward.Ê And I shall do so

courageously in the days ahead.ÊÊ Thank you.

 

------end speech by:

 

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

DKucinich@aol.com

 

 

Hi Jon

 

I see you have placed a few of my articles on your site, for which I am very grateful and pleased, fellow Sirian!

 

Here's another - please feel free to use it and send it on as you wish.

 

Light and Love

 

Patricia

 

 

 

Where There is Light

By Patricia Cori

Author/channel of

The Sirian Revelations

www.sirianrevelations.net

 

 

 

 

Here we are Êanother year closes, another year opens and everywhere, our opportunities to co-create reality beckon to be brought to manifestation.

 

No doubt, there is untold chaos in our world Êwe are all-too-familiar with the rattling of sabres and the violence wars. Yet, as we gaze upon the horizon of human expression, we observe an incredible landscape of awakening souls, rising from the opium fields and standing for beauty, truth and the loving way. The brilliance of the human spirit shines everywhere around us Êthrough the shadows, through the dust, through the darkness itself.

 

It is simply a breathtaking thing to behold. Do you see what I see?

 

My life work as a healer and dedicated scribe to the Speakers of the Sirian High Council has brought me to the far corners of our glorious Planet Earth, assimilating the Earth Codes and learning the mysteries of the Ancients Êbarely scratching the surface of the deep fabric of our history and the mysteries of the Universe. Everywhere I have found the vestiges of the struggle of darkness and light, where man and deity have written the course of humankind upon the sands of time. We have triumphed Êwe have survived. We have been born again, born a-new. We have risen from the ashes, just as we rising now Êsoaring above the clouds knowingsure God IS.

 

OEThere is order in chaosÕ, say the Speakers. The divine imprint is laced throughout the most inconsonant layers of reality, just as the light of Spirit penetrates even the darkest corners of the Cosmos of Soul.

 

Now is a time to shake off all residual fear and the doubt that has been strewn in our path, inebriating many who have lost the way. It is a time to stand in our truth, perhaps as we never have before, and to call upon all others to stand in theirs, so that together we can raise the consciousness of the group soul Êbringing healing, bringing forgiveness, bringing illumination to the living of our world.

 

We are the caretakers of Gaia, each with an assignment Êeach with a keyÊ and it is our unity and voice that will bring our Earth back to Center, where the pendulum no longer swings its fury back and forth, holding us in the duality. We have a mission, we have a calling. Let us raise the flame!

 

Our mutating consciousness is crystallizing within us, at the cellular level, as our complex DNA filaments re-weave the light-coded strands of extradimensional intelligence. We are in the light, we are the lightÊ moving rapidly towards the New Dawn of civilization.

 

Where there is light, there is nothing to fear.

Only the wonder of a not-so-distant horizon, where harmony has been restored, is the realityÊ and it is there that we are headed.

Dear ones, be at peace Êyet fully consciousness, contributing what you can to the human experience and breathing life back into Gaia.

Ours is a beautiful world

Seek love, light and the greatness of humanity and you will find the beauty everywhere around you.

I, for one, will not be dragged into the valley of despair and powerlessness.

Will you join me?

Let us stand tall upon the mountaintop,

blowing the dark clouds away.

 

 

Please feel free to send this message onward ...