[Reader-list] A STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE

[Harsh Kapoor]

[This was run as an ad in New York Times,27 January 2003, pages 16 & 17]

A STATEMENT OF CONSCIENCE

Not In Our Name

Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their
government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of
repression.

The signers of this statement call on the people of the U.S. to resist the
policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September
11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world.

We believe that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own
destiny, free from military coercion by great powers. We believe that all
persons detained or prosecuted by the United States government should have
the same rights of due process. We believe that questioning, criticism, and
dissent must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and
values are always contested and must be fought for.

We believe that people of conscience must take responsibility for what their
own governments do -- we must first of all oppose the injustice that is done
in our own name. Thus we call on all Americans to RESIST the war and
repression that has been loosed on the world by the Bush administration. It
is unjust, immoral, and illegitimate. We choose to make common cause with
the people of the world.

We too watched with shock the horrific events of September 11, 2001. We too
mourned the thousands of innocent dead and shook our heads at the terrible
scenes of carnage -- even as we recalled similar scenes in Baghdad, Panama
City, and, a generation ago, Vietnam. We too joined the anguished
questioning of millions of Americans who asked why such a thing could
happen.

But the mourning had barely begun, when the highest leaders of the land
unleashed a spirit of revenge. They put out a simplistic script of “good vs.
evil” that was taken up by a pliant and intimidated media. They told us that
asking why these terrible events had happened verged on treason. There was
to be no debate. There were by definition no valid political or moral
questions. The only possible answer was to be war abroad and repression at
home.


In our name, the Bush administration, with near unanimity from Congress, not
only attacked Afghanistan but arrogated to itself and its allies the right
to rain down military force anywhere and anytime. The brutal repercussions
have been felt from the Philippines to Palestine, where Israeli tanks and
bulldozers have left a terrible trail of death and destruction. The
government now openly prepares to wage all-out war on Iraq -- a country
which has no connection to the horror of September 11. What kind of world
will this become if the U.S. government has a blank check to drop commandos,
assassins, and bombs wherever it wants?

In our name, within the U.S., the government has created two classes of
people: those to whom the basic rights of the U.S. legal system are at least
promised, and those who now seem to have no rights at all. The government
rounded up over 1,000 immigrants and detained them in secret and
indefinitely. Hundreds have been deported and hundreds of others still
languish today in prison. This smacks of the infamous concentration camps
for Japanese-Americans in World War 2. For the first time in decades,
immigration procedures single out certain nationalities for unequal
treatment.

In our name, the government has brought down a pall of repression over
society. The President’s spokesperson warns people to “watch what they say.”
Dissident artists, intellectuals, and professors find their views distorted,
attacked, and suppressed. The so-called Patriot Act -- along with a host of
similar measures on the state level -- gives police sweeping new powers of
search and seizure, supervised if at all by secret proceedings before secret
courts.

In our name, the executive has steadily usurped the roles and functions of
the other branches of government. Military tribunals with lax rules of
evidence and no right to appeal to the regular courts are put in place by
executive order. Groups are declared “terrorist” at the stroke of a
presidential pen.

We must take the highest officers of the land seriously when they talk of a
war that will last a generation and when they speak of a new domestic order.
We are confronting a new openly imperial policy towards the world and a
domestic policy that manufactures and manipulates fear to curtail rights.

There is a deadly trajectory to the events of the past months that must be
seen for what it is and resisted. Too many times in history people have
waited until it was too late to resist.

President Bush has declared: “you’re either with us or against us.” Here is
our answer: We refuse to allow you to speak for all the American people. We
will not give up our right to question. We will not hand over our
consciences in return for a hollow promise of safety. We say NOT IN OUR
NAME. We refuse to be party to these wars and we repudiate any inference
that they are being waged in our name or for our welfare. We extend a hand
to those around the world suffering from these policies; we will show our
solidarity in word and deed.

We who sign this statement call on all Americans to join together to rise to
this challenge. We applaud and support the questioning and protest now going
on, even as we recognize the need for much, much more to actually stop this
juggernaut. We draw inspiration from the Israeli reservists who, at great
personal risk, declare “there IS a limit” and refuse to serve in the
occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.

We also draw on the many examples of resistance and conscience from the past
of the United States: from those who fought slavery with rebellions and the
underground railroad, to those who defied the Vietnam war by refusing
orders, resisting the draft, and standing in solidarity with resisters.

Let us not allow the watching world today to despair of our silence and our
failure to act. Instead, let the world hear our pledge: we will resist the
machinery of war and repression and rally others to do everything possible
to stop it.


The over 40,000 signers include...
53 Maryknoll priests and brothers
James Abourezk
As`ad AbuKhalil, Professor, Cal State Univ, Stanislaus
Dr. Patch Adams
Michael Albert
Jace Alexander
Robert Altman
Aris Anagnos
Laurie Anderson
John Ashbery, poet
Edward Asner, actor
Jon Robin Baitz
Russell Banks, writer
John Perry Barlow, co-founder, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Rosalyn Baxandall, historian
Joel Beinen
Medea Benjamin, Global Exchange
Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies, New Internationalism Project
Jessica Blank, actor/playwright
William Blum, author
Theresa & Blase Bonpane, Office of the Americas
Fr. Bob Bossie, SCJ
Oscar Brown, Jr.
Judith Bulter
Leslie Cagan, chair, Interim Pacifica Foundation Board
Kisha Imani Cameron, producer
Henry Chalfant, author/filmmaker
Kathleen Chalfant
Bell Chevigny, writer
Paul Chevigny, professor of law, NYU
Noam Chomsky
Ramsey Clark
Ben Cohen, cofounder, Ben and Jerry's
David Cole, professor of law, Georgetown University
Robbie Conal
Stephanie Coontz, historian, Evergreen State College
Paula Cooper
Kia Corthron, playwright
Robert Creeley
Kimberly Crenshaw, professor of law, Columbia and UCLA
Culture Clash
Joan Cusack
John Cusack
Kevin Danaher, Global Exchange
Barbara Dane
Rev. Herbert Daughtry
Angela Davis
Ossie Davis
Zack de la Rocha
Mos Def
Ani Di Franco
Diane DiPrima
Mark Di Suvero
Julie Dorf, International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission
Carol Downer, board of directors, Chico (CA) Feminist Women's Health Center
Roma Downey
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, professor, California State University, Hayward
Bill Dyson, state representative, Connecticut
Michael Eric Dyson
Steve Earle, singer/songwriter
Barbara Ehrenreich
Deborah Eisenberg, writer
Hector Elizondo
Daniel Ellsberg
Brian Eno
Eve Ensler
Leo Estrada, UCLA professor, Urban Planning
Nina Felshin, author of But Is It Art?  The Spirit of Art as Activism
Frances D. Fergusson, president, Vassar College
Lawrence Ferlinghetti, City Lights Bookstore
Laura Flanders, radio host and journalist
Jane Fonda
Richard Foreman
Thomas C. Fox, publisher, National Catholic Reporter
Elizabeth Frank
Michael Franti, SpearHead
Glen E. Friedman
Bill Frisell
Terry Gilliam, film director
Milton Glaser
Charles Glass, journalist
Jeremy Matthew Glick, co-editor of Another World Is Possible
Corey Glover
Danny Glover
Danny Goldberg
Leon Golub, artist
Juan Gómez Quiñones, historian, UCLA
Vivian Gornick
Jorie Graham
André Gregory
John Guare, playwright
Allan Gurganus
Jessica Hagedorn
Sondra Hale, professor, anthropology and women's studies, UCLA
Suheir Hammad, writer
Nathalie Handal, poet and playwright
Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket)
Michael Hardt, author of Empire
Christine B. Harrington, Professor of Politics, NYU
David Harvey, distinguished professor of anthropology, CUNY Graduate Center
Stanley Hauerwas, theologian
Tom Hayden
Geoffrey Hendricks
Edward S. Herman, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
Susannah Heschel, professor, Dartmouth College
Fred Hirsch, vice president, Plumbers and Fitters Local 393
bell hooks
Doug Ireland, contributing editor, In These Times
Rakaa Iriscience, hip hop artist
Abdeen Jabara, attorney, past president, American Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee
Rev. Jesse Jackson
Mumia Abu-Jamal
Fredric Jameson, chair, literature program, Duke University
Harold B. Jamison, major (ret.), USAF
Jim Jarmusch
Erik Jensen, actor/playwright
Chalmers Johnson, author of Blowback
Bill T. Jones
Casey Kasem
Evelyn Fox Keller, history of science, MIT
Robin D.G. Kelly, history and Africana studies, NYU
Martin Luther King III, president, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Barbara Kingsolver
Arthur Kinoy, board co-chair, Center for Constitutional Rights
Sally Kirkland
C. Clark Kissinger, Refuse & Resist!
Yuri Kochiyama, activist
Annisette & Thomas Koppel, singers/composers
Barbara Kopple
David Korten, author
Ron Kovic
Barbara Kruger
Tony Kushner
James Lafferty, executive director, National Lawyers Guild/L.A.
Ray Laforest, Haiti Support Network
Beth K. Lamont, Corliss-Lamont.org
Jesse Lemisch, professor of history emeritus, John Jay College of Justice,
CUNY
Harriet Lerner
Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor, TIKKUN magazine
Phil Lesh, Grateful Dead
Richard Lewontin, Professor Emeritus of Biology, Harvard
Lucy R. Lippard
James Longley, Filmmaker
Barbara Lubin, Middle East Childrens Alliance
Janet L. Abu-Lughod
Staughton Lynd
Arturo Madrid, professor of humanities, Trinity University
Dave Marsh
Rabbi Robert Marx
Rep. Jim McDermott
Aaron McGruder
Rep. Cynthia McKinney
W.S. Merwin
Susan Minot
Anuradha Mittal, co-director, Institute for Food and Development Policy/Food
First
Malaquias Montoya, visual artist
Tom Morello
Robin Morgan
Viggo Mortensen
Minister Benjamín Muhammed, Hip-Hop Summit Action Network
Jill Nelson
Robert Nichols, writer
Linda Nochlin
Kate Noonan
Claes Oldenburg
Pauline Oliveros
Yoko Ono
Rev. E. Randall Osburn, exec. v.p., Southern Christian Leadership Conference

Ozomatli
Grace Paley
Michael Parenti
Jeremy Pikser, screenwriter
Frances Fox Piven, Graduate Center of the City University of New York
Katha Pollitt
James Stewart Polshek
Harold Prince
Jerry Quickley, poet
John T. Racanelli, Presiding Justice (Ret), California Court of Appeal
Bonnie Raitt
Margaret Randall
Marcus Raskin
Michael Ratner, president, Center for Constitutional Rights
Amy Ray, Indigo Girls
Rev. George Regas, Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace
Adrienne Rich
David Riker, filmmaker
Boots Riley, hip hop artist, The Coup
Kate Robin
James Rosenquist
Judith Rossner
Matthew Rothschild
Ed Sadlowski
Edward Said
Angelica Salas, director, Campaign for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los
Angeles
Luc Sante
Susan Sarandon
Saskia Sassen, professor, University of Chicago
John Sayles
Jonathan Schell, author and fellow of the Nation Institute
Carolee Schneemann, artist
Ralph Schoenman & Mya Shone, Council on Human Needs
Juliet Schor, director of women’s studies, Harvard
Annabella Sciorra
Pete and Toshi Seeger
Mark Selden, historian
Peter A. Serkin
Frank Serpico
Richard Serra
James Schamus
Rev. Al Sharpton
Wallace Shawn, playwright & actor
Martin Sheen
Ron Shelton, filmmaker
Alex Shoumatoff
Russell Simmons
John J. Simon, writer, editor
Kevin Smith
Kiki Smith, artist
Jack Steinberger, Nobel Laureate
Michael Steven Smith, National Lawyers Guild/NY
Norman Solomon, syndicated columnist and author
Scott Spenser
Nancy Spero, artist
Art Spiegelman
Starhawk
Bob Stein, publisher
Jack Steinberger, Nobel Laureate
Gloria Steinem
Oliver Stone
Mark Strand
William & Rose Styron
Peter Syben, major, US Army, retired
Ron Takaki, ethnic studies, Berkeley
Jonathan Tasini, president, National Writers Union, NYC
Michael Taussig, anthropology, Columbia
Tony Taccone, director
Studs Terkel
Marisa Tomei
Marcia Tucker, founding director emerita, New Museum of Contemporary Art, NY

Lief Utne
Nina Utne
Kinan Valdez, El Teatro Campesino
Coosje van Bruggen
Gore Vidal
Anton Vodvarka, Lt., FDNY (ret.)
Kurt Vonnegut
Alice Walker
Rebecca Walker
Naomi Wallace, playwright
Immanuel Wallerstein, sociologist, Yale University
Rev. George Webber, president emeritus, NY Theological Seminary
Leonard Weinglass, attorney
Cornel West
Haskell Wexler
John Edgar Wideman
Cora Weiss
C.K. Williams
Saul Williams, spoken word artist
S. Brian Willson, activist/writer
Jeffrey Wright, actor
Mary A. Zimmerman
Howard Zinn, historian

Organizations for identification only (partial list as of early December)

For more complete listing of signers, or to add your name to the statement,
see: http://www.nion.us/NION.HTM