MEDIA RELEASE October 4, 2006
For information Contact: Tom King: phone 801-502-8556
People for Peace and Justice of Utah Phone: 801-502-8556 Email: info@utahpeace.org
Websites: http://www.utahpeace.org; http://www.worldcantwait.net
PEOPLE FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE OF UTAH
WORLD CAN’T WAIT– DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME
Thursday, October 5: 5-7pm 100 South State Street
In Solidarity with Nationwide Protests In 143 Cities and Towns
SALT LAKE CITY AMONG 180 CITIES TO PROTEST OCT.5
WHERE: At 100 South State Street in Salt Lake City (one of over 180 communities across US and Canada)
WHAT: National Day of Mass Resistance. Thousands will leave school and work, to march and rally to halt the Bush program of war, torture, violation of rights, incompetence, lies and corruption. People for Peace and Justice of Utah will hold a sidewalk vigil to support the goals of the World Can’t Wait Campaign.
WHY: “The Bush regime is remaking the world, very quickly, in a fascist way and for generations to come. The whole disastrous course must be stopped and we must take responsibility to do it,” declares a World Can’t Wait ad running in USA Today, the New York Times, on MySpace and Air America radio. “Endless wars. Torture. Katrina. Theocracy: This regime does not represent us and we will drive it out.”
Thursday’s protests occur as Bush threatens a new war on Iran and Congress approves “Military Commissions Act of 2006. Presented as a compromise, this “torture bill” legally enshrines the President’s category of “enemy combatant,” allows evidence obtained by torture to be admitted to trial by military tribunals, gives the President the right to interpret the Geneva Conventions, and for those held by military commissions, eliminates the right of habeas corpus, established 7 centuries ago by the Magna Carta in 1215.
At emergency gatherings called by World Can’t Wait on Monday night in New York and San Francisco, ALICE WALKER, DANIEL ELLSBERG, CRAIG MURRAY, BILL GOODMAN, MARK RUFFALO, and OLYMPIA DUKAKIS called on Americans everywhere to take part in Thursday’s protests.
SEAN PENN sent a statement which was read by Mark Ruffalo at the NYC event: “At the U.S./Mexico border, we panic at the notion of illegal entry, without blinking an eye as our elderly line up every Saturday morning with wheelchairs, walkers, canes in the desert heat to enter Mexico where they can purchase affordable medication: Stand up as an American and join World Can’t Wait and those demonstrating this Thursday, October 5.” [See this and other news releases at http://www.worldcantwait.org, click on “Press”.]
Sunsara Taylor, a spokesperson from World Can’t Wait said: “Something new is rising in this country. In the last 2 weeks, protests have multiplied from 50 to over 180, nearly half in RED states including 10 Southern states, with 9 in Florida, 11 in North Carolina and 9 in Bush’s home state of Texas. People don’t want to live in a theocratic new Rome. People are fed up with this regime and waiting for the Democrats.”
Tens of thousands have signed ‘The World Can’t Wait” Drive Out the Bush Regime CALL,’ including GORE VIDAL, HARRY BELAFONTE, DANIEL ELLSBERG, EDWARD ASNER, MICHELLE PHILLIPS, JONATHAN KOZOL, FORMER SEN. JAMES ABOUREZK, ERICA JONG, U.S. REP. JOHN CONYERS, CRAIG MURRAY, RABBI MICHAEL LERNER, MARK CRISPIN MILLER, THOM HARTMANN, OLYMPIA DUKAKIS, JESSICA LANGE, KEVIN POWELL, MARGARET CHO, MICHAEL ERIC DYSON, SEAN PENN, CORNEL WEST, HOWARD ZINN, MARK RUFFALO, JANE FONDA, CINDY SHEEHAN, PAUL HAGGIS, and ALICE WALKER.
MESSAGE FROM THE INDIGO GIRLS:
Thank you for being here today. We wish we could be with you in person,
and we are certainly with you in spirit. The only time change has ever
happened is when someone stood up and said, ‘no!’
We say NO to the war in Iraq which has killed nearly 2,700 Americans,
wounded and maimed many more, and has killed or wounded tens of
thousands of Iraqis.
We say NO to President Bush who calls torture ‘part of the struggle for
freedom and liberty’.
We say NO to President Bush who calls nuclear power a solution to global
climate change.
We say NO to President Bush whose administration was the first to
introduce a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
We say NO to President Bush who has nominated far-right conservatives to
the Supreme Court, exploiting one of our most treasured institutions to
support his administration’s political agenda.
We say NO to President Bush who funds abstinence-only programs that both
deny young people comprehensive sex education and propagate the spread
of AIDS.
Today we stand in solidarity with you and usher a resounding NO to
George W. Bush and his administration. Please vote your conviction in
these upcoming mid-term elections. It’s up to us to bring decency and
sanity back to the oval office.
Thank you!
Amy Ray and Emily Saliers
Indigo Girls
Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor 