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Remarks by Tom Stites
More than two centuries ago, right here in Newburyport, right here in this historic square, colonial subjects burned tea in a protest against English oppression and in furtherance of democratic ideals. The plaque on that building over there commemorates the event, and so does a little poem engraved in that cement circle among the paving bricks.
Today we again gather in this square to join our forebears in the same noble spirit of protest, once again against colonial oppression and once again in furtherance of democratic ideals.
Our President and his administration's hawks are hell-bent on war with Iraq. Other speakers in this square, notably Professor Elaine Hagopian in her erudite address last week, have traced the motives of this call for war to control of the vast oil reserves in Iraq and the Middle East. And other speakers here, not to mention countless magazine and newspaper articles, have laid out the deception and contradictions inherent in President Bush's bellicose and farfetched statements about an urgent need to invade Iraq to punish evil, fight terrorism, and prevent an Iraqi nuclear attack against the United States.
What does this have to do with the tea burning in this square in 1773? Well, for one thing, if the United States invades Iraq and deposes Saddam Hussein, the next step will be for the Administration to install a friendly puppet government and supply troops to secure what will then be a U.S. colony sitting atop the largest known oil reserve on the planet. Further, this colony will be ideal as a strategic military staging area to ensure that the United States can dominate the whole region, including Iran and Saudi Arabia.
Even worse than this plan, if that is possible, is the new strategic doctrine that Bush has proclaimed. It has not received as much attention as the political struggle over a Congressional resolution to authorize a unilateral attack, but it should - this doctrine proclaims that we will establish our nation as a dominating world power entitled to unilaterally invade whatever country the president chooses. This is not speculation or opinion - this strategic doctrine is a public document that says, to put it in plainer language than the military bureaucrats use, that the United States will rule the world. Iraq is only one corner of the world that Bush's doctrine says this nation is entitled to rule.
Is the word hubris familiar to you? It's a fine Greek-rooted word that means not merely pride but overweening pride, and one of history's incontrovertible lessons is that one always pays for one's hubris. I'm here today to say that the Bush doctrine strikes me as hubris on a scale I've never before imagined. Sadly, this means that the payment will be on that scale too.
This lesson has roots all the way to the beginnings of human history and mythology.
Consider Adam and Eve. In the creation story at the foundation of Western religion, what did the snake promise if only Adam and Eve would chomp on the apple? "Ye shall be as Gods," is what the serpent promise. Chomp they did, but they were not Gods, and neither are we, and neither is George Bush. The hubris of Adam and Eve is known among orthodox Christians as original sin.
And consider Agamemnon. In the great play by the ancient Greek dramatist Aeschylus, the Greek fleet was trapped by a landward breeze. Agamemnon was informed that he'd be sent nothing but fair weather if he sacrificed his daughter, Iphigenia. Not only did he sacrifice her, he did so heartlessly amid brave declamations of determination, goading himself and his armies to take vengeance on Troy. By the time he returned from the war, his wife had taken a lover, and together they slaughtered Agamemnon in his bath.
History and mythology teach the truth that one always pays for one's hubris. But history also teaches that there are always people who figure that this truth doesn't apply to them.
I submit that the Bush Administration is composed largely of such people. They have not learned the lesson of Aeschylus and they have not learned the lesson of ancient Rome. Rome also thought it could control the world, but collapsed because its appetite to exploit other peoples was bigger than its ability to control other peoples. Centuries later, the European colonial powers, having not learned this lesson, had to learn the hard way that the cost of colonies exceeded the benefit. The Soviet Union collapsed under the weight of its ambitions, too.
Colonialism was not only costly to the colonial powers, it was oppressive to colonized peoples. That's why our forebears rallied on this spot to burn tea 225 years ago. But the oppression experienced by British subjects in Massachusetts was nothing compared with the oppression of native people in Africa, South America, the Middle East, and in Asia - not to mention the Indians who were living in Massachusetts when the English arrived. Much of the hatred aimed at the United States and other Western nations as terrorism has its roots in colonial oppression. Now our administration plans to follow the paths of Rome and the colonial powers, and it is inevitable that more oppression - and thus more hatred of the United States - will be a result.
Let me pause here to say without equivocation that terrorism is abhorrent, that the 9/11 terrorists must be brought to justice, and that Saddam Hussein is perhaps the planet's leading psychopath. I can't imagine how anyone can support terrorism or want Saddam Hussein to remain in power. But neither can I imagine how any thinking person could support the Bush initiative to colonize Iraq.
But President Bush has focused the nation's attention on Saddam, presenting an oversimplified picture of the world and all its stresses and dangers, and stirred the fears of Americans - and stirred the fears and stirred them and stirred them - so they will allow him to deal with this "threat" as he sees fit. We need to understand that many of our fellow citizens are so in the grip of this fear that they have trouble hearing our message, and as we press our case we must show them empathy and patience.
Now it hurts me to say this, but because the president of the United States is the most powerful person on Earth, George Bush has the potential to do far more harm to the world - and to the people of the United States - than Saddam could accomplish in his wildest dreams. I fear that Bush's hubris could lead to exactly such an outcome, for the people of Iraq and other distant places that he might send our military, for American troops, for American citizens who fall to attacks from terrorists driven to even greater hatred by our colonial oppression, and for the character and reputation of our great nation.
My politics have always ranged from progressive to populist, but I stand here today as a conservative. I am a conservative horrified by the actions of radicals in the White House. As a conservative, what do I want to conserve? I want to conserve the founding principles of our country.
The people who founded our country on liberty and democracy were called patriots. I stand here today as a patriot, calling my country to be its best, to live up to the words that are its founding creed - "We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness." I stand here today as a patriot, calling my country to bring its actions in line with its ideals, to exercise its great power in a way that shows the depth of character the founding patriots modeled for us.
At the very least, our actions should honor democratic ideals - we should act in accordance with the United Nations Charter, long ago ratified by our democratically elected Congress, and other aspects of international law. We need top remember that safety is found in community, not in isolation. The Bush doctrine will isolate the United States from the community of nations and peoples, and this is a terribly dangerous isolation.
I edit a magazine for a religious denomination, the Unitarian Universalist Association, and I have just come from services in our beautiful church on Pleasant Street. Some of you may have been there September 11 to hear a beautiful 200-voice choir from our church and many others perform Mozart's Requiem as a way to help our community mourn the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the resulting conflict in Afghanistan. Because I now practice my journalism in a religious setting, I'd like to take my few remaining minutes today to address the Iraqi issue from a broad religious perspective.
President Bush has cast his Iraqi adventure in religious terms, saying that Saddam Hussein's Iraq is part of an axis of evil, and that to invade Iraq is to fight evil. He and his supporters keep asking God to bless America, suggesting that God is on our side in this war against evil. This is the myth of American exceptionality, the idea that somehow America is God's chosen nation, than all men are not created equal, that God created Americans more equal than others.
I saw an interesting graffito spray painted on a wall in Cambridge the other day after visiting my daughter. "God has already blessed America," it read. "Now God, please bless the rest of our hurting world."
It's hardly novel to ask not whether God is on our side but whether we are on God's side. But it's a useful question.
The president professes to be a Christian. Christianity has many branches, but almost none line up with Bush. The Just War Doctrine, rooted in Hebrew scripture but formulated by St. Augustine 15 centuries ago, is today a formal teaching of the Catholic Church. It says that lethal force may be used in a "just cause;" it must be used proportionately, with no more force than necessary, and avoid hurting civilians; it must have a probability of succeeding, and may be used only as a last resort after all peaceful alternatives have been exhausted. Bush is not in line with the Catholic church, this nation's and the world's largest religious body.
An array of Protestant denominations have come out against the Bush plan and are lobbying furiously against it in Washington. No denomination has issued a stronger denunciation than the United Methodists. I quote an August 30 statement of General Secretary Jim Winkler of The United Methodist Church General Board of Church and Society:
"The Bush administration has declared its intent to launch a war against Iraq, ignoring the advice of its allies, many members of Congress, key experts, and millions of U.S. citizens. With unprecedented disregard for democratic ideals and with an astonishing lack of evidence justifying such a pre-emptive attack, the President has all but given the order to fire.
"I ask United Methodists to oppose this reckless measure and urge the President to immediately pursue other means to resolve the threat posed by Iraq. . . .
"United Methodists have a particular duty to speak out against an unprovoked attack. President Bush and Vice-President Cheney are members of our denomination. Our silence now could be interpreted as tacit approval of war. Christ came to break old cycles of revenge and violence. Too often, we have said we worship and follow Jesus but have failed to change our ways. Jesus proved on the cross the failure of state-sponsored revenge. It is inconceivable that Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior and the Prince of Peace, would support this proposed attack. I beseech the President and Vice-President to provide leadership into a new era of Christian discipleship."
There has been no response from the White House.
But there needs to be a response from the people. And that would be us.
The response must be a resounding denunciation of the President's plans to unilaterally invade Iraq and his ambitions for world domination. There must be a resounding denunciation of his hubris. One always pays for one's hubris.
I have never spoken at a protest before. I have rarely written letters to my congressman and senators, but I have taken time to write long letters to Representative John Tierney, Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy, and to some other senators I have met in my travels as a journalist. Tierney and Kennedy have announced that they will vote against the resolution authorizing Bush to act unilaterally, but Kerry is still wavering. The Senate will likely vote this week. Your e-mails and calls and letters can make a difference. So much is at stake - not to put some serious effort into this is to be complicit in Bush's hubris. None of us wants this on our consciences.
So let us do all we can to help our nation to show moral leadership in a hurting world that so badly needs healing, not more hurt. Let our nation use its great power to lead with wisdom, to set hubris aside before it's too late, and to live out the principles that distinguish this great nation.
Thank you.
