My "Open Mic" Presentation

A couple of weeks ago, the local coffeehouse
had an “open mic.” Ordinarily, I would play my
guitar and sing at such and event. But in the
past, they've had lots of spoken word performers
there, poets and story tellers and such, so I
decided to do a spoken word piece for the open
mic. Following are the words I spoke:

Although the notice of this event in the
paper said no vulgarity would be allowed here, I
am going to use the most vulgar, profane, and
obscene words that I know:

George Walker Bush

Now you may think I'm going to talk about
Bush's illegal and immoral war of aggression in
Iraq, and if I were going to do that, I'd probably
quote from the International Military Tribunal at
Nuremberg, Germany in 1946:

“To initiate a war of aggression ... is not only
an international crime, it is the supreme
international crime, differing only from other war
crimes in that it contains within itself the
accumulated evil of the whole.”

But that's not what I'm going to talk about.

Or you may think I'm going to talk about
Bush's refusal to do anything about global
warming, and his efforts to prevent anyone else
from doing anything about global warming. But
that's not it either.

Or you may think I'm going to talk about
Bush's giving tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans
while people right here in America are unable to
afford enough food to eat, or any sort of health
care. But that's not it either.

I'm going to talk about torture.

You probably heard some time ago about the
torture that took place in Abu Ghraib. You
probably even saw some of the pictures. You
probably didn't see the pictures and video of
Americans torturing that were recently aired on
television in Australia, because Bush did
everything he could to prevent any of that from
being released, and when it finally did get out,
the so-called “liberal media”, being George Bush's
lap dog, didn't cover it the way they should have.
Well, if you did see the pictures that came out
of Abu Ghraib a while back, but didn't see the
recent stuff, I can tell you that you haven't seen
anything yet. If you really want to see it, you
can find it on the web. It is not pretty.
Americans are doing things that you can not
imagine, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Guantanamo,
and throughout the world.

When the word first came out about the
torture taking place in Abu Ghraib, Senator John
McCain introduced an amendment to the defense
appropriations bill that would ban torture. Not
that another law is really needed, since the U.S
is signatory to the Geneva Conventions and other
international laws forbidding torture. But since
Bush still believed that he had the right to
torture, McCain introduced that bill and even
though Bush had threatened to use the first veto
of his presidency to stop it from becoming law,
even though Dick Cheney went to Congress twice to
convince them not to pass it, Congress did pass
it, and seeing the handwriting on the wall, Bush
signed it. He also issued a signing statement
that said that he will interpret the law in
accordance with his powers as president and his
obligation to protect the American people. Which
means, in plain language, I will torture anyone I
please. Just last week, Bush had his lawyers
arguing in court that the McCain amendment banning
torture doesn't apply in Guantanamo.

I submit to you that torture is not only
illegal, but it is immoral, it is un-Christian,
and it is un-American. A friend recently
mentioned seeing a bumper sticker that said, “Who
Would Jesus Torture?” When Jesus talked about how
we are to treat our fellow human beings, he said,
“As you have done to the least of these, so you
have done to me.” So I'd like to ask you, not
“Who would Jesus torture”, but who would torture
Jesus? To repeat the words of Jesus, “As you have
done to the least of these, so you have done to
me.”

George Walker Bush would torture Jesus.

According to Jesus, he already did.

Is it our responsibility to do something
about it? I'd like to present the words of some
people who I consider to be great human beings.

The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King Jr.
said:

“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved
in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who
accepts evil without protesting against it is
really cooperating with it.”

Albert Einstein said:

"The world is a dangerous place. Not because of
the people who are evil; but because of the people
who don't do anything about it."

Mohandas Gandhi said:

“Non-cooperation with evil is as much a duty as is
cooperation with good.”

At the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC,
you will find these words:

“Thou shalt not be a victim. Thou shalt not be a
perpetrator. Above all, thou shalt not be a
bystander.”

Thou shalt not be a bystander. We all have
the responsibility to do something. We all have
the responsibility to not be a bystander.

You may think, “I am only one person, what
can I do?” What I can do is what I am doing at
this moment: bringing the horror of the torture
that our president practices to the attention of
as many people as I can, pointing out that we all
have a responsibility as moral human beings to do
something about it, and demanding that we all live
up to that responsibility. Each of you will have
to decide what you personally can do. If we all
do what we can, we will make a difference.

Margaret Mead said:

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed citizens can change the world. Indeed,
it is the only thing that ever has.”

Gandhi said:

“A small body of determined spirits fired by an
unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the
course of history.”

Anita Koddick said:

“If you think you're too small to have an impact,
try going to bed with a mosquito in the room.”

I'm asking all of you to be the mosquito in
the room. I'm asking all of you to stop the
torture. I'm asking all of you to stop George
Walker Bush.