Speeches by Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Background on Kucincich

"Peace in Space for Peace on Earth"
   Malibu, California (February 27, 2002)

  

"A Sacred Mission"
   Toronto, Canada (November 30, 2002 )

"Spirit and Stardust"
   Dubrovnik, Croatia (June 9, 2002)

"A Prayer For America"
Los Angeles, California (February 17, 2002)

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[Please note: This transcript is abridged.
The video contains the whole
presentation includiung Q & A ]

We're here to talk about a dream, a vision, which we can make a reality to create for ourselves a world of peace by making sure that the heavens themselves are never going to be marred by weapons.

That's the vision of the Space Preservation Act and the companion Space Preservation Treaty, the bill and Treaty which will stop the weaponization of space, the bill and Treaty which provide for the protection of space, the bill and Treaty which essentially say that space, outer space, is sacred. I ask leaders from all over the world to sign the Space Preservation Treaty, send it to the U.N. Secretary General as Treaty Depositary, and to ratify it.

We have the chance, today, of launching this effort for peace, through saying, There shall be no weapons in space.' But not only that, but to use legislation, the Space Preservation Act, as a matrix for a companion treaty, the Space Preservation Treaty, to preserve space which we will ask leaders from all over the world to sign.

We are asking for the United States, once and for all, to suspend all planning, to stop all work on weaponizing space. We're asking our countries leaders to recognize the commonality of all people.

We're asking our countries leaders to understand that the world is undivided.

We're asking our countries leaders to see the world as an interconnected whole.

We're asking our countries leaders to take a holistic view of the world and to allow the globe, the sphere of the Earth herself, to exist free from an assault from space.

All the universe should understand that we truly come in peace because we exist in peace.

We have an opportunity to recreate the spirit of our times. I can feel it. We can take this technology for destruction, for war, and, through this proposal, create a technology for peace. We can create a world where war no longer becomes inevitable. We first have to look to a practical measure, such a measure to stop the weaponization of space.

There are so many opportunities for the evolution of our species. There is the possibility of space travel, for commerce, for exploration. That is part of the human spirit. It always has been. That's something that we celebrate. It's what the poet Browning wrote about. He said, But a man's (and a woman's) reach should exceed his/her grasp or what's a heaven for?' It's called striving. It's what it means to be human.

It is about what another poet called, The instinct within us that reaches and towers.' Striving is the air that we breathe. Striving feeds our souls. Our innermost striving is towards outer space. How important it is that space remain sacred.

Each of us has a sense about the sacredness of our own inner space; Of that universe within where we find the power to summon energies for who we are and where we are here, in this time and place.

We can create a movement of politics that is responsive to expanding consciousness. Our greatest power is not even political. It is the ability to move the human heart.

We can help people become aware of their own creative potential.

We can create more peaceful conditions in this world by reaching and claiming the universal high ground, that trackless space which is the inheritance of all of us.

We can create more peaceful conditions in this world by reaching and claiming the universal high ground, that trackless space which is the inheritance of all of us. It is through peaceful cooperation that we will insure that space will always be free from weapons.

It is my sincere hope that all nation-state leaders will immediately sign this Space Preservation Treaty, send it to the U.N. Secretary General, and ratify it. The Space Preservation Treaty will play an integral role in securing space for peaceful purposes. This ban of all weapons from space will impact every issue.

I support an World Space Preservation Treaty-signing Conference. I support your efforts to secure an World Space Preservation Treaty Conference to facilitate the signing and ratification of this Treaty.

Now, occasionally in life, we get the opportunity to stand at the epicenter of an event. Many of us have had that opportunity. Today, we have such an opportunity again.

Thank you

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"A Sacred Mission" Toronto, Canada
By Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Metro Toronto Convention Centre
Conference on Unity, Sovereignty, and Prosperity

Date: November 30, 2002

What I try to do in my work in the Congress is to focus on people's practical aspirations, which is why today I'll be talking about the practical aspirations we all have for peace.

My Canadian brothers and sisters, what a great honor it is to join you on this day to reclaim those noble sentiments which couple us as continental twins in prayer if not in daily practice. Let this be the moment when a common endeavor asserts a common humanity and sets forth radiant aspirations which spiral out towards the expanding cosmos which returns the felicity. This is the moment when destiny calls us to elevate allegiance to our beloved native lands and to cause love of country to evolve to an even higher form. Unconditional, universal love which is mutually reinforcing and soul building. I join you in unity for peace to make peace sovereign, to harmonize peace and prosperity.

Those goals are implicit in the work of nearly four dozen members of the United States Congress who have proposed a Department of Peace to unite America in striving to make non-violence an organizing principle in our society. To commit our nation to the high purpose of international cooperation to create a world where war is no more. To translate prosperity to posterity by dedicated disarmament. We must insist on the grace of our dreams. We must proceed courageously, expectantly, that the new world which we seek will arise from a loving dialogue between the United States and Canada.

Just as the poet Shelley envisioned humanity's transcendence through a knowing conversation between earth and the moon in Prometheus Unbound, we take you there for a moment where the earth celebrates the rapture of reaching towards that spirit of space embodied in the moon. The earth speaks of the moon. Shelley writes,

The joy, the triumph, the delight, the madness!
The boundless, overflowing, bursting gladness,
The vaporous exultation not to be confined!
Ha! ha! the animation of delight
Which wraps me, like an atmosphere of light,
And bears me as a cloud is borne by its own wind.
The pearl of the heavens responds to its celestial kin and the moon speaks of the earth, Shelley writes:
Brother mine, calm wanderer,
Happy globe of land and air,
Some Spirit is darted like a beam from thee,
Which penetrates my frozen frame,
And passes with the warmth of flame,
With love, and odor, and deep melody
Through me, through me!

Let us, for this moment, contemplate the frozen frame of the moon receiving the love of the earth. Let us hearken to all loving thoughts ever borne upwards in imagination and hope. Let us imagine that survival of our universe depends upon earth and sky reconciling in God's eyes.

Does not the human heart sense the danger of the hour when weapons are aimed at the sky? Does not the heart of the world anguish over the thought of brimstone hailing from Paradise? Do we really have a choice as to whether or not we shall challenge the very concept of weapons in outer space? Whether they are placed there by our brother or some sworn foe.

Ours, in banning weapons in space, in seeking to ban weapons in space, is a sacred mission to reclaim heaven. For every instinct towards creation, for every dream flung towards forever, for every prayer with wings, for all love that is and will be, I've dedicated the SPACE PRESERVATION ACT in the House of Representatives, a bill which will ban all space-based weapons!

And I join you on this day for the purpose of and in dedication of efforts to create a SPACE PRESERVATION TREATY which would ban all space-based weapons and rescue outer space for the restless souls of timeless explorers of the universe.

There are concrete steps which are required towards banning weapons in space. And it might seem curious to some that an American congressman would appear before citizens of Canada to appeal to you. But I do so that Canada convene a worldwide conference for the purpose of gathering leaders from across the globe to discuss and deliberate a treaty which would ban weapons in space.

The SPACE PRESERVATION TREATY CONFERENCE would seek to gain recognition for the URGENCY of such ACTION through encouraging executives of governments from around the world to begin the process towards national approval of such a weapons ban and through encouraging the participation of legislative leaders who would broaden the debate within their respective nations.

IT IS TIME TO BEGIN WORK TOWARDS A BAN OF WEAPONS IN SPACE.

The stage has been set for space weaponization for some time. Since 1983, our Pentagon has spent over one hundred billion dollars on Ballistic Missile Defense and over sixty billion dollars on National Missile Defense. It is expected to spend nearly fifty billion dollars more over the next dozen years.

It is axiomatic that you cannot have guns and butter and it will become axiomatic that you cannot have weapons in space put there by any nation and have decent health care, housing, educational systems or any of those fundamentally important social considerations and economic considerations which made life bearable and worthwhile.

Yet, at the very moment that our country is contemplating spending billions and billions more to put weapons in space, this very day our administration announced that it's cutting back on cost of living increases for Federal employees. This very day many Americans face expiration of their unemployment benefits at a time when our unemployment rate is the highest it's been in years. This very moment many of my constituents in Cleveland, Ohio do not have health insurance or are reduced, in the case of our senior citizens, to splitting their pills to make their prescriptions extend.

This is not a digression. An arms race in space will be the black hole in every budget of every technologically advanced nation. Let me mention two: Russia, having been scorned through cancellation of the ABM Treaty, will be compelled to proceed with protecting its nuclear arsenal and to enhance its launch on warning capabilities, which means a nuclear accident will be waiting to happen! China, looming as an economic power while the U.S. toys with providing Taiwan with short range Theater Missile Defense and in our policy doctrines chooses to beard the Chinese Tiger with threats of a nuclear first strike in the Nuclear Posture Review & embracing China over Taiwan in our National Security Strategy. We will force China to divert billions to Ballistic Missile Defense, research and development, and to build weapons to send into space!

One cannot correctly estimate the urgency of this moment without considering that to speak of weapons in space, one must first look at the arms race which has occurred in this world over nuclear weapons: That there are currently 16 states either possessing, in development of, or attempting to acquire nuclear technology, that there are 20 states either possessing or attempting to acquire or in the process of readying a system to be able to have biological weapons of mass destruction, and there are 26 states in a similar condition with respect to chemical weapons of mass destruction.

This next frontier, weapons in space, will inevitably set off a similar chain reaction among nations, causing nations to try to outdo each other moving towards this destructive technology.

Now we know there are those who indulge in apocalyptic fantasies. And I say that there must also be realists who accurately assess the challenge facing the world with this idea of putting weapons in space, who understand that THIS MOMENT MUST BE SEIZED, not for our comfort or even for the cause of our own survival but for all humanity. For all humanity.

I would say that Canada has a rare opportunity to lead the world in this singular effort to keep space weapons-free. You have the chance to convene an international conference to shift the consciousness of the planet itself, to advance the reconciliation of all nations which is so needed. Let your arms open wide and embrace a SPACE PRESERVATION TREATY CONFERENCE as you brought 122 nations together towards banning land mines, so Canada can move from earth to space with the same courage and care for Spiritus Mundi.

The United States Space Command has set forth this proposition in its founding document entitled "VISION FOR 2020" and I quote,

"Spirit and Stardust" Dubrovnik, Croatia
by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Praxis Peace Institute Conference

Date: Sunday, June 9, 2002

As one studies the images of the Eagle Nebula brought back by the Hubble Telescope from that place in deep space where stars are born, one can imagine the interplay of cosmic forces across space and time, of matter and spirit dancing to the music of the spheres, atop an infinite sea of numbers.

Spirit merges with matter to sanctify the universe. Matter transcends to return to spirit. The interchangeability of matter and spirit means the starlit magic of the outermost life of our universe becomes the soul-light magic of the innermost life of our self. The energy of the stars becomes us. We become the energy of the stars. Stardust and spirit unite and we begin: One with the universe. Whole and holy. From one source, endless creative energy, bursting forth, kinetic, elemental. We, the earth, air, water and fire-source of nearly fifteen billion years of cosmic spiraling.

We begin as a perfect union of matter and spirit. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from sky and earth. In our outstretched hands we can feel the energy of the universe. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from water, which nourishes and sanctifies life. We receive the blessings of the Eternal from the primal fire, the pulsating heart of creation. We experience the wonder of life multidimensional and transcendent. We extend our hands upwards and we are showered with abundance. We ask and we receive. A universe of plenty flows to us, through us. It is in us. We become filled with endless possibilities.

We need to remember where we came from; to know that we are one. To understand that we are of an undivided whole: race, color, nationality, creed, gender are beams of light, refracted through one great prism. We begin as perfect and journey through life to become more perfect in the singularity of "I" and in the multiplicity of "we"; a more perfect union of matter and spirit. This is human striving. This is where, in Shelley's words,

In our soul's Magnificant, we become conscious of the cosmos within us. We hear the music of peace, we hear the music of cooperation, we hear music of love. We hear harmony, a celestial symphony. In our soul's forgetting, we become unconscious of our cosmic birthright, plighted with disharmony, disunity, torn asunder from the stars in a disaster well-described by Matthew Arnold in Dover Beach:

Today Dover Beach is upon the shores of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Our leaders think the unthinkable and speak of the unspeakable inevitability of nuclear war; of a nuclear attack on New York City, of terrorist attacks throughout our nation; of war against Iraq using nuclear weapons; of biological and chemical weapon attacks on civilian populations; of catastrophic global climate change; of war in outer space.

When death (not life) becomes inevitable, we are presented with an opportunity for great clarity, for a great awakening, to rescue the human spirit from the arms of Morpheus through love, through compassion and through integrating spiritual vision and active citizenship to restore peace to our world.

The moment that one world is about to end, a new world is about to begin. We need to remember where we came from. Because the path home is also the way to the future.

In the city I represent in the United States Congress, there is a memorial to Peace, named by its sculptor, Marshall A. Fredericks, the "Fountain of Eternal Life." A figure rises from the flames, his gaze fixed to the stars, his hands positioned, sextant-like, as if measuring the distance. Though flames of war, from the millions of hearts and the dozens of places wherein it rages, may lick at our consciousness, our gaze must be fixed upward to invoke universal principles of unity, of co-operation, of compassion, to infuse our world with peace, to ask for the active presence of peace, to expand our capacity to receive it and to express it in our everyday life. We must do this fearlessly and courageously and not breathe in the poison gas of terror. As we receive, so shall we give.
As citizen-diplomats of the world, we send peace as conscious expression wherever, whenever, and to whomever it is needed: to the Middle East, to the Israelis and the Palestinians, to the Pakistanis and the Indians, to Americans and Al Queda, and to the people of Iraq, and to all those locked in deadly combat.

And we fly to be with the bereft, with those on the brink, to listen compassionately, setting aside judgment and malice to become peacemakers, to intervene, to mediate, to bring ourselves back from the abyss, to bind up the world's wounds.

As we aspire to universal brotherhood and sisterhood, we harken to the cry from the heart of the world and respond affirmatively to address through thought, word and deed conditions which give rise to conflict: Economic exploitation, empire building, political oppression, religious intolerance, poverty, disease, famine, homelessness, struggles over control of water, land, minerals, and oil.

We realize that what affects anyone, anywhere, affects everyone, everywhere. As we help others to heal, we heal ourselves. Our vision of interconnectedness resonates with new networks of world citizens in nongovernmental organizations linking from numberless centers of energy, expressing the emergence of a new organic whole, seeking unity within and across national lines. New transnational web-based email and telecommunications systems transcend governments and carry within them the power of qualitative transformation of social and political structures and a new sense of creative intelligence. If governments and their leaders bound by hierarchy and patriarchy, wedded to military might for legitimacy, fail to grasp the implications of an emerging world consciousness for cooperation, for peace and for sustainability, they may become irrelevant.

As citizen-activists the world over merge, they can become an irresistible force to create peace and protect the planet. From here will come a new movement to abolish nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction. From here will come the demand for sustainable communities, for new systems of energy, transportation and commerce. From here comes the future rushing in on us.

How does one acquire the capacity for active citizenship? The opportunities exist every day. In Cleveland, citizens have developed the ability to intercede when schools are scheduled to be closed, and have kept the schools open; to rally to keep hospitals open; to save industries which provide jobs; to protect neighborhood libraries from curtailment of service, to improve community policing; to meet racial, ethnic and religious intolerance openly and directly.

Active citizenship begins with an envisioning of the desired outcome and a conscious application of spiritual principles. I know. I have worked with the people in my own community. I have seen the dynamic of faith in self, faith in one's ability to change things, faith in one's ability to prevail against the odds through an appeal to the spirit of the world for help, through an appeal to the spirit of community for participation, through an appeal to the spirit of cooperation, which multiplies energy. I have seen citizens challenge conditions without condemning anyone, while invoking principles of non-opposition and inclusion of those who disagree.

I have seen groups of people overcome incredible odds as they become aware they are participating in a cause beyond self and sense the movement of the inexorable which comes from unity. When you feel this principle at work, when you see spiritual principles form the basis of active citizenship, you are reminded once again of the merging of stardust and spirit. There is creativity. There is magic. There is alchemy.
Citizens across the United States are now uniting in a great cause to establish a Department of Peace, seeking nothing less than the transformation of our society, to make non-violence an organizing principle, to make war archaic through creating a paradigm shift in our culture for human development, for economic and political justice and for violence control. Its work in violence control will be to support disarmament, treaties, peaceful coexistence and peaceful consensus building. Its focus on economic and political justice will examine and enhance resource distribution, human and economic rights and strengthen democratic values.

Domestically, the Department of Peace would address violence in the home, spousal abuse, child abuse, gangs, police-community relations conflicts and work with individuals and groups to achieve changes in attitudes that examine the mythologies of cherished world views, such as 'violence is inevitable' or 'war is inevitable'. Thus it will help with the discovery of new selves and new paths toward peaceful consensus.

The Department of Peace will also address human development and the unique concerns of women and children. It will envision and seek to implement plans for peace education, not simply as a course of study, but as a template for all pursuits of knowledge within formal educational settings.

Violence is not inevitable. War is not inevitable. Nonviolence and peace are inevitable. We can make of this world a gift of peace which will confirm the presence of universal spirit in our lives. We can send into the future the gift which will protect our children from fear, from harm, from destruction.

Carved inside the pediment which sits atop the marble columns is a sentinel at the entrance to the United States House of Representatives. Standing resolutely inside this "Apotheosis of Democracy" is a woman, a shield by her left side, with her outstretched right arm protecting a child happily sitting at her feet. The child holds the lamp of knowledge under the protection of this patroness.

This wondrous sculpture by Paul Wayland Bartlett is entitled "Peace Protecting Genius." Not with nuclear arms, but with a loving maternal arm is the knowing child Genius shielded from harm. This is the promise of hope over fear. This is the promise of love which overcomes all. This is the promise of faith which overcomes doubt. This is the promise of light which overcomes darkness. This is the promise of peace which overcomes war.

Thank You.

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"A Prayer for America" Los Angeles, CA
by Congressman Dennis Kucinich
Southern California Americans for Democratic Action

Date:February 17, 2002

A Prayer for America (to be sung as an overture for America)

"My country 'tis of thee. Sweet land of liberty of thee I sing. . . . From every mountain side, let freedom ring. . . . Long may our land be bright. With freedom's holy light. . . ."

" Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave. O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?" "America, America, God shed grace on thee. And crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.."

I offer these brief remarks today as a prayer for our country, with love of democracy, as a celebration of our country. With love for our country.With hope for our country. With a belief that the light of freedom cannot be extinguished as long as it is inside of us. With a belief that freedom rings resoundingly in a democracy each time we speak freely. With the understanding that freedom stirs the human heart and fear stills it. With the belief that a free people cannot walk in fear and faith at the same time.

With the understanding that there is a deeper truth expressed in the unity of the United States. That implicate in the union of our country is the union of all people. That all people are essentially one. That the world is interconnected not only on the material level of economics, trade, communication, and transportation, but innerconnected through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe free. I offer this prayer for America.

Let us pray that our nation will remember that the unfolding of the promise of democracy in our nation paralleled the striving for civil rights. That is why we must challenge the rationale of the Patriot Act.

We must ask why should America put aside guarantees of constitutional justice?

How can we justify in effect canceling the First Amendment and the right of free speech, the right to peaceably assemble?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Fourth Amendment, probable cause, the prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Fifth Amendment, nullifying due process, and allowing for indefinite incarceration without a trial?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Sixth Amendment, the right to prompt and public trial?

How can we justify in effect canceling the Eighth Amendment which protects against cruel and unusual punishment?

We cannot justify widespread wiretaps and internet surveillance without judicial supervision, let alone with it. We cannot justify secret searches without a warrant. We cannot justify giving the Attorney General the ability to designate domestic terror groups. We cannot justify giving the FBI total access to any type of data which may exist in any system anywhere such as medical records and financial records.

We cannot justify giving the CIA the ability to target people in this country for intelligence surveillance. We cannot justify a government which takes from the people our right to privacy and then assumes for its own operations a right to total secrecy. The Attorney General recently covered up a statue of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself at this time, before this administration.

Let us pray that our nation's leaders will not be overcome with fear. Because today there is great fear in our great Capitol. And this must be understood before we can ask about the shortcomings of Congress in the current environment. The great fear began when we had to evacuate the Capitol on September 11. It continued when we had to leave the Capitol again when a bomb scare occurred as members were pressing the CIA during a secret briefing. It continued when we abandoned Washington when anthrax, possibly from a government lab, arrived in the mail. It continued when the Attorney General declared a nationwide terror alert and then the Administration brought the destructive Patriot Bill to the floor of the House. It continued in the release of the Bin Laden tapes at the same time the President was announcing the withdrawal from the ABM treaty. It remains present in the cordoning off of the Capitol. It is present in the camouflaged armed national guardsmen who greet members of Congress each day we enter the Capitol campus. It is present in the labyrinth of concrete barriers through which we must pass each time we go to vote. The trappings of a state of siege trap us in a state of fear, ill equipped to deal with the Patriot Games, the Mind Games, the War Games of an unelected President and his unelected Vice President.

Let us pray that our country will stop this war. "To promote the common defense" is one of the formational principles of America. Our Congress gave the President the ability to respond to the tragedy of September the Eleventh. We licensed a response to those who helped bring the terror of September the Eleventh. But we the people and our elected representatives must reserve the right to measure the response, to proportion the response, to challenge the response, and to correct the response.

Because we did not authorize the invasion of Iraq.

We did not authorize the invasion of Iran.

We did not authorize the invasion of North Korea.

We did not authorize the bombing of civilians in Afghanistan.

We did not authorize permanent detainees in Guantanamo Bay.

We did not authorize the withdrawal from the Geneva Convention.

We did not authorize military tribunals suspending due process and habeas corpus.

We did not authorize assassination squads.

We did not authorize the resurrection of COINTELPRO.

We did not authorize the repeal of the Bill of Rights.

We did not authorize the revocation of the Constitution.

We did not authorize national identity cards.

We did not authorize the eye of Big Brother to peer from cameras throughout our cities.

We did not authorize an eye for an eye.

Nor did we ask that the blood of innocent people, who perished on September 11, be avenged with the blood of innocent villagers in Afghanistan.

We did not authorize the administration to wage war anytime, anywhere, anyhow it pleases.

We did not authorize war without end.

We did not authorize a permanent war economy.

Yet we are upon the threshold of a permanent war economy. The President has requested a $45.6 billion increase in military spending. All defense-related programs will cost close to $400 billion. Consider that the Department of Defense has never passed an independent audit. Consider that the Inspector General has notified Congress that the Pentagon cannot properly account for $1.2 trillion in transactions. Consider that in recent years the Dept. of Defense could not match $22 billion worth of expenditures to the items it purchased, wrote off, as lost, billions of dollars worth of in-transit inventory and stored nearly $30 billion worth of spare parts it did not need.

Yet the defense budget grows with more money for weapons systems to fight a cold war which ended, weapon systems in search of new enemies to create new wars. This has nothing to do with fighting terror. This has everything to do with fueling a military industrial machine with the treasure of our nation, risking the future of our nation, risking democracy itself with the militarization of thought which follows the militarization of the budget.

Let us pray for our children. Our children deserve a world without end. Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people, not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the world.

Let us pray that we have the courage and the will as a people and as a nation to shore ourselves up, to reclaim from the ruins of September the Eleventh our democratic traditions. Let us declare our love for democracy. Let us declare our intent for peace. Let us work to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our own society. Let us recommit ourselves to the slow and painstaking work of statecraft, which sees peace, not war as being inevitable. Let us work for a world where someday war becomes archaic.

That is the vision which the proposal to create a Department of Peace envisions. Forty-three members of congress are now cosponsoring the legislation. Let us work for a world where nuclear disarmament is an imperative. That is why we must begin by insisting on the commitments of the ABM treaty. That is why we must be steadfast for nonproliferation.

Let us work for a world where America can lead the way in banning weapons of mass destruction not only from our land and sea and sky but from outer space itself. That is the vision of HR 3616: A universe free of fear. Where we can look up at God's creation in the stars and imagine infinite wisdom, infinite peace, infinite possibilities, not infinite war, because we are taught that the kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven.

Let us pray that we have the courage to replace the images of death which haunt us, the layers of images of September the Eleventh, faded into images of patriotism, spliced into images of military mobilization, jump cut into images of our secular celebrations of the World Series, New Year's Eve, the Superbowl, the Olympics, the strobic flashes which touch our deepest fears, let us replace those images with the work of human relations, reaching out to people, helping our own citizens here at home, lifting the plight of the poor everywhere. That is the America which has the ability to rally the support of the world. That is the America which stands not in pursuit of an axis of evil, but which is itself at the axis of hope and faith and peace and freedom.

America, America. God shed grace on thee. Crown thy good, America. Not with weapons of mass destruction. Not with invocations of an axis of evil. Not through breaking international treaties. Not through establishing America as king of a unipolar world. Crown thy good America.

America, America. Let us pray for our country. Let us love our country. Let us defend our country not only from the threats without but from the threats within. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good with brotherhood, and sisterhood. And crown thy good with compassion and restraint and forbearance and a commitment to peace, to democracy, to economic justice here at home and throughout the world. Crown thy good, America. Crown thy good America. Crown thy good.

Thank you.