January 1, 2003
Congressman Dennis Kucinich Toronto CUSP Speech
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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The Institute for Cooperation in Space (ICIS)
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A
SACRED MISSION
Keynote
Speech by Dennis Kucinich in Canada Calls for Space Preservation
Treaty Conference to Ban Space-based Weapons
TORONTO,
CANADA - U.S. Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), Co-Chair
of the U.S. House of Representatives Aviation and Space
Caucus spoke before approximately 1000 people at CUSP: Canadian
Conference on Unity, Sovereignty, and Prosperity in the
Metro Toronto Convention Centre, invited by the former Canadian
Minister of Defense. In a keynote speech, released on New
Year's Eve 2002, Kucinich, who is also Chair of the U.S.
House of Representative's Progressive Caucus, calls on Canada's
leaders to convene an international Space Preservation Treaty
Conference where world leaders will gather to sign into
law the Space Preservation Treaty, companion to his Space
Preservation Act, to ban all space-based weapons.
Kucinich
will reintroduce the Space Preservation Act into the U.S.
Congress in March, 2003. This Act implement(s) an immediate
ban ALL on space-based weapons of the United States and
the use of weapons of the United States to destroy or damage
objects in space that are in orbit. The Act also directs
the U.S. President to negotiate an international Treaty:
The President shall direct the United States representatives
to the United Nations and other international organizations
to immediately work toward negotiating , adopting, and implementing
an international treaty banning space-based weapons and
the use of weapons to destroy or damage objects in space
that are in orbit.
A
SACRED MISSION Keynote address by U.S. Congressman Dennis
Kucinich in Toronto, Canada, 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 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,
"The
increasing reliance of US military forces upon space power
combined with the explosive proliferation of global space
capabilities makes a space vision essential. As stewards
for military space, we must be prepared to exploit the
advantages of the space medium. This Vision serves as
a bridge in the evolution of military space into the 21st
century and is the standard by which United States Space
Command and its Components will measure progress into
the future. US Space Command--dominating the space dimension
of military operations to protect US interests and investment.
Integrating space forces into war-fighting capabilities
across the full spectrum of conflict."
Canada's
intrinsic potential, as you did in banning land mines,
is to stand for high principle. Now, as we your brothers
and sisters to the south, are vexed and slowed by doctrines
of unipolar, unilateral, and preemptive domination which
cast a fearful shade across our land like a total lunar
eclipse, be you the brother mine, the calm wanderer, whose
love moves our hearts and whose treaties and entreaties
move our souls.
There is debate in America about matters of state. Nearly
two thirds of the Democrats in the House of Representatives
voted against a resolution authorizing the waging of war
against Iraq. Numerous members joined the challenge in
federal court to the administration's cancellation of
the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. Dozens of us have asked
for investigations into possible fraud in the National
Missile Defense program. There are Americans in the government
who have sent out a call. There is a pulsation for peace
in America.
As Canadians demonstrate in your Conference on Unity,
Sovereignty, and Prosperity, there is an awareness, worldwide,
that we are at the CUSP of a new order. A new awareness
exists of the interdependence of all, the interconnection
of all, the irreducible oneness of all. In this new world,
there is no room for weapons of mass destruction. There
is no place for war. There is a new quest for peace and
prosperity which derives from meaningful work at a decent
wage and proper public health care and retirement security
and good housing and solid education and a clean, sustainable
environment. These are not the claims of any one nation,
in a just world these claims transcend nationhood.
On earth as it is in heaven, peaceful economic activity
will be enhanced through denying nations access to outer
space for the purpose of weaponizing space.
Think about the peaceful purposes which remain for economic
progress through peaceful space research and development:
the ability to monitor weather, the ability to secure
communications, the ability to conduct disaster relief,
to be able to monitor arms control agreements, to maintain
adequate satellite constellations to establish communication
links in disaster areas, for exploration to preserve space
for peaceful purposes for all humanity, for scientific
development for the unfolding of human knowledge and the
extension of human potential.
Far above us, spread out across the western sky at this
very moment, Pegasus wings across the skies to dance above
the fireworks of Perseus. Creative sparks of nebulae play
beyond the clusters of gathering stars. Ursa Minor collects
our small dreams, while Ursa Major harvests the stars
we wish upon and stars we do not see at the twilight's
first gleaming. Near the Winter Hexagon, Gemini's twins,
Castor and Pollux, are in constant conversation.
Through it all, the Creative Architect, that intelligence
which drew forth this universe, wraps itself in sublime
silence. Can we rediscover our connection with such divinity?
Can we rescue creation and save life on this planet?
Only WE can speak the answer.
(Congressman Kucinich here intertwines
the American National Anthem with the Canadian National
Anthem:)
(He sings softly)
O, say can you see
O Canada! glorious and free!
(He then speaks)
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave
(He sings)
O Canada!
(then speaks)
We stand on guard for thee
(Then very deliberately and quietly,
he repeats)
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Thank you.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich
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