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To:
The Stop the War Coalition
When
I read your generous offer to come speak at the Coalition Rally
a heart that was overflowing with sorrow knew that it was being
offered a receptacle to receive some of that overflow. People who know
me, ask me how I can stand in front of a TV camera and know that I am
speaking to the people of the world. Seven weeks ago I would not have
been able to do so. But seven weeks ago there was no need to do so,
and the world was not flooding me with mail, email and phone calls and
pouring into me the strength I needed.
When
I eulogized my son, Nick, I said that he was my teacher and my hero.
He was the kindest, gentlest, man I know, no, the kindest, gentlest
human being I know or have ever known. Did you know that he quit the
Boy Scouts of America because they wanted to teach him to fire a hand
gun , ironically, at Dover Air Force Base the place that Nick was
returned to? Nick too poured into me the strength I needed and still
need to tell the world about him and to send out his message of peace
and brotherhood with the family he shared made up of the people of the
world.
People
ask me why I focus on putting the blame for my son’s tragic and
atrocious end on the Bush Administration. They ask: “Don’t you
blame the five men who killed him?” I have answered that I
blame them no more or less than the Bush Administration, but I am
wrong: I am sure, knowing my son, that somewhere during their
association with him these men became aware of what an extraordinary
man my son was. I take comfort in the fact that when they did the
awful thing they did, they weren’t quite as in to it as they might
have been. I am sure that they came to admire him. I am sure that the
one who wielded the knife felt Nick’s breath upon his hand and knew
that he had a real human being there. I am sure that the others looked
into my son’s eyes and got at least just a glimmer of what the rest
of the world sees. And I am sure that these murderers, for just a
brief moment did not like what they were doing.
But
George Bush never looked into my son’s eyes. George Bush doesn’t
know my son, Nick. And he is the worse for it. George Bush, though a
father himself cannot feel my pain nor that of my family or the world
who grieve for Nick because he is a policy maker, and he doesn’t
have to bare the consequences of his acts. George Bush can see neither
the heart of Nicholas nor the American People yet alone the
people his policies are killing daily. Donald Rumsfeld said that he
took the responsibility for the sexual abuse of Iraqi prisoners. How
could he take that responsibility when there was no consequence. Nick
took the consequences of the policies both stated and given with a
wink and a nod by the Bush administration. And I can’t stand even
more than those murderers who took my son’s life, those who sit and
make policies to end lives and break the lives of the still living.
Nick
was not in the military, but he was a soldier. He had the discipline
and dedication of a soldier. But Nick Berg was a soldier of peace in
Iraq
to help the people without any expectation of personal gain. The
trouble was he was only one man, but through his death he has become
many. The spirit, the truly unselfish spirit of giving your all to do
what you know in your own heart is right even when you know it may be
dangerous, this spirit has spread among the people who knew Nick, and
that group has spread and is spreading all over the world even as I
write these words For all of the soldiers and family of soldiers
in Iraq on either side who believe they were in Iraq working for
peace, I say: Nick is your brother. Nick was there to help win the
peace not only by helping to rebuild what was torn down, but by
spreading his message of peace and love.
So
what were we to do when we in
America
were attacked on September 11, that infamous day? I say we
should have done then what we never did before: Stop speaking to the
people we labeled our enemies and start listening to them. Stop giving
preconditions to our peaceful coexistence on this small planet, and
start honoring and respecting every human’s need to live free and
autonomously, to truly respect the sovereignty of every state whether
it be Israel, or Palestine, or Iraq. To stop making up rules by which
others must live and then separate rules for ourselves.
We
all know now that the controls for the weapons of mass destruction are
in the White House. And George Bush has used a few of those weapons on
the world. His ineffective leadershipis a weapon of mass destruction
and it has allowed a chain reaction of events that lead to the
unlawful detention of my son. Yes it was the US government under whose
authority my son was held. No one believes the Iraqi Police control
the American FBI and Military, Mr. Bush. That detention immersed my
son in a world of escalated violence which were it not for his
detention would have had him in my arms again. That detention held him
in Iraq not only until the atrocities that lead to the siege of
Fallusah, but to the revelation of the atrocities committed in the
jails in Iraq in retaliation for which my son’s wonderful life was
put to and end.
My
son’s life was put to an end, but his work still goes on. Where
there was one peacemaker before I now see and have heard from
thousands of peacemakers. And for every one of them there are
thousands more who can’t find the words but feel the same way. Nick
Berg was a man who acted on his beliefs. We the people of this world
now need to act on our beliefs. We need to let the evildoers on both
sides of the Atlantic know that we are fed up with war. We are fed up
with the killing and bombing and maiming of innocent people. We are
fed up with the lies from our government about Nick’s detention and
we are fed up with the lies from our government about the reasons for
this war. Yes, we are fed up with the suicide bombers, and with the
failure of the Israeli’s and Palestinians to find a way to stop
killing each other. We are fed up with negotiations and peace
conferences that are entered into on both sides with preset conditions
that preclude the outcome of peace. We want world peace now!!!
What
is it, I have to ask, that our leaders and the leaders of the
world are afraid they will lose that is any more valuable than PEACE?
Many people have offered to pray for Nick and my family. I appreciate
their thoughts, but I ask them to include in their prayers a prayer
for peace. I ask them to do more than pray. I ask them to demand PEACE
NOW! from the politicians and leaders in the white house and in the
state houses across the world and in the mountain camps where they may
hide. Let the politicians know that you want PEACE NOW! And let them
know that if you don’t get it, they aren’t going to work for you
as their leaders any more. DEMAND PEACE NOW! DEMAND PEACE NOW!
PEACE NOW! PEACE NOW! PEACE NOW!
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