[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 44 (Wednesday, March 19, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H2102]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A PLEA FOR PEACE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Lewis) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. LEWIS of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak for peace
one more time, to speak against a rush to war.
Our courageous sons and daughters have been placed in harm's way, and
I will continue to support our young men and our young women, but I
cannot in good conscience betray the nonviolent principles on which I
have worked all my life. I cannot sit in silence when I believe there
is still time. It is late, it is very late, it is midnight, but it is
not too late for diplomacy, Mr. Speaker.
War with Iraq will not bring peace to the Middle East. It will not
make the world a safer or better place, a more loving place. It will
not end the strife and hatred that breeds terror. War does not end
strife, it sows it. War does not end hatred, it feeds it. War is
bloody, war is vicious, it is evil, and it is messy. War destroys the
dreams, the hopes, the aspirations and the longings of a people. I
believe that war is obsolete.
As a great Nation and a blessed people, we must heed the words of the
spiritual, ``I am going to lay down my burden, down by the riverside. I
ain't going to study war no more.''
For those who argue that war is a necessary evil, I say you are half
right. War is evil, but it is not necessary. War cannot be a necessary
evil, because nonviolence is a necessary good. The two cannot coexist.
As Americans, as human beings, as citizens of the world, as moral
actors, we must embrace the good and reject the evil.
If we want to create a beloved community, create a beloved world, a
world that is at peace with itself, if that is our end, if that is our
goal, our means, our way, it must be one of love, one of peace, one of
nonviolence.
Gandhi said, ``The choice is nonviolence or nonexistence.''
America's strength is not in its military might, but in our ideas.
American ingenuity, freedom and democracy have conquered the world. It
is a battle we did not win with guns or tanks or missiles, but with
ideas, with principles, this whole idea of justice and freedom and
liberty.
We must use our resources not to make bombs and guns, but to solve
the problems that affect humankind. We must feed the stomach, clothe
the naked body, educate and stimulate the mind. We must use our
resources to build and not to tear down, to reconcile and not to
divide, to love and not to hate, to heal and not to kill.
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words, many years ago, said,
``Take offensive action in behalf of justice to remove the conditions
which breed resentment, terror and violence against our great Nation.''
This is the direction in which a great Nation and a proud people
should move.
War is easy, but peace, peace is hard. When we hurt, when we fear,
when we feel vulnerable or hopeless, it is easy to listen to what is
most debase within us. It is easy to divide the words into us and them,
to fear them, to hate them, to fight them, to kill them.
War is easy, but peace is hard. Peace is right, it is just and it is
true, but it is not easy to love thy enemy. No, peace is hard.
Again, Martin Luther King said when he spoke out against the Vietnam
War, he said, ``War is not the answer. Let us not join those who shout
war. These are days which demand wise restraint and calm
reasonableness.''
He was right then, and the wisdom of those words hold true today. War
was not the answer then, and it is not the answer today. It is not the
answer in this hour. War is never, never the answer. War is obsolete.
It is my belief, Mr. Speaker, that humankind would rise to a much
higher level if we would lay down the tools and instruments of war and
violence. It is not too late to stop our rush to war. Let us give peace
a chance.
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