[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believe that war is obsolete.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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