David Harris to Ruth Group and friends at the ACT Fundraiser — September 28, 2004

It’s such a pleasant evening in such a pleasant setting that I’m being trotted out to remind everyone just why we are here and what we have left to do.

We are here because we have seen the Republican future and it’s a disaster—for our hopes, for our children, and for our democracy.

We are here because we’re tired of belligerence masquerading as foreign policy.

We’re tired of being lied to in the name of patriotism.

We are here because we believe in the Bill of Rights—even more after September 11 than before—and we think the Patriot Act is an abomination that is as much a threat to America as al Qaeda.

We are here because we believe that all Americans should pay their fair share—including the rich and the corporate.

We are here because we think our country is on the verge of bankruptcy—both financial and moral.

We are here because we see Abu Ghraib as no accident, but rather the logical outcome of the task we have sent our soldiers to do and the chain of command over their head that has made torture into a policy and dismissed the Geneva Accords as “quaint”.

We are here because we are tired of arrogance, self-righteousness, and fundamentalism passing themselves off as governance.

We are here because we think America needs to make friends, not enemies, and that we cannot protect ourselves without the world’s good will and cooperation.

We believe in self-determination and, while we believe all governments should be judged by a single high standard, it is not the business of the United States to supply other countries with governments at the point of a gun.

We are here because we do think you can defend America without also defending the physical integrity of the planet we occupy and all its life forms.

We are here because if the computerized global warming scenarios are accurate, part of the city where we are gathered will be under water in a matter of decades and we want a President that does more than pretend it isn’t happening.

We are here because we believe in a truth that is something far more profound that just whatever the President wants it to be. There are objective standards of evidence with which to observe ourselves and by every one of them; the United States is headed over a cliff.

We are here because Bush and Rove make Nixon and Mitchell look like good government.

We are here because the Doctrine of Preemptive War is little more than a new name for aggression and empire and its pursuit has dishonored our democracy and left us less safe than we’ve ever been.

We are here because we are parents and grandparents and feel that our obligation to leave a better world for the coming generations is a sacred trust that is now being violated on a daily basis.

Finally, we are here because we have all spent much of the last four years saying over and over to ourselves “these guys have got to be stopped.”

And now we are down to it.

We are about to enter the most important political month of our lifetimes. Much that we care about is at stake and at this moment, our side is behind. And while this election will be decided in states a long way from here, we can still do much to make sure that all those Americans who feel as we do make it to the polls in Ohio and Pennsylvania and Oregon and Nevada and Minnesota and the like. I know all of you gave last winter and again last spring and again last summer and again tonight, but you’re not done yet. I bought two tickets to this event ahead of time and I have a check here for one more. And I want all of you to do likewise. If you can’t afford it, then give what you can afford, but do not leave here having only paid once. There is too much at stake for that.

Ante up.

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