Chris Wells

On March 16, more than 200 New Yorkers gathered in Washington Square to build a Living Peace Sign on the 4th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Organized by volunteers of the Humanist Movement and other New Humanists, this coincided with more than 70 Peace Signs all around the planet that weekend.

Chris gave the following speech at a Press Conference on that occasion:

Tonight hundreds of New Yorkers are gathering here in Washington Square to make a stand for Peace This is a call and a demand to end after four years the catastrophic occupation of Iraq. It’s a stand against all wars, against all forms of violence. This begins a weekend of protests all over the country. At the same time, tens of thousands of people will be building Peace Signs in more than sixty cities around the planet from Moscow to Mumbai, Senegal to Bogota, Toronto and Rome. It’s very good to be connected to our humanist friends around the world, who feel as we do the need to build understanding instead of walls and weapons.

For us, it’s also very important for people around the world to see that Americans are protesting. That we don’t remain silent in the face of our government’s crimes. The arrogance and recklessness of our leaders has brought us to the brink of disaster; and each day they pour more fuel on the fire. This is the biggest arms race in history; 30,000 nuclear weapons stand ready, military spending has surpassed 950 billion dollars (one half of that in the United States), and instead of questioning the mad rush to destruction, they draw up designs for using new ‘tactical’ nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, American Democracy has become a bad joke. How could it be otherwise? When the will of the people is ignored; when our government uses torture in the name of the War on Terror; locks people up without due process in the name of the War on Terror; kills innocent men, women and children in the name of the War on Terror; spies on its own citizens etc, etc. Until it begins to be clear that the War on Terror is actually a grab for power. And far from reducing terrorism, it has increased by three times.

Now more than ever, the world must choose a path of growing peace, instead of growing violence; a path of complete nuclear disarmament, along with reducing conventional weapons and military spending. And because our leaders have shown that they will not pursue this course, the people must insist.

The people must insist; until our government (our “representatives”) carry out:

. the withdrawal of invading troops from Iraq
. complete nuclear disarmament, to be carried out progressively and proportionally
. and a drastic reduction in military spending

These are our demands and this is just the beginning of the list!

So tonight we gather to make a sign of peace. We build it together, and together we express our outrage and our aspirations, and we hope to inspire others to join in building this movement. Because individual protests will not be enough. We need a growing movement. The change we long for will come not from the leaders. It must come from us, so every protest, every project, every conversation, has meaning. We need a movement and we work to contribute to that.

We’re not going to stop here. In June, there will be a forum on non-violence, to look into this subject because the violence is not just in the world it’s also in us. And in November, the Humanist Movement will host the North American Peoples’ Forum, a working regional forum for Canada, the US and Mexico.

I’m very happy to be able to speak to you today. I think it’s very important, for oneself and for others, to say what we think and feel, especially in these times of so much hypocrisy, the age of “spin”. I also believe the media has a very important role to play; both in informing the people about the truth of our world and in publicizing genuine expressions of the grass-roots so that others of the same opinion know they’re not alone and that there are things they can do about it.

Thank you very much.