Inaugural
Address
"To be president is an honor that I dream not
of. Yet one that I take with a dose of faith and a large
measure of hope. For I am compelled not only to set
to rights the follies and frauds of the former White
House occupant, rightly impeached for his crimes against
humanity, but to rebuild the very foundations on which
America stands.
"This election represents a triumph for the American
people in overcoming a concerted campaign of fear and
smear, a relentless barrage of bully and bombast and,
above all, the attempt to stage America's third fraudulent
presidential election in a row.
"Had this hatrick of deceit succeeded, the lie
embedded at the heart of the nation's government would
have continued to spawn its malice and pursue its agenda
of destruction indefinitely -- destruction of the Constitution,
destruction of the environment, destruction of international
treaties and international law, destruction of all budgetary
restraint, destruction of health and education, destruction
of nations and peoples, destruction of humanity itself.
"The White House has become of late a whitewashed
tomb, the Oval Office a mouthpiece for blasphemy, the
Congress a coterie of craven courtiers, the Supreme
Court a committee of cronies, and the corporations a
nest of vipers.
"It is a daunting task to even begin to right
the wrongs, not just of the last administration, but
of the whole pattern of government of which the Bush
regime was just the latest and most egregious example
of systemic corruption.
"It is a task certainly beyond the scope of one
person. So I shall be relying heavily on the skills,
passions, and dedication of the new Cabinet I am appointing.
We will try always to remember that we are your servants,
not your taskmasters, that we owe our places to you,
not the other way round. And we ask for the courage,
cooperation, and goodwill of government employees who
embrace this spirit, and for the immediate resignations
of those who do not.
"May the role of leaders as servants be taken
up by all persons in places of privilege and power.
For it is time to overthrow the established order of
things, along with the love of money that has tormented
the wealthy with insatiable greed for more, and harried
the poor with the tyranny of the wealthy.
"My first act as president will be to secure abolition
of the unwieldy and complex electoral college which,
though it failed to do so this time, has so often in
the past thwarted the majority in its choice of president.
From now on, let all elections proceed on the principle
of one-member, one-vote, no ifs, ands, or buts. And
let there be in every case a verifiable paper trail
that gives no foothold to fraud nor question as to voter
intentions.
"My second act will be to bring to light the workings
of government at all levels. Flush the skeletons out
of the closets. Applaud and uphold the whistleblowers.
Shout from the housetops that which was hidden in shame
and secrecy. Pull inconvenient history out of the memory
hole. Unearth the mass graves.
"Meanwhile, let us not suppose that government
has the right to pry into the lives and thoughts of
people, but once again adhere to the Fourth Amendment
of our tattered Constitution that shields our persons,
houses, papers, and effects against search and seizure.
"My third act will be to return America to its
rightful role as an agent of peace and international
cooperation, including the withdrawal of our military
bases and clandestine operations from other countries.
We will also honor our treaties, including the Kyoto
Protocol, and stop meddling in the affairs of others,
stop enslaving their peoples, stop plundering their
natural resources, stop torturing and assassinating
their voices of Justice and Truth. We will set prisoners
free, both abroad and at home, support the afflicted,
and help to heal the sick.
"Nowhere is this more important than in Iraq,
where the United States military has committed terrible
atrocities of global and historic proportions and worse,
been made to do so under the empty slogans of freedom
and democracy. As we complete the removal of our troops,
we will do our best to clean up after ourselves and
make restitution for that which we have broken, maimed,
looted, poisoned, or irradiated. And we will leave behind
no vestige of U.S. military presence, either on the
ground or in the air.
"Regrettably, we can not bring back from the dead
those we have killed, nor replace the skin burnt off
limbs by our illegal weapons, nor resurrect the children
we have starved. But what little we can do to make amends,
we must do, including granting U.S. citizenship and
right of entry to every Iraqi. Let the Iraqi citizens
know we no longer covet your oil; your resources are
your own; your futures yours to determine.
"We look upon our belligerent past that has brought
misery, carnage, torture, rape, and destruction to every
corner of the globe. We look upon the wickedness that
has bred it, the falsehood that has fostered it, and
the folly that has sustained it, and we pledge ourselves
to a future full of the hatred of hate.
"We also look upon our unaccountable spending
on the means and infrastructure of war, and pledge to
open up the Pentagon's books to the most stringent accounting
standards. Nor will we send another penny or bullet
in military aid to countries that use it for purposes
of repression and brutality, among them Israel and Indonesia.
"We pledge to dismantle our destructive potential,
our weapons of mass destruction, and especially our
apocalyptic arsenal of nuclear weapons that threaten
the entire human race with instantaneous annihilation.
And we pledge to end the slow annihilation that nuclear
energy represents. Instead, we commit ourselves to a
future free of all toxic means of power production.
"And, in recognition of the abhorrence of weaponry
of all kinds, we call upon every person, every household,
every organization in this country finally to lay down
all arms, everything from bazookas to BB-guns. And with
that in mind, I am calling on Congress to efface from
our Constitution the Second Amendment that now sits
like an ugly carbuncle on the face of a much-loved (though
much-neglected) friend.
"Furthermore, in tracing the causes of conflict,
let us now speak to the corporations of America and
to the multinationals, whose machinations have inflicted
so much misery around the world. You want to be treated
as persons under the Constitution, with rights of free
speech? Fine. Then you will be treated as persons in
every other respect too.
"That means you will pay your taxes in full without
evasion, you will no longer be subsidized, either directly
or indirectly, you will be prosecuted and punished for
your crimes, and you will be made to respect the rights
of other individuals who are your equals. You will stop
stealing their lands, adulterating their food, and poisoning
their rivers and wells. And that goes for peoples of
other countries, too. You will stand on a level footing
with individuals in the eyes of the courts. And you
will no longer be allowed to "contribute"
to election campaigns or political advertising, nor
hire lobbyists to do your bidding.
"If you have some pressing issue for politicians
to hear, write to your Congressman or Senator like everyone
else. Stop bending the ears and lining the pockets and
greasing the palms of Washington DC and compete instead
on equal terms, carrying honest scales, and putting
human lives and dignity (including those of your neighbors
and employees), as well as the environment and wildlife,
above your bottom lines. If you refuse, we will empower
government agencies, armed with the sound science of
independent research and not with the obfuscatory rhetoric
of political appointees, to enforce your compliance.
"Now a word for the Supreme Court. You are called
upon to be a check to the tyrannical use of executive
power. But be not a tyrant yourselves, and be careful
to act in Justice, Righteousness, and Mercy, no matter
who appointed you, remembering that the law was made
for man, not man for the law.
"We say to you, the Media. Wake up from your sleep
of death, and do your jobs. Expose corruption in high
and low places, question the unaccountable, support
the underdog. And stop cowering before the world's thrones
of power.
"We say to you, the privileged and wealthy. Do
your part with your riches. Seek out the orphan and
the widow, the hungry and the helpless, the prisoner
and the pauper, uphold the worthy cause. Too freely
you have received. Now freely give.
"In conclusion, I own that there are some who
will contend I am speaking a language too lofty, a rhetoric
too rich, for the American people to understand. I say
bullshit. The American people, like people all over
the world, are intelligent, resourceful, and hungry
for the truth. They have been denied it for so long.
"And some may contend that my words carry too
much the scent of Scripture, especially given its systematic
distortion in the past by the former administration
and by its Bible-abusing governor. To this I make no
comment but to ask for prayer. For I have seen what
has happened to voices like mine in the past, who have
not been long for this world once they have spoken out.
Therefore I ask that you pray with all fervor that I
do not get assassinated for my agenda, which will surely
offend the spiritually dead powerbrokers of yesteryear."
January 2006
