Cynthia McKinney
Jena 6 Solidarity Statement
Atlanta, Georgia
September 20, 2007
I stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters across the United States who are outraged at a whole host of indignities being visited upon the American people today, the case of the Jena 6 being one of the most recent, but by far, not the only one.
A black woman is kidnapped, tortured, and raped while racial epithets are hurled at her and the federal government finds no hate crime committed.
A dedicated couple, both black attorneys, witness the police beating a handcuffed young Latino man. The attorneys write down the license plate numbers of the police cars and yell to the police that they don't have to beat him. In retaliation, the police pull the husband from the car, proceed to beat him and then attack the wife. The attorneys have been charged with a crime!
Eight young men become active in their community to make our country better. As a result, they are targeted by their government, arrested, and tortured. When the justice system recognizes that confessions under torture should not be prosecuted they are released and set free. For 30 years they live as law-abiding citizens. One day, the same police officers who tortured them 30 years earlier, arrive on their doorsteps to arrest them again for being members of the Black Panther Party. They are now in Court, known as the San Francisco 8.
An Air Force reservist stands in line to hear General Petraeus in testimony that is open to the public. Reverend Lennox Yearwood is singled out by Capitol Hill police and told he can't go inside. When he dares to ask why, approximately 6 officers converge on him and take him to the floor, hurting him in the process. Reverend Yearwood, in what he calls "Democracy while Black," now faces criminal charges.
While Blackwater mercenaries patrol the streets of New Orleans and Katrina survivors are denied the right to return home, our political system has totally collapsed under the weight of insider deals; special interest money; and a corrupted two-party system that relies on the use or misuse of the black vote and the marginalization of the interests of people of color.
Our government failed to protect us on September 11th, lied to us and put our country at war, spied on us despite the Constitution, and assaults our rights. The Democratic majority has become complicit by its failure to pursue impeachment, repeal the Patriot Act, the Secret Evidence Act, the Military Tribunals Act, and by its continued funding of an illegal war. This war machine is not a rolling tide -- we can stop it!
Already in Cuba and Brazil, Venezuela and Bolivia, Nicaragua and Equador, Haiti and Spain, the people took back their governments through the power of the vote. We can do that, too.
I predict that we are now ready to do some things we've never done before in order to have two things we need now more than ever: peace and justice. At home and abroad.
Thank you.
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