NOW Celebrates International Women's Day with a Rally for Peace

March 8, 2003

Statement of NOW President Kim Gandy

On International Women's Day, NOW is proud to stand with millions of women around the world who are calling for peace.

The Bush public relations machine has convinced too many Americans that their loyalty and patriotism are on the line if they dare to question a pre-emptive strike on Iraq. And most of the media is reinforcing that message—where some commentators have gone so far as to call it treason.

How can we aspire to advance democracy around the world if we can't practice it here at home? Lending our voices to the demand for peace and open government is what democracy is all about. And this is one patriot who doesn't intend to be silenced by John Ashcroft.

George W. Bush wants us to believe that the United States is united for war. But I believe that most of the world is united for peace.

Yes, Saddam Hussein is a maniacal tyrant, cruel and vicious. But where are these brave opponents of tyranny when the threat is here at home?

Women and children—in the U.S. and around the world—know what it is like to live under Code Red—the highest alert and the greatest risk to our safety. Our tyrants, complete with weapons of mass destruction, are hunger and homelessness, violence and poverty. We face that tyranny in our homes, our workplaces, and our schools.

Asking our government to provide resources to combat this tyranny is as fundamental as the Bill of Rights. Yet this administration seems determined to divert desperately needed resources away from saving lives—and to use that money to rain destruction on a poverty-stricken country that is more than 50% children—all to settle a score with one dangerous man.

We must keep raising our voices for peace—and the harder that becomes, the more necessary it is.

These days I think often of the words Betty Williams spoke when she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1976, "Someday there will be a war, and no one will come."

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