C-Span link is up - John Kerry Apr 22 speech "Patriotism and Dissent"

[MH1]

http://www.c-span.org/VideoArchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100&Page=2

Page 2 of recent programs.

Full text here also:

"A Right and Responsibility to Speak Out"
http://www.kerry.senate.gov/v3/cfm/record.cfm?id=254631

A couple of my favorite parts:

The fissures created by Vietnam have long been stubbornly resistant to closure. But I am proud it was the dissenters—and it was our veterans’ movement—and people like Judy Droz Keyes—who battled not just to end the war but to combat government secrecy and the willful amnesia of a society that did not want to remember its obligations to the soldiers who fought. We fought the forgetting and pushed our nation to confront the war’s surplus of sad legacies—Agent Orange, Amer-Asian orphans, abandoned allies, exiled and imprisoned draft dodgers, doubts about whether all our POWs had come home, and honor at last for those who returned from Vietnam and those who did not. Because we spoke out, the truth was ultimately understood that the faults in Vietnam were those of the war, not the warriors.

Then, and even now, there were many alarmed by dissent—many who thought that staying the course would eventually produce victory—or that admitting the mistake and ending it would embolden our enemies around the world. History disproved them before another decade was gone: Fourteen years elapsed between the first major American commitment of helicopters and pilots to Vietnam and the fall of Saigon. Fourteen years later, the Berlin Wall fell, and with it the Communist threat. You cannot tell me that withdrawing from Vietnam earlier would have changed that outcome.

The lesson here is not that some of us were right about Vietnam, and some of us were wrong. The lesson is that true patriots must defend the right of dissent, and hear the voices of dissenters, especially now, when our leaders have committed us to a pre-emptive “war of choice” that does not involve the defense of our people or our territory against aggressors. The patriotic obligation to speak out becomes even more urgent when politicians refuse to debate their policies or disclose the facts. And even more urgent when they seek, perversely, to use their own military blunders to deflect opposition and answer their own failures with more of the same. Presidents and politicians may worry about losing face, or votes, or legacy; it is time to think about young Americans and innocent civilians who are losing their lives.

snip...

So now, as in 1971, we are engaged in another fight to live the truth and make our own government accountable. As in 1971, this is another moment when American patriotism demands more dissent and less complacency in the face of bland assurances from those in power.

We must insist now that patriotism does not belong to those who defend a President’s position—it belongs to those who defend their country. Patriotism is not love of power; it is love of country. And sometimes loving your country demands you must tell the truth to power. This is one of those times.

I had the immense privilege of seeing this event in person. I haven't quite processed all the raw emotions I took from that room....but I can tell you that this was one kick-ass speech by a true American hero.

I hope everyone will watch it, and get your friends and family to watch it, too.

[fedupinBushcountry]

1. K&R

:kick:

[MH1]

2. For background, here is the 1971 transcript

http://www.c-span.org/2004vote/jkerrytestimony.asp

[sandnsea]

3. Thanks MH

I've been waiting for that, a couple of people wanted to see it.

[MH1]

4. Arg. I can't get the link to work.

I saw it posted elsewhere and just posted it here without checking it.

Sigh. Time to contact c-span again....