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Saturday, September 01, 2007
Visuals: Iraq Summer 'Take a Stand' in Albuquerque
I haven't had a chance to report on the moving and well-attended Take a Stand Town Hall organized in Albuquerque by the Iraq Summer campaign and others. The August 28th event at the UNM Continuing Education Auditorium attracted more than 300 people to hear Albuquerque City Counselor Martin Heinrich; ex-Marine Bruce Clark (videos above), the parent of two sons in the military, one of whom is stationed north of Baghdad right now; Major General Mel Montano, US Air National Guard, Retired, and former Adjunct General of New Mexico; Judy Pratt, activist, former NM State Senator and 1984 U.S. Senate candidate against Pete Domenici; and Greg Richardson of the Iraq Summer campaign.
Both Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson were invited to participate, but refused the invitation to speak with their constituents about what they plan to do to end the carnage in Iraq.
I've compiled images from the Albuquerque event in this photo album for you to check out.
City Councilor Martin Heinrich speaks to crowd
The videos at the top of this post are excerpts of Bruce Clark's extremely emotional and passionate speech. They're of rather poor quality, taken with our little digital camera, but I hope you'll listen to Bruce's words about the real intent of Bush, his cronies and his supporters like Domenici and Wilson. If everyone in New Mexico could hear Bruce speak, I know that most of them would have a clear picture of what's truly at stake here. The other speakers were also excellent, and I'll cover more of what they had to say later. For now, please listen to Mr. Clark and do what you can to convince Domenici and Wilson to do what's right for the country, not what's right for the GOP or the Bush administration.
The event was moderated by Carter Bundy of AFSCME, who did a bang up job, and began with what seemed like an eternity of total silence as we watched a slideshow with the faces and names of members of the military from New Mexico who have died in the war. Lives are at stake. Time is of the essence. And still Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson won't vote to stop the deadly and damaging occupation.
By the way, Iraq Summer, MoveOn, True Majority and others helped organize similar events in many other states around the nation that day. Click to see a slide show of photos from other states.
Help Elect Replacements for Wilson and Domenici
The Beat Back Bush New Mexico page was created at Act Blue to counteract Bush's recent visit to Albuquerque to raise money for Pete Domenici. It's designed to raise donations from New Mexico's progressive netroots-grassroots for candidates who will run against the Republicans here. If you haven't donated yet, there's still time. Contrbute a few bucks to Martin Heinrich and Don Wiviot -- candidates who want to get rid of Heather Wilson and Pete Domenici once and for all in November 2008.
Click to read our previous posts about Beat Back Bush New Mexico.
September 1, 2007 at 04:39 PM in 2008 NM Senate Race, Civil Liberties, Crime, Iraq War, Local Politics, Military Affairs, NM-01 Congressional Race 2008, Peace, Visuals | Permalink
Comments
Those two clips are amazing. I would love to hear the rest of Clark's speech. Why don't we hear more people speaking out plainly like this calling a spade a spade? We need it so badly.
Posted by: He called it tyranny | Sep 2, 2007 12:08:08 AM
Bruce Clark's speech was extremely powerful. It was also full of good information regarding the rights and obligations of service people as well as the abuses, tyrannies, and lies of the Bush administration. I thought his whole speech was going to be posted on Youtube, but have been unable to find it. I wanted to send it to family and friends and also give the address to people I chat with on Thom Hartmann's chatroom. They were very interested in what I was able to tell them about it, but it would be better if I could give them a web address so they can hear the whole thing themselves. If the audio is good, I am sure people will still want to see it. Please let me know if it becomes available. The more people that hear it the better. Maybe Mr. Clark can be persuaded to re-present his speech at another gathering where he can be recorded with better quality. He is a wonderful public speaker who's message cannot be heard too often. We need to get his message out in whatever way we can. I suggest the internet and NM public radio stations to start with and possibly a public access channel on TV.
Posted by: Susy Crandall | Sep 2, 2007 9:25:02 PM
I strongly agree with you Susy. We hadn't been planning to video at the event but were so moved by Bruce Clark's speech that we used what we had -- our rather outdated digital still camera -- to record a couple short excepts. I'm still trying to find out if a better video or audio exists and will be released.
I have learned that the Democratic Party of Bernalillo County's regular Third Thursday Meeting at 6 PM on September 20th will include speeches by ex-Marine Bruce Clark as well as Maj. General Mel Montaño, Ret. It will take place in Room 2401 at the UNM Law School, in Albuquerque. All Democrats are welcome, as always.
Click here if you'd like contact info for the DPBC:
https://www.bernalillodems.org/
Posted by: barb | Sep 4, 2007 11:44:43 AM
