IP: Do read -- Tony Blair's speech

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

As usual the US Press has myopia . I wonder if he would care to run for 
office in the USA or lend us his speach writers -- djf

> Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2001 14:20:22 -0400
> Subject: Tony Blair's speech
> From: Jan Ziff <janziff () cybercasters com>
> To: <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
>
> Dave:
>
> The US media didn¹t carry many of the pertinent passages of Tony Blair¹s
> speech today. In it he addressed many of the issues concerning this list. I
> have included the final section of the speech here and a link to the Labour
> Party page with the full text of the speech for those that may be
> interested.
>
> Jan Ziff
>
>
> http://www.labour.org.uk/
>
>
> ³ When we act to bring to account those that committed the atrocity of
> 11 September, we do so, not out of bloodlust.  We do so because it is just.
> We do not act against Islam. The true followers of Islam are our brothers
> and sisters in this struggle. Bin Laden is no more obedient to the proper
> teaching of the Koran than those Crusaders of the 12th Century who pillaged
> and murdered, represented the teaching of the Gospel.
>
> It is time the West confronted its ignorance of Islam. Jews, Muslims and
> Christians are all children of Abraham.
>
> This is the moment to bring the faiths closer together in understanding of
> our common values and heritage, a source of unity and strength.  It is time
> also for parts of Islam to confront prejudice against America and not only
> Islam but parts of western societies too.
>
> America has its faults as a society, as we have ours.
> But I think of the Union of America born out of the defeat of slavery.
> I think of its Constitution, with its inalienable rights granted to every
> citizen still a model for the world.
> I think of a black man, born in poverty, who became Chief of their Armed
> Forces and is now Secretary of State Colin Powell and I wonder frankly
> whether such a thing could have happened here.
>
> I think of the Statue of Liberty and how many refugees, migrants and the
> impoverished passed its light and felt that if not for them, for their
> children, a new world could indeed be theirs.
>
> I think of a country where people who do well, don't have questions asked
> about their accent, their class, their beginnings but have admiration for
> what they have done and the success they've achieved.
>
> I think of those New Yorkers I met, still in shock, but resolute; the fire
> fighters and police, mourning their comrades but still head held high.
>
> I think of all this and I reflect: yes, America has its faults, but it is a
> free country, a democracy, it is our ally and some of the reaction to 11
> September betrays a hatred of America that shames those that feel it.
>
> So I believe this is a fight for freedom. And I want to make it a fight for
> justice too.
> Justice not only to punish the guilty.
> But justice to bring those same values of democracy and freedom to people
> round the world.
>
> And I mean: freedom, not only in the narrow sense of personal liberty but in
> the broader sense of each individual having the economic and social freedom
> to develop their potential to the full. That is what community means,
> founded on the equal worth of all.
>
> The starving, the wretched, the dispossessed, the ignorant, those living in
> want and squalor from the deserts of Northern Africa to the slums of Gaza,
> to the mountain ranges of Afghanistan: they too are our cause.
>
> This is a moment to seize.
>
> The Kaleidoscope has been shaken. The pieces are in flux. Soon they will
> settle again.
> Before they do, let us re-order this world around us.
>
> Today, humankind has the science and technology to destroy itself or to
> provide prosperity to all.
> Yet science can't make that choice for us.
>
> Only the moral power of a world acting as a community, can.
> "By the strength of our common endeavour we achieve more together than we
> can alone".
>
> For those people who lost their lives on 11 September and those that mourn
> them; now is the time for the strength to build that community. Let that be
> their memorial.²



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