[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
raise your hand if you’re open to
changing your mind about important
things now raise your hand if you think
war is never justified some hands I
think not raised possibly because war
culture is never questioned every person
I’ve spoken to outside of
Charlottesville who I’ve asked has had
no idea that the reason a statue of
Robert Ely is still standing in this
town albeit covered in black plastic is
because of Virginia state law bans the
removal of War monuments and I have
never met anyone anywhere who has even
considered the idea of banning the
removal of peace monuments the hardest
part would be finding a peace monument
to remove if we removed only the racist
war monuments in Charlottesville we
would lose Lee Jackson the generic
Confederate the people who helped
slaughter Native Americans the memorial
to the war that killed 3.8 million
Vietnamese although Vietnamese was not
usually the word used to refer to them
and UVA is world war one monument a war
explicitly marketed as a war on the evil
race of Huns in other words we would
lose all the war monuments and I want to
propose something harder than that that
we rid ourselves of war the American
Public Health Association calls
militarism a public health threat Gallup
and pew polling find majorities in
countries around the world consider the
US government the top threat to peace on
earth why well the u.s. spends about a
trillion dollars a year preparing for in
fighting wars over half of discretionary
spending almost as much as the rest of
the world combined including all the US
allies the u.s. bushes to spend more the
six richest billionaires have the money
of half the world
but they have less than half what the US
alone spends each and every year on war
three percent of which could end
starvation on earth one percent could
end the lack of clean drinking water a
larger fraction could give us a chance
against climate change war kills and it
kills even more through the disease
epidemics and the famines it creates in
places like Yemen and most of all
through the diversion of resources from
where they are needed totally destroy
North Korea or totally restore Puerto
Rico it’s a choice Wars victims are
mostly civilians war generates enemies
terrorism has predictably increased
throughout the war on terrorism
non-violence has proven itself a more
effective tool talking with Iran and
North Korea has worked sanctions and
threats have not worked militarism is
the top destroyer of our natural
environment it reduces jobs it fuels a
culture of violence it eroded civil
liberties it militarized our police
it gives Charlottesville a Mine
Resistant vehicle raise your hand if you
have never stepped on a landmine in
Charlottesville war is not needed its
presence is sporadic through history
virtually absent from prehistory Yellin
it’s unrecognizable in its current form
from just a few centuries back it’s it
requires intense conditioning higher
suicide rates result and we have yet to
discover a single case of PTSD from war
deprivation since World War two the US
military has bombed over 30 countries
killed or helped kill some 20 million
people the u.s. provides training or
weapons to three-quarters of the world’s
dictatorships many wars now have us
weapons on both sides we know we have a
racism problem do we realize that we
have a militarism problem to me
we would if we had any monuments to
anything else what about a monument in
Charlottesville to civil rights what
about one to labor or women’s rights or
the environment or art or education or
music what about a monument in
Charlottesville to peace when I say go
please raise your hand again if you
think war is never justified and also
raise your hand if you think just maybe
just possibly if I’d been allowed more
than five minutes I might persuade you
that war is never justified in fact
raise your hand like this go thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
raise your hand if you’re open to
changing your mind about important
things now raise your hand if you think
war is never justified some hands I
think not raised possibly because war
culture is never questioned every person
I’ve spoken to outside of
Charlottesville who I’ve asked has had
no idea that the reason a statue of
Robert Ely is still standing in this
town albeit covered in black plastic is
because of Virginia state law bans the
removal of War monuments and I have
never met anyone anywhere who has even
considered the idea of banning the
removal of peace monuments the hardest
part would be finding a peace monument
to remove if we removed only the racist
war monuments in Charlottesville we
would lose Lee Jackson the generic
Confederate the people who helped
slaughter Native Americans the memorial
to the war that killed 3.8 million
Vietnamese although Vietnamese was not
usually the word used to refer to them
and UVA is world war one monument a war
explicitly marketed as a war on the evil
race of Huns in other words we would
lose all the war monuments and I want to
propose something harder than that that
we rid ourselves of war the American
Public Health Association calls
militarism a public health threat Gallup
and pew polling find majorities in
countries around the world consider the
US government the top threat to peace on
earth why well the u.s. spends about a
trillion dollars a year preparing for in
fighting wars over half of discretionary
spending almost as much as the rest of
the world combined including all the US
allies the u.s. bushes to spend more the
six richest billionaires have the money
of half the world
but they have less than half what the US
alone spends each and every year on war
three percent of which could end
starvation on earth one percent could
end the lack of clean drinking water a
larger fraction could give us a chance
against climate change war kills and it
kills even more through the disease
epidemics and the famines it creates in
places like Yemen and most of all
through the diversion of resources from
where they are needed totally destroy
North Korea or totally restore Puerto
Rico it’s a choice Wars victims are
mostly civilians war generates enemies
terrorism has predictably increased
throughout the war on terrorism
non-violence has proven itself a more
effective tool talking with Iran and
North Korea has worked sanctions and
threats have not worked militarism is
the top destroyer of our natural
environment it reduces jobs it fuels a
culture of violence it eroded civil
liberties it militarized our police
it gives Charlottesville a Mine
Resistant vehicle raise your hand if you
have never stepped on a landmine in
Charlottesville war is not needed its
presence is sporadic through history
virtually absent from prehistory Yellin
it’s unrecognizable in its current form
from just a few centuries back it’s it
requires intense conditioning higher
suicide rates result and we have yet to
discover a single case of PTSD from war
deprivation since World War two the US
military has bombed over 30 countries
killed or helped kill some 20 million
people the u.s. provides training or
weapons to three-quarters of the world’s
dictatorships many wars now have us
weapons on both sides we know we have a
racism problem do we realize that we
have a militarism problem to me
we would if we had any monuments to
anything else what about a monument in
Charlottesville to civil rights what
about one to labor or women’s rights or
the environment or art or education or
music what about a monument in
Charlottesville to peace when I say go
please raise your hand again if you
think war is never justified and also
raise your hand if you think just maybe
just possibly if I’d been allowed more
than five minutes I might persuade you
that war is never justified in fact
raise your hand like this go thank you
[Applause]
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