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Oct 27 speech: Enough!
Following is the text of my speech delivered on October 27, 2007 at the national anti-war mobilization in New York City organized by United for Peace and Justice.
I am an Iranian-American who loves both Iran and America.
I am Iranian enough to be worried for my people, their cultural heritage, their history, and above all the path towards democracy that they have taken for the past 100 years. I see that today they are closer than ever to reaching this dream: the Iranian women, students, workers, and other groups have worked hard to get here and are willing to even work harder to achieve this dream.
What I feel my fellow Iranians are saying now, and they hope that everyone hears them, is that they are intelligent enough to make their own decisions. I hear their cry, loud and clear, when they say, “Please do not destroy our dream that we have worked so hard for.” I hear them say, loud and clear, “Please let us determine our own future by ourselves.”
They cry out, “Please DO NOT help us.”
And, as an Iranian, I say to you, my fellow Americans, “Please let my people pave the path of democracy on their own. Do not push them. Do not send them back another 100 years!”
I am an American-Iranian who loves both America and Iran.
I am American enough to not want to see more deaths and misery for my country. I do not want to hear people from Europe and other countries, those we consider friends, speak about us as warmongers. More important, I don’t want to see my young American brothers and sisters giving up their lives and dying in order to satisfy the appetite of our blood-thirsty leaders. I do not want to see my American children living in fear as a result of this administration’s agenda for world domination.
I am Iranian enough and American enough to not support more death, more wounded, more war and more destruction. I am human enough to dream of peace and happiness for all people.
So I say, Enough! to “The Axis of Evil.” I say Enough! to “The Great Satan.” I say Enough to War.
Leila Zand is the Iran Program Coordinator at the Fellowship of Reconciliation (www.forusa.org/programs/iran).
Well said, Leila. I pray
Well said, Leila. I pray that your dream be true. I work for that and I share it for Iran and for all peoples. Every human and every community has dreams, more has a life to live in a place on this planet. We can learn to live together...when we overcome our fear of others and learn to share as adult humans.
Peace, Bernie Meyer, The American Gandhi
Iran statement of the International Peace Bureau-Geneva
This is a recent statement on Iran and the need to renew broader disarmament negotiations on the part of the International Peace Bureau, Geneva, of which IFOR is a member (www.ipb.org)
IPB on Iran situation - a question of justice, law and survival
Geneva, Nov. 7. Last week six major powers agreed to draft a third UN Security Council resolution on sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme. Officials from the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany will meet on 19 November to assess UN and EU reports. Meanwhile, there are continuing rumours and warlike gestures, threatening strikes against Iran, and this against the background of revived international tensions and a re-launching of the arms race. These developments are causing grave concern around the world.
Yes, we must prevent new countries acquiring nuclear weapons. To reach that goal, states that already possess nuclear weapons themselves must renounce their claim that these weapons are indispensable for their security, and commit themselves to making real progress towards nuclear disarmament, as they are legally bound to do by international treaties. This is a matter of justice and respect for international law. It is also a question of the survival of humanity, since weapons always end up being used.
In the case of Iran, the heavy-handed attitude demonstrated by the US and some of its allies like the UK and France, risks pushing the world into a spiral of horror. The negotiations that have recently had some positive results should be the only option; they have shown their effectiveness in the North Korean case. Also, the Iranian people must be convinced that they are safe from attack, contrary to what the partisans of the clash of civilizations and those who favour a confrontation at any price might say. The whole region of the Middle East must commit itself to disarmament. The end of the occupation of Iraq, and the resolution of the Israel-Palestinian conflict, will help to ease the tensions felt by the peoples of this region who have suffered so much from war.
The IPB, conscious that humankind has reached a critical point in relation to nuclear proliferation, appeals to the peoples of the world to act now to relaunch the disarmament process. Not only is the survival of mankind at stake; disarmament could free up enormous resources that could be used to respond to the challenges of development, the environment, education and health - the essential building blocks of sustainable peace.
Rene Wadlow, Representative to the UN, Geneva, Association of World Citizens
Impressed!
I was impressed by this Leila khanoom. May God bless you, bless Iran and bless Americans. I have experienced Iran-Iraq war period and I hate experiencing the death of my family members, friends, relatives and others any more.
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