The Reverend Jesse Jackson urged Georgetown students to engage in “massive, non-violent” action by joining the March to Justice on Friday. The march is partly in response to the U.S. Department of Justice’s “closed door” policy towards Iraq.
Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is organizing the march, with the support of members and leaders from the NAACP, NOW, League of United Latin American Citizens and other groups.
Participants will gather in Freedom Plaza at Pennsylvania Avenue and 14 Street, N.W. at 11 a.m. Friday and walk to the U.S. Department of Justice Building at Pennsylvania Avenue and 9th Street, N.W. at noon. A rally and vigil will follow the march at 1 p.m.
Jackson criticized U.S. policy regarding Iraq and stressed the importance of following the U.N. Charter and international law in a speech delivered in Gaston Hall on Monday.
“We are moving dangerously close to a war that is unnecessary, that would create global destruction unlike anything we have seen in over 50 years,” Jackson said. “We are on the brink of war tonight based upon our fears, anticipating that danger might come eventually.”
Instead of instigating a regime change in Iraq, Jackson said that he favors increased negotiation, sanctions and monitoring. The United States would not be able to “strike [Iraq] and walk away,” but would end up occupying the country and killing thousands of people, he said.
“In the end, we must use our minds over our missiles,” Jackson said.
“The great sense of personal pain and agony” felt by all Americans in response to Sept. 11 has shifted the country’s former sense of “optimism and prosperity without end” to “fear, cynicism, and imminent danger,” he said.
According to Jackson, after the events of Sept. 11, the United States made efforts to build international coalitions; however, U.S. dealings with Iraq evidence a return to an isolationist policy.
Young people can play an essential role in politics, Jackson said.
Students and young adults are our “right now” rather than “our future.” Young people strongly affect the policies of the nation by dominating culture, media and consumerism, he said.
“When young America comes alive, we’re always made better,” Jackson said.
In particular, Jackson encouraged students to ensure that “every vote counts.” Referring to the presidential election of 2000 as a “global embarrassment to democracy,” Jackson said that the margin of voter disenfranchisement in Florida decided the final outcome.
Throughout his speech Jackson emphasized the need for socially responsible change.
“We are a great and powerful nation, but we are not an island. But if we are an island, then it is in a sea of war and poverty,” Jackson said.
