PRESS STATEMENT
               March 20, 2003

REVEREND JACKSON OFFERS PRAYER TO THE
GLOBAL COMMUNITY DURING THIS SEASON OF VIOLENCE

(CHICAGO, IL) Reverend Jesse L. Jackson, Sr., founder and President of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, issued the following statement regarding the commencement of war with Iraq.

“Our hearts are heavy this morning.  An unnecessary war has begun, the United Nations has been undercut, the future of our children has been clouded by this new cycle of violence. We offer a prayer for the safety of our young men and women in the military—may they return home safely, and soon.  We offer a prayer for the children of Iraq—may they die of old age, not age-old hatreds.  We offer a prayer for our leaders—even at this late hour, there is still time to change course, to work this out without war.

The immorality of a pre-emptive strike is not altered by its success.  The Pope has said that this is an unjust war.  The Archbishop of Canterbury has opposed this war.  The leaders of almost every major religion across the globe have said a pre-emptive strike is immoral.  Nelson Mandela, the greatest moral voice of recent times, has spoken out against a unilateral, aggressive, pre-emptive strike.  Our nation will have to live with the future consequences of this strike—not just next week, but next decade.  Our moral authority has been weakened.

The President of the United States has launched us on a new course, a foreign policy of preventive war that marks a radical departure from the successful and efficient foreign policy that has guided our country so well for over two centuries.  This new policy was never seriously debated in Congress; it was never vetted by the public; it was never offered to the voters in a campaign, which is essential in a democratic system.

So this morning, we pray for peace.  We light a candle.  We reflect on life and death, and the value of a young child.  And in the deepest traditions of American dissent and patriotism, traditions running back to Paine and Jefferson, to Douglass and King, to Abraham Lincoln and Robert Kennedy, we object to this war. We pray for a cease fire.”


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