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"WHAT'S GOING ON?"
-Marvin Gaye

by DAMU SMITH

TODAY, INDIVIDUALLY and collectively, we must take up the challenge set forth by Frederick Douglass 128 years ago, when he denounced the celebration of America's 4th of July by saying to himself and those to whom he spoke:

Oh! had I the ability, and I could reach the nation's ear I would today pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed; and its crimes against God and man must be proclaimed and denounced.

The need for fire and thunder is as urgent today as it was then. So when we leave here today and go back home to our communities let us "quicken the feeling of the nation," "rouse its conscience," and "startle its propriety" by saying loud and clear from coast to coast: America, we demand jobs for our youth and all of the unemployed-we don't want your draft registration! We demand properly equipped and adequately financed schools-we don't need your MX missile! We demand decent hospitals and affordable health care for all-we don't need your XMI main battle tank! We demand day care centers and recreational facilities for our young people-we don't need your SSN-688 nuclear attack submarine! We demand decent and affordable housing for all who need it-we don't need your ground-launched cruise missile or Pershing II missile or neutron bomb! We demand care for our senior citizens-we don't need your Trident submarine, Trident I missile, FA-18 naval strike fighter, CUN nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, AAH advance attack helicopter or any of your other weapons of death and destruction!

We want life, not death! We want peace, not war! We demand an
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The above speech was delivered at the May 17th demonstration for "Jobs, Peace and Justice" in Washington, D.C. Damu Smith is on the Washington staff of the American Friends Service Committee and is co-chair of that organization's Third World Coalition. He is also an executive board member of the National Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.

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