10-21-04

AN APPEAL FOR REGIME CHANGE IN THE U.S.

Adolfo Perez Esquivel won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1980. Wole Soyinka won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986. Federico Mayor Zaragoza is a former director-general of UNESCO. Jose Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998.

BARCELONA ? Not for a moment do we, the undersigned, propose that the peace and security of the world rests solely on the outcome of the forthcoming presidential elections of the United States. The Middle East crisis will not magically disappear, nor will the Iraqi insurgency, now spiraling out of control, suddenly quiet down. Terrorism will not thereby vanish. The ongoing atrocities in Darfur that have left over a million people displaced will not find sudden resolution, any more than AIDS abruptly cease its ravaging march.

Nevertheless, viewing the global effects of the policies of the present government of the United States, we are passionately convinced that a CHANGE in global relationships has become critical, and that this change can be most persuasively brought about by a change in the government of that nation.

We are convinced that a chink in the wall of isolation and alienation that now surrounds the United States, placing her at loggerheads with much of the world community, and with the United Nations, a window of opportunity, however narrow, will emerge through a change of government. We feel that such a change is potent with real possibilities, that it will provide a much needed pause in the rapid attrition of global accord that is a direct result of U.S. policies.

We call attention to the fact that it is not the undersigned, in addition to those who agree with our views, who hereby interfere in the internal affairs of others, but the United States whose actions have been marked by a continuing intervention, and mostly of a unilateral nature, in the affairs of other nations, with consequences that threaten world stability. We therefore claim a right, a transparent and humanistic right, to intervene in a crucial decision that will affect the fate of billions.

We urge the American electorate to give both themselves and the global community a chance for peace and increased security by voting resolutely for the alternative to the present government, a government whose misguided polices have done so much to undermine trust between nations, destabilize the world and imperil its inhabitants.

? Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Wole Soyinka, Federico Mayor Zaragoza and Jose Saramago

(c) 2004, Global Viewpoint
Distributed by Tribune Media Service, INC. (10/21/04)