Our latest hero, Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, came out with a whopper of a speech in his address to the United Nations yesterday. I mean, Wow! And every word of it true, except perhaps for the bit about the scent of sulfur still wafting from the podium where Bush had given his address earlier.
AND I learned a new word!
he•gem•o•ny ( hi-jem’ e-nee) 1. The predominant influence of one state over others.
Here is one of my favorite lines in the speech:
The hegemonic pretensions of the American empire are placing at risk the very survival of the human species. We continue to warn you about this danger and we appeal to the people of the United States and the world to halt this threat, which is like a sword hanging over our heads.
And then he made this plea:
And if there is anything I could ask all of you here, my companions, my brothers and sisters, it is to please lend your good will to lend momentum to the Nonaligned Movement for the birth of the new era, to prevent hegemony and prevent further advances of imperialism.
Heck Yeah! The least we can do as American Citizens, in the name of sanity and the human values of compassion, trust and respect – the least we can do is stand up against the militaristic tide and say, “No more violence!” Lest we find ourselves written up in history as the sheeple who let it happen. Lest we end remembered as we remember the majority of German citizens who “Thought They Were Free” while allowing their government to kill six million Jews.
