For Immediate Release
Contact:
May 24, 2005
Mark Lewis
719-471-9400 Springs action Alliance
12:00 PM
Dennis Apuan 719-632-6190
Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission
Colorado rallies to protest Dick Cheney in Colorado Springs
Colorado Springs-May 24
Colorado activists will rally to protest Dick Cheney at the Air Force Academy
in Colorado Springs, Wednesday, June 1, at 7:30 am at the north gate entrance
to the academy.
The rally is organized by the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission, Springs
Action Alliance, Students for Social Justice,
Citizens for Peace
in Space, and a broad, state-wide coalition of groups working to counter
the participation of Dick Cheney in the Air Force commencement, and the continued
exploitation of our young for an unjust war based on lies, distortions, and
half truths, in large part, told by Mr. Cheney.
Dennis Apuan, director of the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission said,
"As the master of disaster, puppeteer plotter and Halliburton
hero, chickenhawk Cheney tries to draw attention away from his corporate misdeeds
by dragging us into a never-ending war."
"As a war profiteer, Mr. Cheney still receives $160,000 each year from Halliburton
in deferred payments, and it is in his best interest that his former corporation
perform well", Mr. Apuan said.
The rally will gather at the north gate entrance to the academy
at 7:30 am, Wednesday, June 1.
Organizer Mark Lewis, of the Springs Action Alliance, and alternative news producer, said,
"It is an insult to the cadets to be exploited by Cheney for his political
benefit."
"In contrast to the sense of loyalty and duty of these cadets, is Cheney's
loyalty to the profits of Halliburton, paid for by the prosecution of endless
war; and his sense of duty to the neocon values that motivate such crusades."
"As the administration's main cheerleader for the complete distortions about
WMD, ties to al-qaeda, and purchases of Niger Uranium, Cheney was instrumental
in forcing this war on the American people", Mr. Lewis said. "His participation
at the commencement is not welcomed."
The 2002 lawsuit
ruling for Citizens for Peace
in Space and against the arrests at the Air Force Academy commencement,
sets a legal precedent for protests along the interstate right-of-way at the
entrance to the Academy. Lawsuits are still pending for the arrests outside
the "free speech zone" at the NATO Summit
held at the Broadmoor last year, but the first amendment will prevail there
as well.
Loring
Wirbel, of Citizens for Peace
in Space said, "Dick Cheney has long been the power behind the throne
at the White House, and the real author of President Bush's preventive war
theory. It's appropriate that the vice president is speaking at the
academy, since he is in some senses more responsible for this country's aggressive
military posture than is Donald Rumsfeld."
Dennis Apuan, of the Pikes Peak Justice and Peace Commission concluded,
saying, "It is time that we intensified our resistance to injustices done
by our government, in our names, by corporate crooks like Cheney, and start
becoming involved in shaping a sustainable vision for the human race."
"We must to put an end to the politics of hate and fear."
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