George A. Ruhe
at
Connecticut State Capitol,
Saturday, March 15, 2003
"A State-Wide Rally for Peace"
Connecticut United for Peace
addressing
A Rally of about 500 Citizens

Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman!

Let me rephrase that: Good afternoon, fellow Americans!

One more time, let me say it the RIGHT way: Good afternoon, PATRIOTIC Americans!

My name is George A. Ruhe of Wethersfield. Being here today is a first for me. I really felt honored to be asked to share a few thoughts with this gathering.

It has taken me a long, long time to get here. But, the current headlong rush to war by our government has served as an epiphany, in my thinking, about war and its implications.

I happen to be a part of a dying off generation of World War II veterans. I am 77 years old, old enough to have tasted combat in that war. It was only three months long, but that was long enough. You can rest assured that it was hazardous. You can go from being well to being DEAD in a blink of an eye.

To use a term common among our young people today, a term unknown to me in my youth, war SUCKS! War is not glamorous! The bodies and the stink of death are not what we are used to seeing in the sanitary environment of our modern funeral homes. I was 19 years old at the time, full of piss and vinegar. I wasn't trying to be a hero. I was just a GI in the infantry of George Patton's Third Army, trying to do my duty (and I think I did it pretty well) and hoping I would survive. I earned my Combat Infantry Badge and a couple of ribbons, one with a two battle stars. This stuff has been lying in a box in my home since 1946.

Those three months and the aftermath that I saw first hand were defining moments in my life. I didn't know it at the time, but, as I matured, had kids of my own and was able to step back, I was able to evaluate the idiocy of many leaders worldwide as they sent young men, and then young women, off to war. It is easy for leaders to commit other people's kids to war in order to satisfy their own messianic and megalomaniacal needs. Both of these words are appropriate to the leadership pushing our kids off to war today.

You are seeing and recognizing the folly that Bush & Company has charted for this great country of ours. The idea of a preemptive attack and the bombing a country, albeit with a ruthless leader, but also with millions of innocent women and children, makes us no better than Saddam Hussein.

It also takes us into the world of George Orwell. In that world, mass killing is considered good and necessary. George Bush seems to embrace this type of thinking. George Orwell's 'Big Brother' is also a concept that John Ashcroft seems to think that we Americans need.

I truly believe that you are all patriots, motivated by conscience, and acting on your conscience is not risk-free. Over time there were dissenters in other countries, but unfortunately too often people there were either mesmerized, terrorized or both. With the the risks too great, they failed to take to the streets as we are doing today. Other countries have had their own "Patriot Acts" for keeping things under control.

Today, we are not alone. Millions throughout the world are making their voices heard.

Many would accuse those here today as being 'unpatriotic' or even 'traitors.' Let me share a thought by an 'author unknown:'

"Patriots are not revolutionaries trying to overthrow the government. Patriots are counterrevolutionaries trying to prevent the government from overthrowing the United States Constitution."

Call your representatives and let them know that we are unhappy with their abrogation of their Constitutional responsibility as the ONLY body empowered to declare war. Give peace a chance.