Your Honor, the old woman who stands before you was arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in America's Capitol Building. I did not raise my voice to do so and I blocked no hall.
The First Amendment to the Constitution, Your Honor, says that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, so I cannot imagine what legitimate law I could have broken. We peaceably assembled there, Your Honor, careful to not offend the rights of any other citizen nor interrupt the peaceful enjoyment of their day. The people we met were supportive of what we were saying and I think they--especially the children--were shocked that we would be arrested for such a thoroughly wholesome American activity as respectfully voicing our opinion in our own hall. Any American standing there would have been shocked. For we were a most peaceable assembly, until Trent Lott's and Mitch McConnell's police came in with their bullhorns and their shackles to arrest us. One of us, who is here today, was injured and required a number of stitches to his head after he fell and could not break his own fall. He was detained for over four hours without medical care. I am glad we were only reading from the Declaration of Independence --I shudder to think what might have happened had we read from the Bill of Rights.
I was reading from the Declaration of Independence to make the point that we must declare our independence from the corrupting bonds of big money in our election campaigns. And so I was reading these very words when my hands were pulled behind me and bound: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it."
Your Honor, we would never seek to abolish our dear United States. But alter it? Yes. it is our constant intention that it should be a government of, by and for the people, not the special interests, so that people may use this government in service to each other's needs and to protect the condition of our earth.
Your Honor, it is now your turn to be a part of this arrest. If your concern is that we might have interfered with the visitor's right to a meaningful tour of their Capitol, I tell you that we helped them have a more meaningful one. If your concern is that we might have been blocking the halls of our government, let me assure you that we stood to one side of the Rotunda where we would not be in anyone's way. But I inform you that the halls are indeed blocked over there.
They are blocked by the shameless sale of public policy to campaign contributors, which bars the doors and the halls to the people's legitimate needs and the flow of proper representation. We Americans must put an end to it in any peaceful way that we can. Yes, we can speak when we vote, and we do. But we must also give our best effort to encourage the repair of a very broken system. We must do both.
And the courts and prosecutors in government have a role, too. If Attorney General Reno would properly enforce the federal bribery statute, we would see lobbyists and elected officials dragged from the Capitol Building and the White House, their wrists tied, not ours. I would be home in New Hampshire, happily applauding the television news as my government cleaned its own house.
In my 90 years, this is the first time I have been arrested. I risk my good name --for I do indeed care what my neighbors think about me. But, Your Honor, some of us do not have much power, except to put our bodies in the way of an injustice--to picket, to walk, or to just stand in the way. It will not change the world overnight, but it is all we can do.
So I am here today while others block the halls with their corruption. Twenty-five million dollars are changing hands this very evening at a fund raiser down the street. It is the corrupt sale of public policy, and everyone knows it. I would refer those officials and those lobbyists, Your Honor, to Mr. Bob Dylan's advice when he wrote: "Come senators, congressmen, Please heed the call. Don't stand in the doorway, don't block up the hall."
Your Honor, the song was a few years early, but the time has now come for change. The times are changing because they must. And they will sweep away the old politician --the self-serving, the self-absorbed, the corrupt. The time of that leader is rapidly fading. We have come through a brief time when we have allowed ourselves to be entertained by corrupt and hapless leaders because they offer so little else, and because, as citizens, we have been priced out of participation and can only try to get some enjoyment out of their follies. But the earth itself can no longer afford them. We owe this change to our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren. We need have no fear that a self-governing people can creatively and effectively address their needs as a nation and a world if the corrupt and greedy are out of their way, and ethical leadership is given the helm.
Your Honor, to the business at hand: the old woman who stands before you was arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in America's Capitol Building. I did not raise my voice to do so and I blocked no hall. But if it is a crime to read the Declaration of Independence in our great hall, then I am guilty.
Thank you very much.
May 24, 2000 Court statement of Jim Haddock, her son:
Your Honor, I am here because my mother, who is ninety, and who has stood up for fairness and justice all her life, is determined to spend the last years of her life working for the reform of our corrupt campaign finance system.
When she told me that she wanted to walk across the United States to bring attention to this issue, which was then not a high profile issue, I reminded myself that she is no less a fighter at 90 than she was as a fifty year-old when she and my father traveled to Alaska to stop the destruction of a fishing village by the atmospheric testing of hydrogen bombs. She stopped six hydrogen bombs, so I didn't expect that I could stop her from walking. I did what I could to support her walk across the country. It has been the greatest experience of my life, as it has been for many, many people.
I say that because I have met so many wonderful people across the nation, and I have learned what a caring and patriotic people Americans are. They despair of their democracy now, as it seems so lost to the corruption of the large campaign donors.
Americans responded with instant love and attachment to my mother. I have now an uncountable number of unofficial brothers and sisters across America, and I feel very enriched indeed by the friendship of these special people.
I cannot tell you how many people of very modest circumstance entrusted my mother with their message to Washington. They want an ethical democracy that looks to the needs of the people and the environment, to justice and fairness. They speak eloquently and from the deepest parts of their hearts. They have given sons and brothers to the defense of a democracy that they insist remain a government of people, for people.
So I was honored to stand silently near my mother as she read from the Declaration of Independence in the Capitol building. She was sent there by America itself, and I am witness to those thousands of conversations and teary-eyed handshakes and hugs.
Those people feel they no longer have representation in their government, so they sent Doris to speak for them. If you lock her up for stating the truth in a hall that is by the Constitution a protected place for a citizen to freely speak, the people will send another. If you lock me up for standing silently in my own Capitol, then I would rather be there anyway.
Thank you.
Judge Hamilton's
sentence: "As you know, the strength of our great
country lies in its Constitution and her laws and in her courts. But
more fundamentally, the strength of our great country lies in the
resolve of her citizens to stand up for what is right when the masses
are silent. And, unfortunately, sometimes it becomes the lot of the
few, sometimes like yourselves, to stand up for what's right when the
masses are silent, because not always does the law move so fast and
so judiciously as to always be right. But given the resolve of the
citizens of this great country, in time, however, slowly, the law
will catch up eventually. So it becomes my lot to apply the law as it
is at this time. Perhaps not as it should be but as it is. With every
confidence that to the extent that it is lacking in righteousness, it
will reach that point eventually given the resolve of her citizens to
make it right. "So, in this case, having accepted these
pleas of 'quilty' in these matters, it becomes my responsibility to
bring this matter to closure by imposing a sentence consistent with
the law as it exists at this time. And, therefore, I will impose a
sentence in each of these cases in which a plea of 'guilty' and 'no
lo contendere' was entered of time previously detained in this
matter. Thank you and this case, these cases, (are
closed)." A recent
e-mail From: Philippe Dambournet I have just read this account that my
mother forwarded to me from Hightower's. I am a French citizen - but
I was moved. It feels like a Capra movie. That is the America that
the world wants to love, the America we French went bankrupt helping
win the War of Independence. Years ago, when I was serving my 12-month
tour as a conscript in the French army, I was posted in a mid-18th
century building that once housed the Ministry of the Navy. It is on
Rue de l'Independance Americaine - American Independence Street -
right across the street from the great Palace of Versailles. History
has its addresses, and sooner or later they will whisper in your
ear. God bless Doris Haddock and the true ideals
of America. Philippe
Subject: Re: Granny D's day in court