Saul Williams- "Not in our Name"

"the pledge to resist:

we believe that as people living in the united states it is our responsibility to resist the injustices done by our government in our names.

not in our name will you wage endless war.
there can be no more deaths.
no more transfusions of blood for oil.

not in our name will you invade countries, bomb civilians, kill more children, letting history take its course over the graves of the nameless.

not in our name will you erode the very freedoms you have claimed to fight for.

not by our hands will we supply weapons and funding for the annihilation of families on foreign soil.

not by our mouths will we let fear silence us.

not by our hearts will we allow whole peoples or countries to be deemed evil.

not by our will and not in our name.

we pledge resistance.
we pledge alliance with those who have come under attack for voicing opposition to the war or for their religion or ethnicity.

we pledege to make common cause with the people of the world to bring about justice, freedom and peace.

another world is possible and we pledge to make it real."

I chose to post this entire poem because of the possibility of people having not read this. It's a very powerful piece written by Saul Williams. Although it is more compelling when spoken, the words still do it justice.
Williams is my favorite modern poet. This is a perfect example of why. I have always been a fan of protest poetry and songs so this naturally caught my attention.
Through just around eighteen lines, Williams is able to reflect perfectly how many of us felt at the time of the Iraq war and the Bush administration. This is a piece about how we feel powerless in having a voice in how we are represented as a country. We do not all condone the actions of those in charge. That is why it is so important for poets/artists/musicians to speak out in desperate times.
My favorite line in the poem is, "no more transfusions of blood for oil". Williams has always been very clever with the way he words his thoughts. He is saying, stop the useless shed of blood for materials and power. A lot of people felt that the Iraq war had an underlying agenda of exploiting a tragedy for the purpose of attaining valuable goods. Though just a conspiracy in essence, there are many things that just seem too coincidental to ignore.
"Not in our name will you erode the very freedoms you have claimed to fight for." We were always told that the war and our government's actions were for the sake of our freedom. Who knows, that may be true to some extent. But too many Americans were so willing to sacrifice certain freedoms and privacy at the drop of a hat. This is simply inexcusable and hypocrisy at its finest.
"Another world is possible and we pledge to make it real".

Let's make it happen Saul. One word at a time.