{"id":94774,"date":"2023-02-06T22:36:27","date_gmt":"2023-02-07T03:36:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/schillerinstitute.com\/?p=94774"},"modified":"2023-02-06T22:36:29","modified_gmt":"2023-02-07T03:36:29","slug":"ray-mcgovern-know-where-you-stand-and-stand-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/blog\/2023\/02\/06\/ray-mcgovern-know-where-you-stand-and-stand-there\/","title":{"rendered":"Ray McGovern: &#8222;Know Where You Stand, And Stand There!&#8220;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Ray McGovern: &quot;Know Where You Stand, And Stand There!&quot;\" width=\"860\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2oJI6iDeaSU?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"has-text-align-center wp-block-heading\">Watch the February 4 Schiller Institute conference<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link\" href=\"http:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/blog\/2023\/02\/03\/conference-the-age-of-reason-or-the-annihilation-of-humanity\/\"><strong>Watch Here<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Ray McGovern: <\/strong>Thank you, Dennis. I\u2019m very happy to be with you. The title of my little talk here, \u201cKnow Where You Stand, and Stand There,\u201d comes from a commencement address by my friend and tutor and mentor, Father Dan Berrigan. Actually, it doesn\u2019t come from that commencement address, it is the sum and total of that commencement address. He was asked by a very prestigious university to come and give the commencement address; this was about four decades ago. He came, and he stood up there, and he said those words\u2014\u201cKnow where you stand, and stand there.\u201d And then he very politely left and sat down with the audience. That\u2019s all you really need to know, folks. You need to know where you stand, and stand there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, sometimes we\u2019re a little worried. Nonviolence is good, but sometimes when we put ourselves in other people\u2019s faces and they react with a very great anger, we too are tempted to get angry. Not only at their reaction, but at the whole concept of the widespread injustice throughout the world. So, I would just encourage us all to remember that anger is a virtue. None other than Thomas Aquinas said so. He said, \u201cAnger is a virtue, but you have to have just so much of it.\u201d He warned against too much anger\u2014<em>iracundia<\/em>\u2014always being ticked off, that was the Latin word. But he also warned about \u201cunreasoned patience\u201d\u2014that\u2019s the best we could do from the Latin. He said \u201cUnreasoned patience sows the seeds of vice, nourishes negligence, and encourages good people to tolerate bad people, or the bad things that people do. I don\u2019t really think there are bad people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So, what we need to do here is figure out how to act; how to act nonviolently and with just the right dosage of the virtue of anger. I\u2019m not the greatest representative of what is now called by Jos\u00e9 Vega and others \u201cinterventions.\u201d Interventions in the same sense of the word, people are pretty crazy in Washington. But I\u2019ll give you some personal examples of how I tried to stand up and do what Dan Berrigan suggested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First slide, please. This is a photo of me standing up, turning my back to Hillary Clinton, who you can see off my left shoulder. She was talking about repression in Iran, and suffice it to say, there was great repression exercised on me simply for standing up, not saying a word, nonviolently again but angry. I was beat up pretty badly, but I didn\u2019t even have to stay in jail that night. I got to go home. I had to go to the hospital first, and interestingly enough, the doctor said, \u201cNow, you were beaten up. You have to report this to the authorities.\u201d I said, \u201cTo State Department security? They did it!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Second slide, please. Here I wasn\u2019t so lucky; I did have to spend the night in jail. But that\u2019s OK; good things happen in jail. You get to feel what other people feel being all closed up and unfree. What are the lessons here? Well, this particular photo was taken after I stood up and intervened, so to speak, with the Senate Intelligence Committee before they approved the nomination of torturer-in-chief Gina Haspel to be the new CIA director five or six years ago. What encouraged me to do that? Just the obscenity of the whole thing. Hello! So, what do you do in situations like that? Well, number one, you kind of, as you can see, you blend in with the indigenous to get in. You put your best wedding suit on, which I had. Number two, you stay away from known interveners\u2014Code Pink, for example. You let them sit over in a corner; you go separately. Number three, you hope that one of those Code Pinkers has a camera\u2014and indeed, one did. Therefore, this picture, after they had taken me out of the hearing room. And what I have as number four here, I was just thinking today. People have been asking me, \u201cWhat\u2019s this green band you have on there, Ray?\u201d Let me read it to you. \u201cRachel Corrie, April 10, 1979 &#8211; March 16, 2003.\u201d Suffice it to say that if 23-year old Rachel Corrie can stand up to Israeli bulldozers about to demolish yet another Palestinian home, and then, that Israeli bulldozer being instructed to back up over Rachel to make sure that her back was broken. Three days before the attack on Iraq, so it would not make the headlines. Well, if Rachel Corrie can do that, McGovern, you can do that, too. At least you\u2019re not going to get run over, yet at least, by an Israeli bulldozer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">We Catholics call this a sacramental; something that reminds you of a grace-giving event, or a grace-giving thing, or a grace-giving person like Rachel Corrie. Her dad gave me this bracelet three months after she was killed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I want to also suggest that those of you who are interested in some action, go to all the think tank presentations as Jos\u00e9 Vega has started to do. Here\u2019s one that I\u2019d like to show you. There\u2019s a little clip of an event at John Podesta\u2019s and Hillary Clinton\u2019s old think tank. I went to all those things as long as I lived in Washington. Sometimes I got to ask questions, if they were never welcome. This time, they didn\u2019t recognize me, they didn\u2019t let me ask a question. But I hung around; you might say \u201cNevertheless, I persisted.\u201d So, I went up to Adam Schiff, then-head of the House Intelligence Committee, and asked him about Russian hacking, which now has been conclusively disproven. Could we show this two-minute clip? If you fall asleep, you\u2019ll miss the whole thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MCGOVERN: My name is Ray McGovern. I served in CIA under seven Presidents and nine directors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">ADAM SCHIFF: Thank you very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MCGOVERN: We have a little alumni group called Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. We\u2019ve been following this issue very closely. One of our members is the former technical director of NSA. I\u2019m interested in, one week ago, when the President said this\u2014I don\u2019t want to misquote him\u2014\u201cThe conclusions of the Intelligence Committee with respect to Russian hacking were not conclusive regarding WikiLeaks.\u201d In other words, there\u2019s a big gap between alleged Russian hacking and WikiLeaks. The Intelligence Committee does not know how or if that information\u2014to the degree it exists\u2014got to WikiLeaks. Now, you assert as flat fact that Russia did this. Do you know more than Obama?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SCHIFF: Well, I would never claim to know more than Obama. I think he\u2019s a brilliant man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MCGOVERN: That\u2019s a very serious question.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SCHIFF: It\u2019s a serious question. I have every confidence in the intelligence of Russian hacking of both the DNC as well as John Podesta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MCGOVERN: James Clapper is a convicted\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SCHIFF: Do you want to hear the answer? I will, and while I can\u2019t go into the classified information, I have every confidence that the Russians have used WikiLeaks. Whether Julian Assange was a known participant, or as the Russians describe a useful idiot, that we will hopefully find out. But, I don\u2019t have any question in the conclusions of the Intelligence Committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MCGOVERN: You have every confidence, but no evidence, is that right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">SCHIFF: No, I can\u2019t share the evidence with you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MCGOVERN: That\u2019s bogus. [end video]<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">MCGOVERN [live]: Well, I have to concede now after all these years, that Schiff said one thing that was true. That was that he couldn\u2019t share that information with me, because it didn\u2019t exist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">What\u2019s the lesson here? I just want to encourage everyone\u2014go; go to these meetings; go to these think tanks, and nevertheless persist. I didn\u2019t know the camera was still on. I didn\u2019t know that C-Span still had audio. But I did it, and I\u2019m glad because that was captured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, what else? I\u2019m going to read in conclusion, a poem written by my mentor, Dan Berrigan, a quote from whom we started this little talk. It\u2019s called, \u201cSome.\u201d I don\u2019t want to spoil it for you; it\u2019s not very long, but I do want to have a photo up as backdrop. Could we have that slide #4 please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SOME<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some stood up once and sat down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some walked a mile and walked away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some stood up twice and sat down<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I\u2019ve had it, they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some walked two miles and walked away<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It\u2019s too much, they cried.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some stood and stood and stood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They were taken for dummies<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They were taken for fools<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They were taken for being taken in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some walked and walked and walked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They walked the earth<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They walked the waters<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They walked the air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why do you stand?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">they were asked, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Why do you walk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because of the children, they said, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because of the heart, and<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because of the bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">the cause<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">is the heart\u2019s beat<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and the children born<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">and the risen bread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">[photo] You\u2019re looking at a little boy, two years old, the age of our youngest of ten grandchildren. He was trying to escape the oppression, the war in Syria. He was of Kurdish origin, the stepchildren of all wars. And suffice it to say, he drowned with his big brother and his mother, trying to get to Greece. Alan Kurdi is his name. \u201cBecause of the children,\u201d they said. So, nevertheless, we must persist, because of the children. And we must look for moral leadership; but absent moral leadership, we\u2019re it. There\u2019s no other but us. We can appeal\u2014for example, I have appealed to Pope Francis, and that\u2019s appeared on the largest religious network run by Catholics. You can see it on my website\u2014raymcgovern.com. But we can\u2019t wait; we can\u2019t wait for a voice from the Vatican. We have to do what we can ourselves. That\u2019s why I applaud and I welcome the chance to be on every Schiller conference to which I am invited. I applaud all of us, and particularly Helga, for exercising moral leadership at this critical point in time. Thanks very much for your attention.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Watch the February 4 Schiller Institute conference Ray McGovern: Thank you, Dennis. I\u2019m very happy to be with you. The title of my little talk here, \u201cKnow Where You Stand, and Stand There,\u201d comes from a commencement address by my friend and tutor and mentor, Father Dan Berrigan. Actually, it doesn\u2019t come from that commencement [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":94775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[842],"class_list":["post-94774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-allgemein","tag-lang-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94774"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94785,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94774\/revisions\/94785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/2.schillermeet.de\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}