 Up next we are going to have Norman Solomon American journalist media critic activist Solomon is a long time associate of the media watch group fairness and accuracy in reporting. In 1997 he founded the Institute for public accuracy. Since 2011 he has been the national director of roots action.org Norman taken away. Thanks so much and thanks to everybody who's made our gathering here today possible. When we hear all the media coverage in retrospect is about 911. We rarely hear and certainly almost never in the mass media here that when people are killed, whether it's intentional or predictable. Those are atrocities that are being financed by us taxpayers. And so we hear about the evils of al Qaeda and 911. And certainly those were evils. But we're not hearing about the predictable as well as the intentional killings. The tens of thousands of civilians documented to have been killed by the US military in the last 20 years, and then the injuries and then the terrorizing of people with drones and other US weapons. We're hearing very little about that. And part of the role of activists is to make those realities heard, make them heard loud and clear as forcibly and as emphatically and as politically powerfully as possible. Our role as activists I think sometimes can get blurred in terms of getting them conflated with the roles of some of the best members of Congress. When our progressive peace heroes in Congress. Push for peace and disarmament and social justice. They deserve our praise and our support. When we come to the foreign policy blob. When they start to be more a representative of the establishment to the movements, rather than a representative of the movements to the establishment. We've got a problem. I think it's the role of peace activists certainly one of our roles as individuals and as organizations. To be clear about what our goals are and be willing to challenge even our friends on Capitol Hill, and I'll give you a very recent example. Two of our leaders of anti war forces in the House of Representatives, a couple of weeks ago circulated a dear colleague letter, encouraging members of the House to tell the chair of the House Armed Services Committee Adam Smith to stand firm behind President Biden's 1.6% increase in the military budget over the budget that Trump had given us the year before. And the point of the letter was chairman Smith. I want you to defend this increase in the Biden budget. That's 1.6% against the budget increase that has been passed by the Senate Armed Services Committee of 3.3% increase. That kind of a letter moves the goalposts further and further to the liking of the military industrial complex to the liking of the war profiteers to the liking of the warfare state. And so, when people we admire and support. In this case, Mark Polkan and Barbara Lee circulate that dear colleague letter. There's a tendency for organizations to say, yeah, we're going to get behind you we will respond affirmatively to the call to urge our members to urge their representatives in Congress to sign this dear colleague letter. And what that creates is a jumping off point that moves the frame of reference farther and farther into the militarism that we're all trying to push back gets. And for that reason, me and my colleagues at roots action.org decided to decline the invitation to sign that letter. I bring it up not because that is a make or break moment, but because it's indicative of the pathways and the crossroads that we face to build a stronger and more effective peace and social justice disarmament movement. And it's replicated in many respects. When we're told that it's not practical on Capitol Hill to urge a cut off of funding to all countries, including military funding and assistance to all countries that violate human rights. And when we're told that Israel is off the table. It's not our job to internalize those limits that have been internalized by even almost all of our heroes on Capitol Hill except for the squad and precious few others. It's our job to speak not only truth to power but about power and to speak clearly and candidly including to those who are often our allies. It's not easy to put it mildly to go against the powerful stream of media of politics of big money of the way that every day issues are framed to us in terms of what's practical. But whether as in the last few weeks and perhaps especially today, the mass media are paying attention to issues of war and peace, or whether we are often disregarded as outside of the frame of breaking news. It's peace activists it's social justice activists like the several hundred on this call in real time right now, we're the ones who can change history, and organizing is what does that and I'm very happy to be involved with at root section we have launched a group called progressive hub net, and it's for all groups not just roots action as a tool for organizing. And so I want to invite you to consider making it part of your daily visit online. Go to progressive hub net. Not only can you see what is happening around the country and beyond in terms of organizing, but you also can provide information and analysis, so we all become stronger in building the social movements that we so desperately need. Thank you very much. Thank you so much Norman for joining us today and speaking.