Bill Moyers articulates WorldPeace campaign

Bill Moyers spoke to a standing room only crowd yesterday at the LBJ library and articulated John WorldPeace's campaign platform. He stated his belief that religion would replace race as the number one issue in the 21st century. (Only WorldPeace attended the Rally for School Prayer in Palestine on December 17, 2001, and endorsed a moment of silence to acknowledge God in the public schools.) He specifically stated that Texas bankers have too much influence in Washington (which was a direct comment about Tony Sanchez and his corrupt International Bank of Commerce). He also talked about low teachers salaries (WorldPeace has promised a $2,500 across the board raise for teachers). He emphasized a democratic pluralism (WorldPeace's signature statement is: "How can we manifest peace on earth if we do not include everyone (all races, all religions, all nations and both sexes) in our vision of peace?") He emphasized democracy (WorldPeace has committed to allocating half of all his appointments to women.)

Texas is at a cross roads. We have entered a new millennium and we must make a choice about our collective future. The citizens of Texas must choose to continue the political corruption that existed in the 20th century or to begin a new political dialogue where truth, justice and equality become a factual reality. We must decide whether God is a mass delusion or an ever present reality. 

When I made the commitment to change my name to WorldPeace in 1988, I knew that I would have to fight virtually everyone in the world society which had become cynical in its belief that truth and morality could never overcome the corruption that has always gone with political leadership. I knew that I would be ridiculed and laughed at and dismissed as a last vestige of the sixties when students on college campuses rallied to end the war in Vietnam and Dr. King gave his life to give dignity to the Black race.

And I haven't been wrong. I have in fact been ridiculed and laughed at. And for me the most telling example of cynicism are the bumper stickers which say "Visual Whirled Peas." People are dying horrible deaths from AIDS in Africa, people are starving in much of the world, religious wars killed tens of thousands in Bosnia and Palestine and Afghanistan, and children are born each day in hopeless environments where death would be a blessing. Every time I see one of these bumper stickers I am saddened that there are actually people who take pride in their social apathy lack of empathy.

The problem for the cynics who come to know me is that I have worked hard to acquire my three university degrees, I have worked hard to help as many poor people as I can to navigate the expensive legal maze of the justice system, I have served my country in the U S Army and my three sons have served in the Marine Corps, I have honored my parents, I have fulfilled my commitments to my children, I have maintained my faith in God. As a result, these people cannot discount nor dismiss me simply as a crackpot who changed his name. (Interestingly few people consider that virtually every woman who marries changes her name and so changing one's name is really a pretty common occurrence.)

Now I am engaged in a political race for governor of Texas where the measure of a candidate has always been the amount of campaign contributions that he can accumulate. There is an understanding that large contributions do not come without an obligation for future favors. Therefore, the larger the campaign chest, the greater the number of favors owed. Everyone understands the inherent corruption that exist in this kind of political process where candidates purchase their offices at the expense of the majority of the people.

I have two opponents in the governor's race who both have an undeniable record of corruption. Tony Sanchez has laundered $25 million of Mafia drug money through his Tesoro Savings and Loan which was later bankrupted due to the fraudulent loans that he authorized; where typically $250 thousand dollars was loaned on $50 thousand of collateral. Naturally the borrowers were going to default as they in fact did and the taxpayers had to pay up $161 million to bailout Tesoro while Tony went on to establish the International Bank of Commerce of which he now owns $2 billion in stock. He is also a Vietnam era draft dodger, a user of illegal drugs, an employer of illegal aliens, a UT regent who lied on his appointment application, and someone who called the Secretary of State, Henry Cuellar, a homosexual.

Dan Morales, my other corrupt opponent, is under federal investigation for undeniably trying to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars to his friend Marc Murr out of the $18 billion tobacco settlement won by the state. He also did everything he could to expand on the Hopwood decision to destroy affirmative action in the state universities and thus harming children of color all over the state. He also encouraged the privatization of the state prison system as he refused to get Federal Judge William Wayne Justice out of the state prison system until his hand was forced by Buster Brown. And he is a man who obviously frequented strip bars like the one in which his wife used to work.

Dan Morales and Tony Sanchez and Henry Cisneros are corrupt and immoral Hispanics who are a discredit to their race and an embarrassment to all real Texans. Morales and Cisneros have both broken faith with and betrayed the trust of the people of Texas who supported their political careers. Tony Sanchez is a poster child for everything that is wrong with Texas politicians. All these men are embarrassments to the Hispanic community and their current campaigns for office simply emphasizes their arrogance and unrepentant attitudes. These men and anyone and everyone who supports them are representatives of all the corruption, lying, stealing and Godless acts which they represent. 

What is interesting is that to date no one in the Texas press has come close to the standards set by Mr. Moyers in his reporting of the truth and his support for men of integrity in high office. To date, the Texas press has done everything possible to promote the corrupt system of Texas politics that is choking to death truth and justice and killing every possible shred of hope that our children have of inheriting a corrupt free democratic society. 

The Texas press must acknowledge that it has determined to be part of the Texas political problem as opposed to being part of the solution. The Texas press is determined to refuse to ask the hard questions whose answers will expose the corruption and immorality of Tony Sanchez and Dan Morales. 

The press is united in its refusal to report the fact that there is a credible champion of truth, justice and high moral standards as an alternative to the corrupt immorality of Sanchez, Morales and Rick Perry. That alternative is John WorldPeace.

In 67 days, we will see if the Democratic Party of Texas is going to endorse the corrupt Sanchez or Morales or if they are going to endorse WorldPeace as their candidate for governor. If they in fact decide to endorse and embrace all that Sanchez and Morales stand for and turn their back on WorldPeace, then they will condemn their children to a limited future where money is God and democracy is just a word.

If the press and those who support the corruption of Sanchez and Morales succeed in rejecting WorldPeace, will there be a party? Will there be dancing in the streets? Will everyone celebrate that WorldPeace has been stopped? Will people brag loudly how they defeated WorldPeace? 

Regardless of the outcome of the Democratic Primary, when it is all said and done, I will still be John WorldPeace. I will continue my work to make the world a little better by writing on the Internet and helping as many people as I can. When it is all said and done, I will be just as committed to God and democracy as I have been all my life. And when my life is over, at the least I will be able to say to whomever asks that I tried to make the world a little better by advocating WorldPeace.

John WorldPeace
The next governor of Texas

January 5, 2002


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Faith in democracy is crucial, Moyers says
By Dick Stanley

American-Statesman Staff

Saturday, January 5, 2002

Television journalist Bill Moyers, speaking Friday at the LBJ Library, exhorted Americans to save democracy after the Sept. 11 attacks by working for humility amid growing religious pluralism and said they should join the loyal opposition if greedy politicians try to keep doing their corporate-financed business as usual. 

"Religion may well replace race as the most predominant issue facing the 21st century," he said. "We're entering a new religious landscape in this country. In pluralistic America, what faith requires is humility. Your neighbor's faith in democracy (not his religion) is paramount." 

He said he was bitter at "Texas bankers pull(ing) their strings at the White House" and what he called the rush of energy companies, airlines and other big corporations to get tax breaks while "firefighters and teachers pay out of their middle-class salaries for the war on terrorism." 

Moyers was frequently interrupted by applause from a standing-room-only audience estimated at 2,000. They came out in a misting rain to hear his hourlong speech in the library's seventh annual Harry Middleton Lectureship series. Hundreds who couldn't get in watched the speech on closed-circuit television in a nearby lecture hall. 

He was introduced by LBJ Foundation President Larry Temple as one "who has made an indelible mark on the cultural history of our time." Temple said Moyers' impact explained "why this hall is packed tonight, with people being turned away." 

Moyers, a Texas native, one-time Baptist seminarian, University of Texas journalism graduate and aide to President Johnson, said he promised retired library director Harry Middleton that he would speak on the subject of faith. Moyers said he wrote the speech as required before Sept. 11 but after that world-changing day decided he had to substantially redo it. 

"Things even sound different now," he said. "Our gross national psyche has changed, too." 

He said his son-in-law had an office within two blocks of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, and though the son-in-law was spared the fate of thousands of people in the towers, "our daughter tells us she often lies awake at night wondering when it will happen again." 

Such was the aim of the terrorists, Moyers said, "to possess our psyche . . . to turn each private imagination to an Afghanistan." 

He said he read the capsule obituaries of the dead published for months after the attacks in The New York Times, finding one woman he had interviewed years before. He recited some of the names: of immigrants, waiters, janitors. 

"Everywhere America's cheeks were stained with tears," he said, even as corporations "seized this moment" to push through legislation to reduce their taxes. 

"Whose side are these people on, anyway?" he asked, to applause. "Not just religious believers threaten our democracy" but "unfettered capitalism. . . . They're picking your pocket." 

The challenge for America is what to do with "the very fact of survival," he said. "Survival must take shape in how it builds for the future." 


You may contact Dick Stanley at dstanley@statesman.com or 445-3629.