The People Have Spoken - Comments 

"Joe Madison is one of the most sought after speakers and media guest in the nation. He has captivated audiences from Capitol Hill to Hollywood Hills. He has been featured on news and talk shows across the country regarding current affairs, political events, civil and human rights. I have watched him keep audiences of every generation spellbound with his insight, witty style and ability to speak about the most controversial issues. He motivates audiences to change the world and themselves. His lifetime of experiences as an human and civil rights activist and talk show personality places him among that rare breed of speakers that not only talks the talk, but walks the walk." -Dick Gregory, Activist 

"Joe Madison brings a wealth of experience to his presentations.  He is dynamic on the platform, and never fails to provoke a response from both the enemies and supporters of justice and fair play." - Julian Bond Civil Rights Activist, Talk Show Host

"I am always proud to share the podium with a true entertainer like Joe Madison. There a very few of us out here who brings something fresh and new to the audiences around the country." - Les Brown Talk Show Host, Motivational Speaker

"Dear Mr Madison just a brief not of thank you for your words of wisdom and food for thought during the African Scientific Institute fellows induction ceremony. I thank GOD for you & the great work you are doing. Happy holidays to you & your family!    Best wishes Always." 
-Gene McGowen

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Remarks Delivered by Joe Madison "Bush Must Step Down Rally" Washington, DC February 4, 2006

In 1968 as a young college student, I listened to the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he spoke at the Riverside Church when he said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal…"

Today that time has come for us.

Dr. King went on to say, "we must understand that war is a symptom of a far deeper disorder and sickness within the American spirit.

When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the triple evils of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.

A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

That same year I witnessed President Johnson from the Oval office starring at the television camera and declaring that he would not run for reelection nor accept his party's nomination. He stepped down.

Several years later in the mid 1970's I came to this very location to join hundreds of thousands of young Americans to be part of the largest demonstration against the Vietnam War, and to demand that President Nixon end the war. Soon after that historic demonstration, Americans were at the peace table with the North Vietnamese.

Later a disgraced President Nixon stepped down.

Now more than three decades later this generation of Americans, young and old, Black and White, Yellow and Brown, suburban and urban have drawn a line in the historical sands of time and ask this President to end the war in Iraq or step down.

Once again, I have chosen to be on the correct side of history.

Just as the Vietnam War was wrong and evil, this war is wrong and evil, conceived by evil people, for evil purposes. We cannot remain silent. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.

Like President Johnson and Nixon, any Presidents who lie and deceive the American people cannot remain in office and must step down.

President Bush's campaign was a lie from the beginning; John Kerry came home with pieces of shrapnel from Vietnam, George Bush came home with two teeth fillings from Alabama.

"Tell the Truth President Bush or Step Down" (refrain)

President Bush used the pretense of 9/11 to invade Iraq and said they had W-M-D's, but the truth is he went after O-I-L.

Tell the truth President Bush or step down

President Bush told our men and women in uniform that their country would provide them with all the equipment and support they needed, the truth is he has not been honest with our soldiers and the result is that 2245 of our men and women in uniform who followed his order to fight an illegal war are dead and tens of thousands more will carry physical and mental scars the rest of their lives.

Tell the truth President Bush or step down

President Bush told us that he can pay for the war and take care of American citizens at home. The truth is the mounting cost of the war in Iraq means that the number of Americans living in poverty has steadily risen under his watch. This President's budget and the corrupt Congressional leadership of the Republican Party have hurt millions of women, children, students, low-income, disabled and senior Americans. For a nation that clings to the notion of morality, where are the ethics in that?

Tell the truth President Bush or step down

And the President is not by himself in deceiving America, as a member of the media and a human and civil rights activist who just happens to have a radio talk show, I challenge the media in America to tell the truth about President Bush's war in Iraq.

If people in America saw the hell, ugliness and brutality of war- dead Iraqi babies, Iraqi women with their legs blown off, dead and dying soldiers, they would say, "no" to this war.

The job of media, is to tell us the truth about the war, not sell us the war.

(Tell the truth or step down)

If we are to demand that President Bush step down, we must have the moral courage to stand up across this nation and protest against this illegitimate President and his illegitimate war.

When your children and grandchildren ask you what did during the Iraq War, you can tell them, "I stood on the correct side of history.

What you are doing today is good and let know one tell you differently.

What you are doing today is patriotic; let no one tell you differently.

We must end this war and prevent other wars. Your generation and my generation run the risk of being the last generation of humankind.

Someone once said, "I know not what weapons we will use to fight World War III, but I know that World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

What you are doing today is good. And in the words of the 'America' Go forth and 'crown that good with brother and sisterhood from sea to shining sea.'

From the Potomac to the Rio Grande.

From Pittsburgh to Seattle.

From Chicago to New Orleans.

Don't let anyone or anything turn you around or stop now. Keep telling the truth, that President- Bush- must- step- down- now, because the world can't wait.

Go forth and do your best and God will do the rest!