AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to begin with a speech he gave at Riverside Church days after the launch of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. This is Ossie Davis.

OSSIE DAVIS: I am indeed Ossie Davis. I say that so that those whose duty it is to report my behavior back to the proper authorities. I am not as smart as Miss Condoleezza Rice, though she is yet my sister, nor so faithful unto death as General Colin Powell, though he is yet my brother. They have their sense of duty; I have mine. They are loyal to their commander-in-chief, and I am loyal to mine. My commander-in-chief is Martin Luther King, Jr., and more than 30 years ago, he stood in these sacred halls and gave me my marching orders.

Though I was predisposed to peace-mongering long before I met Dr. King, it started for me with a jolt on that day, August 7, when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, and I was with a soldier, 28 years old, faced with the brutal consequences of what my country had done. It was a period that left me in depression, trying to find an answer, because I knew the quandary, into which these acts had led us. I fully understood that our technology and our humanity were in full balance. Which one would lead us to the future was the question.

I watched in horror when I left the service as my country used the atomic bomb as the center of its foreign policy, how the march away from colonization in Africa and other places was affected by that concept of ourselves which under the aegis of Mr. Churchill and also Mr. Truman set out to establish their vision of a world where we had a second class place and were implored to remain in that position. I saw the struggle for people to be free. I saw the stand we took in 1954 when France was faltering as she tried to re-impose colonialism in Southeast Asia, and when France faltered Dien Bien Phu, I saw her step in and take over. I saw, even then, that we were on a course that could well lead to destruction. And much later, in the war that came subsequent to that, I saw the country engaged in what Dr. King told us on that night was adventures based on militarism, racism, and poverty, which it was more constrained to pursue than peace and justice and equanimity all over the world. I became that night as many of you did, citizens who were also drum majors for justice, drum majors for justice second class, glad to be recruited.

I thought with the pain and anguish of Vietnam that my country had learned a lesson, that we had decided that there was an end to our reliance on technological tricks and gimmickry. But I see today that I have been mistaken. As I read once again the magnificent words of Dr. King upon that occasion and saw how easily we might this very night transpose the word Vietnam for Iraq, and the document would still be an eloquent cry for sanity and for peace.

I have never looked upon myself as a magician. I was not sent by the almighty to solve all of the problems of the world at one fell swoop. I am not morally arrogant. I accept the fact that maybe this generation was not the one designed by fate to bring peace to the world. But I also believe that it is necessary to stay on the march, to be on the journey, to work for peace wherever we are at all times, because the liberty we cherish, which we would share with the world, demands eternal vigilance. And democracy is no easy path, but those of us who believe in it must be prepared to sacrifice in its cause more willingly than those who are prepared to die in the wars of aggression. We, too, must be dedicated to the cause of freedom. So, tonight, I’m happy to join once again with those of you who see the cause as I do. I say to my commanding officer, "Martin, here we are. Ossie, Ruby, our children and grandchildren, all our house, all of us joined with millions from one end of creation to the other. Martin, we report for duty, sir." Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Ossie Davis, speaking a week after the invasion of Iraq began. He was speaking on March 27, 2003, at an event sponsored by WBAI Pacifica Radio at the historic Riverside Church.