Sorry to Bother You But People Are Dying!
By Olivia DiNucci
Dear President Biden,
My name is Olivia DiNucci and I am the anti-war activist who interrupted your dinner in DC the other night. You, the most powerful man in the world, were sitting right in front of me. Normal people like me don’t often have access to people like you and I couldn’t resist addressing you knowing we are in such a pivotal moment in history, one year after the horrific Russian invasion of Ukraine. I know that it was President Putin’s decision to illegally and inhumanely invade Ukraine but I believe you have the power to initiate peace talks between him and President Zelensky to end this war and to stop the bloodshed. The continued escalation of this war has real consequences.
Knowing that people are dying and will continue to die because of endless wars, I asked you to push for negotiations over further escalation in Ukraine. The continuation of this war only means more death and destruction for the people and communities of Ukraine, those in the Global South, and the world at large. The war has plunged the country into chaos and instability and the threat of nuclear war is terrifying to young people like me.
Since my disruption, China’s president Xi has offered up a peace plan. President Lula de Silva of Brazil and other countries’ leaders are intensifying their push for diplomacy and negotiations as well. The U.S. must also push for peace instead of endlessly supplying weapons to prolong the devastating conflict. Human beings do not “win’’ in war, instead the weapons manufacturers and military contractors do. In fact, they profit from war and have monetary incentive to make politicians like you believe they’re “necessary” to national security. Those companies, like Lockheed Martin, also happened to donate to your presidential campaign and receive over half of the nearly one trillion dollar Pentagon budget you just signed a few months ago.
As the devastating war enters its second year, the escalation of weapons and propaganda is turning the conflict into a forever war. War and conflict ends with some sort of negotiated settlement. The question is: how many more deaths does it take before you use your power to initiate peace talks? The more weapons you send or fund will only create less stabilization in Ukraine and its neighbors. US escalations have real consequences. And now, more than a fourth of Ukrainaians are displaced (largely women and children), homes have crumbled, farmlands which feed communities have been poisoned, families have been torn apart. We need peace now.
The war in Ukraine has had a devastating effect on the entire world, especially the Global South. Don’t take my word for it. Listen to the populations who face famine and extreme hunger the longer the war lasts. If you didn’t like me disrupting your dinner, imagine what it’s like for the millions of people of the global south whose dinners are constantly disrupted by war.
I also asked that you remove Cuba from the State sponsor of terrorists list. The current economic blockade we impose on Cubans is another form of war. Another costly form of war that you could end now. The whole world agrees: sanctions only hurt poor and working class families in Cuba.
I was kicked out of the restaurant before I could demand you stop funding and arming Israel’s occupation of Palestine, urged you to stop supporting Saudi Arabia’s slaughter in Yemen, reminded you of the devastation happening in Ohio, demanded you address the needs of the unhoused who were outside the door of the restaurant, take serious action towards the world’s common enemy, the climate crisis in which the Pentagon is the largest institutional polluter. The list could go on and on.
The world is at a crossroads. At this moment in history, we have the ability to choose between peace and war — between stability and chaos and addressing the needs of true national security: healthcare, housing, education and climate justice. We must pursue what is right, not what is easy; we must pursue what benefits people, not war-profiteers. I don’t feel ashamed for disrupting your dinner and wish the people had more access to you. People are dying and you hold the power to end much of the death and destruction of people and the planet.
I encourage every person who may be reading this: if you find yourselves in the same room as members of the ruling class, ask them the hard questions. To the warmongers: why do you think young people do not deserve a future free from war? To the corporations from the weapons manufacturers to the fossil fuel industry: why do you continue to make a killing off of killing? We demand answers to these questions even if it does briefly disrupt someone’s fancy dinner.
Originally published at
https://www.laprogressive.com
on March 6, 2023.
Olivia, I support what you courageously did and say in this article! But why do you and other Peace activists continuously feel a need to harshly condemn Russia before you can rightly explain the real problem which is that the U.S. wanted and has eagerly promoted this war? Before also acknowledging that the U.S. has committed a hundred, a thousand, other illegal violations of humanity and international law in current and recent history.
Russia has long been peaceful and patient while vigorously complaining for 30 years about the encroaching very militaristic U.S. led NATO to Russia's borders. After the U.S. promoted coup in Ukraine, Russia still pursued peaceful negotiations, while its demands were ignored that Ukraine was its final red line as far as NATO encroachment. Russia finally had NO other choice! I am a peace activist, but I am not an apologist for those oppressed who stand up to my country which has become increasing like "Hitler's Germany on steroids"! If I am wrong, then how do we also explain the U.S. efforts to create a dangerous cold war with China? How do we explain all this U.S. militarism pushing us to the brink of Nuclear War when the world actually needs the full cooperation of the superpower nations to save the planet from the ongoing life-threatening climate catastrophe? The reality is that the U.S. is 99% of the problem in the world today. Thank God, there is a Russia and China to provide some check and balance on the U.S. Military-Industrial-Complex aggression against people at home and around the world!
70% of the people of Ukraine voted for a non-politician comedian peace candidate Zelenski to end the government fighting against fellow Russian speaking Ukrainians in the eastern Donbas region and Crimea. Russia asked for the same peace in addition to a neutral NATO free Ukraine.
Russia said it was their RED LINE as Ukraine is a dagger into the heart of Russia! Research Russian invasions by Napoleon, 1917 White European led White Army and Hitler's Nazi army in WWII. The U.S. and the Ukraine nazi military units doing the fighting said "HELL NO" so that is how we got the Russian invasion. Zelenski then followed his American pumped-up ego and joined in with the war mongers!
This is why Ukraine, and its people are being destroyed! This is all to enrich the U.S. Military-Industrial Complex with a proxy war against Russia even if it means fighting to the last Ukraine person. The Disaster Capitalists wait on the sidelines eager to rebuild Ukraine for the benefit of corporations and the rich at the expense of American taxpayers and the Ukrainian people!
While we need worldwide cooperation of the superpowers to fight the ongoing Climate catastrophe, the U.S.is actively creating a new dangerous cold war with Russia and China at the risk of WWIII and nuclear annihilation of all life on this planet.