Today, I will begin the 600-mile bike Ride For Peace. You can read all about the Ride and join me in the Ride--or support it by signing the petition or making a contribution--by clicking on the cool icon to the right on this page (and we have really neat T-shirts to sell with the logo!)

Here is the prepared text of my statement to the press which I will give at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in New York City at 2 p.m.:

We stand before the Vietnam Memorial to remember the cost of war.

We remember PFC Louis E. Willett who served with Company C, 1st Battalion, 12th Infantry, 4th Infantry Division. He was killed during a firefight in Kontum province on 15 February 1967. He was 21 when he was killed.

Before he was killed, he wrote home: “When I get out, I guess I’ll take it easy for a couple of months and just mess around. Been thinking of buying a car, and just riding around the country to see what there is and forget the Army…”

We remember PFC James J. Rice, from Newtonville, Massachusetts, who served with Company K, 3rd Battalion, 3rd Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. He was killed near the DMZ on 7 February 1968 while attempting to rescue a buddy who had been badly wounded. He was 21 years old.

Before he was killed, he wrote to his parents: Fourteen days left in the field and then I should be headed home. I can’t write too long, we are going out in about an hour for an ambush. Here is a $159 check plus my W-2. I’ll tell you it’s a hard way to make $1,206.”

Yesterday, Sgt. Jose Gomez of Queens was buried, one of the 114 New York soldiers who have been killed in Iraq. He was killed on April 20th by a roadside bomb. It was his second tour of duty there. Joe Gomez was saving his money to buy a home for his mother. Three years before his death, his then-fiancee AnaLaura Esparaza-Guitierrez was killed by a roadside bomb in Tikrit.

There are those who say Iraq is not like Vietnam.

But, in many ways, it is. As it was then, our politicians are responsible for the deaths of thousands of people in an immoral, pointless, useless war.

We stand before this memorial to remind us that our politicians—including the incumbent senator from New York—are responsible for the deaths of more than 2,400 American men and women soldiers, and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

I set out on this Ride For Peace as a way to talk about the cost of the war in communities throughout our state: the soldiers whose lives have been cut short and the opportunities they and their families have lost to live a happy, peaceful, normal life.

As well as the lives lost, every community in our state has sacrificed—those sacrifices are not apparent on a daily basis but they are there in the lost opportunities. We do not see the millions of dollars that we will never have to spend on schools, health care, housing and other needs—money that has been squandered on an immoral war.

2,400 American soldiers killed, tens of thousands of Iraqis killed, tens of thousands of people injured, many with life-altering wounds, a country destroyed, an eventual $2 trillion price tag.

We say enough.

We say to those politicians who voted for the war: you do not deserve our votes in the coming election.

If we do not hold accountable politicians who vote for immoral wars, what will prevent them from casting votes for future wars and wasting the lives of tens of thousands of human beings?

During this first phase of the Ride for Peace, which will cover 600 miles and reach at least 16 communities, we will be gathering signatures on a petition asking that our party’s state convention pass a resolution calling for an immediate end to the war. The petition can also be signed by New Yorkers everywhere by going to our website at www.bike.tasinifornewyork.org

Today, I also call on my opponent, Hillary Clinton, to join me in a debate on the war and its consequences. I challenge her to come to the various communities we will visit so that Democrats can see the difference in our positions. She voted for the war, has supported the war and, as Bob Herbert recently wrote in The New York Times, her position on the war is right there with Bush, Cheney and Condoleezza Rice. I believe the war was immoral, should never have happened and must end immediately.

Democrats in New York deserve an open debate on the war so they can decide who they want to represent them in the U.S. Senate.

Our goal is simple: we want to end this war now and save lives.

Thank you.