Dr. Joseph Lowery: 'Stolen identity'

GAINESVILLE - One of the founders of the Civil Rights Movement spoke Sunday in Gainesville at St. Paul United Methodist Church.

The Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery told his audience it is time America regained its identity.

From same sex marriage to the war in Iraq, Lowery said Americans are facing issues that divide them.

"I think what we've let happen is that somebody has stolen our identity," he said.

Lowery told the congregation at the St. Paul Men's Charter and Re-certification service that while no weapons of destruction were found in Iraq, Americans face domestic weapons of destruction including the millions in the jobless ranks and millions of people without health insurance.

Lowery said anyone who died serving his country died an honorable death, but added that no more Americans should die in Iraq and the best way to support the troops is to bring them home.

"I want to honor the dead by leaving the number where it is; what better support can you give than to bring them home alive," Lowery said.

Lowery, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, told his audience that more blacks need to vote.

The S.C.L.C. advocated voting rights in the 1960's and marchers seeking the right to vote faced violence during the 1965 Selma to Montgomery March in Alabama.

"There are too many Negroes sitting on their tails and not going out to vote; that's a weapon of mass self destruction," Lowery said.

Lowery served as S.C.L.C. president and chief executive officer from 1977 until his retirement in 1998.