--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "gds444" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Edg, > > I've been a big fan of Kucinich since reading a speech of his five > years ago about Bush and the destruction of American democracy. He > gave the speech at USC when people were still afraid to criticize Bush. > > If you read his policy stances on his site, they are mostly in > alignment with what Americans actually want. An end to the Iraq war, a > not for profit health care system, to cancel the WTO and NAFTA, sound > environmental policy and on and on. The sad part is that in both > Presidential runs, the media branded him as a "longshot", a "liberal" > and as a candidate with no chance to win. All of this became and is a > self-fulfilling prophecy. > > I run into people all the time that tell me that Kucinich has the most > sound policies, but they won't vote for him because he doesn't have a > chance to win. My response is that if you don't vote for him, don't > send him some money and don't share his message with friends, > co-workers, family members, than you are absolutely correct, he has no > chance of winning. > > I have seen Dennis speak in person on two occasions. Both times, I was > driven to tears. The first speech he spoke about non-violence. He is > the first politician I have heard or read that actually understands > non-violence. Most invoke it as a means of protest. Dennis gets that > it is a spiritual and political philosophy. He adheres to it through a > vegan diet, through his peace work and establishment of a cabinet > level Peace Department, through his support of worker's rights and > unions, support of gay marriage, his environmental policy, et al. He > is a truly remarkable human being. When you hear him speak in person, > he is electrifying. I know that this may sound impossible since he > comes off so poorly in debates, but trust me, he sounds like a > preacher that has been touched by God. He has so much passion. He's > not made for the television era. > > My wife and I have a PR agency focussed on clients in health and > wellness, spirituality, vegan/vegetarian foods, environmental > technology and the like. I spoke with his national PR rep a few months > back. Their strategy is to raise $50 from one million donors. This > would allow him to better compete and would force the media to pay > attention (since thirty percent of their coverage is money related and > only those candidates that raise significant money are worthy of their > attention). We are hoping to help get some bylined articles in media > coverage in our sphere. > > Anyway, Dennis would make a wonderful president. I urge anyone that > believes that he would be the best choice to get involved in some way. > Don't allow the system to tell you that you have to vote for Hillary > or Guliani or the world will collapse. > > Best, > Gary
Agreed. You might find this interview with Kucinich from 2003 interesting: US Representative Dennis Kucinich, a Democrat from Ohio, first came to US national prominence in 1977 when he was elected mayor of Cleveland at age 31, the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. In 1978, Cleveland's banks demanded that he sell the city's municipally-owned electric power system to a privately-owned utility company as a precondition of extending credit to city government. Kucinich refused to sell, and in an incident unprecedented in American politics, the Cleveland banks plunged the city into default for a mere $15 million. Kucinich lost his re-election bid in 1979, but 15 years later won election to the Ohio Senate on the strength of the expansion of Cleveland's electricity system which provides low-cost power to almost half the residents of the city. In 1998, the Cleveland City Council honoured him for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system". As a US Congressman, Kucinich led Congressional opposition to the 2003 war in Iraq. In his current campaign for the US Presidency, he combines a powerful activism with a spiritual sense of the essential interconnectedness of living things. Kucinich's world view carries with it a passionate commitment to public service, peace, human rights and the environment. Share International: Peace and justice issues are central to your presidential campaign and your entire political approach. Why have you chosen those areas to focus on? Dennis Kucinich: All of us have a purpose in life that relates to trying to affirm the society in which we live. We do it in different ways. Some of us are doctors, lawyers, architects, teachers, mothers, fathers, municipal workers, bakers, waiters. All of us have a place and aspire to more and more possibilities. For myself, I have felt a commitment to social and economic justice from an early age. When we see the possibilities of life, reflected in our own life, the quest for peace in the external world has to be preceded by a quest for peace in one's internal world. Having had the opportunity for such an activity in my own life, I understand that peace is possible, peace is inevitable, if we work towards it. To share my understanding, my learning, which we all do with respect to our own experience, is a great joy. To work towards it in our own governmental structures is an important responsibility which I've undertaken because I believe we can create a more peaceful society, and certainly peace and justice go hand in hand. My commitment comes from an understanding of purpose, and a belief that one person can make a difference, and indeed each one of us can make a difference. Each person should consider carefully what we can do, in our own lives, to try to expand the potential of our own humanity. What can we do, each of us in our own lives, to each day reach a little bit higher and embrace more possibilities, to send more love into the world, and try to bring our talents and abilities to bear in each moment. There are such possibilities for creativity in our world. They all begin within us. We just have to have the confidence within ourselves, and in our ability to make a difference. SI: You referred to some of them, but are there spiritual or religious ideals or principles that guide you in your approach to life and politics? DK: My view of the world is a holistic one. I view the world as being interconnected and interdependent. All things have a way of expressing their identity through one powerful immanent reality. As each one of us makes a choice, that choice impacts the world. We can then come to a realization of the power that each individual has, and the tremendous expressiveness and potential of our existence. The principles that animate my life and involvement have to do with this understanding of the essential interconnectedness of all humanity. Therefore, we should be aware that we affect others in the choices that we make. We affect not only other people, we affect other species as well. So we must take care to be respectful of this planet and of all those who participate in the life of this planet. SI: How did you arrive at such a profound view of the world? Was it a particular experience that you had, or did your views evolve over time? DK: My views are consistent with the strains of thinking that created this nation, the thoughts about human liberty of Thomas Jefferson, the American Transcendental movement, the English Romantic poets, certainly my own connection to Catholicism, but beyond that, to all religions. All this results in a kind of synthesis, leading to a world view of the possibilities of human unity and human potential. SI: What are your views regarding the role and importance of the United Nations and its various agencies in the world today? DK: As president I would strengthen the United Nations and work to insure the US's participation in all structures that affirm international order and international law. The UN has been a very powerful vehicle for human unity and it is so important that the United States works to assure that the United Nations is effective. Unfortunately, our nation in recent years has attempted to undermine the role of the United Nations and the Security Council in international decision-making. The war in Iraq was a glaring example of the destructive path that the present Administration has taken in ignoring the concerns expressed by the United Nations, ignoring the Security Council, ignoring the work of inspectors, and determining to proceed upon a unilateral path of action. I do not believe that such policies are consistent with the role of a great nation, nor are they consistent with trying to promote and assure human unity. As President of the United States, I would set aside policies of pre- emption and unilateralism and create policies for co-operation in order to assure the security of all nations and the security of this nation in particular. SI: What changes would need to happen for the United Nations to fulfil its potential in the world? DK: We have to look at what the United States can do. As president, I would ask the United Nations to work with the United States in facilitating and strengthening all areas of international law. The United States can lead the way by upholding the tenets of the Non- Proliferation treaty, which calls for the abolition of all nuclear weapons; through stopping the production of new nuclear weapons; through upholding and enacting a Test Ban Treaty; through setting aside plans for national missile defense, which anticipates nuclear war; through protecting space from the proliferation of weapons; participating in the space treaty and making certain that there will never be weapons in space; setting aside the doctrine of the Vision 20/20 programme which calls for the weaponization of space. The US can lead the way through international co-operation to assure that we can meet the challenge of terrorism. After 9/11 the world community was ready to participate with the United States on an ambitious undertaking that would combine the resources of the world community to systematically address the challenge of international terrorism and work co-operatively with state and local police agencies. Unfortunately, the US took it upon itself to go in its own direction, preferring bombs to detective work. I believe we can lead the way towards strengthening the United Nations through international co-operation on terrorism. Furthermore, the US needs to promote internationally the concept which is so powerful in this nation equal justice before the law. The way we can best do that is to participate in the International Criminal Court. As president, I would move forward with the US fully participating in the International Criminal Court. In addition, I would want the US to sign the biological weapons convention and chemical weapons convention, to participate in the Small Arms Treaty and the Landmine Treaty, and in order to protect our global environment participate in the Kyoto Climate Change Treaty, which brings with it the requirement that we begin to work towards sustainability. All of those areas bespeak of something that would support international order, international law, and thereby strengthen the United Nations. SI: Our magazine is called Share International because we believe there is a need to share the food and resources of the world more equitably among rich and poor. What are your thoughts about that specifically, and more generally, how we can help lift people out of poverty here in the US and throughout the world? DK: In the Gospels, there is a story about Christ challenging people, and creating an ethic for social consciousness, when he said: "When I was hungry did you feed me? When I was homeless did you shelter me?" And he went on to say, "Whatever you did for the least of the brethren you did for me." He made a connection between the spiritual principle of sharing and the absolute requirement for an awareness that it is an immanent reciprocal fact of our being. We affirm our own existence through recognizing others and through sharing our lives, and what we have, with others. Our ability to spiritualize the material world depends on that recognition. SI: Given your extensive political experience, what have you found to be the best way to manifest one's spiritual ideals in the physical world? DK: How I do it in government is looking for opportunities to create jobs so the people can be self-sufficient, or have the opportunity to create material wealth for themselves. I do it by promoting the idea of universal healthcare where everyone in this country will have the opportunity for a quality standard of healthcare. I do it by working to promote retirement security so that when people are in their twilight years they will have economic security through a fully guaranteed Social Security system. I do it through working to promote education, to make sure our children have the opportunity to develop their knowledge of the world, and of themselves. Everyday I am involved in the large issues. My office in Cleveland [Ohio] is also involved in the smaller issues, which in some people's lives are huge, by helping 10,000 people every year with a variety of concerns and requests for service. The business of government exists not only in the macrocosm; it also exists in the microcosm. It exists to provide services for those in this country, hundreds of millions of people, who wish to see their life affirmed, who wish to see the circumstances of their life respected, and who wish to participate in a society that values individual existence and community. Every day I try to see how I can help one person. And every day I see how I can try to help the entire world. The two actually flow into each other. For more information: www.kucinich.us From http://www.shareintl.org
