Not supporting Dennis Kucinich doesn't mean you are brainwashed by the corporate media.
However, I think the Congressman is getting a bad rap.
1. "He looks like an elf and he doesn't look good on television."
Well, I'll agree he needs a tailor. (I have some suits I'm going to mail to him)
However, such a complaint says more about We the People in 2007. Abraham Lincoln wouldn't have made the People's 100 Most Beautiful List either.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt stood tall, even though the man could barely stand up.
I'm voting on who got a plan and who wants the work.
2. "Kucinich needs to get off that Department of Peace thing."
I don't agree. In my relatively short lifetime, I've seen humanity accept war as a natural condition. I grew up in the last days of the Cold War. I saw American win it, but in some way lose our soul to do it.
Then we had a chance to move beyond it...instead we just found a new boogieman.
Now we have somebody talking about cutting the crap and solving some of the real problems that face us all (you know, global warming, poverty, hunger, lack of clean water, etc.), and telling us we can do it best by coming together.
Now compare that to starting a war so that a few oilmen, arms dealers, Saudi sheiks and defense contractors get rich.....
Compare those visions...then ask yourself...Who's kooky?
3. "Dennis screwed up as Mayor of Cleveland."
Did he really? There's an awful lot of Clevelanders who disagree. Some of his greatest opponents in 1979, were admitting he was right 10 years later.
Would you like to know more?
http://www.truthdig.com/interview/item/20061214_battle_muny_light/ 4. "Dennis believes in that New Age stuff."
I love Dennis, but when he gets a little too much Shirley McClain in him, I get nervous...But not too nervous because when he get past the crystals...
He making some sense. Here I'd like to quite the Kos article...
We can conceive of peace as not simply the absence of violence but the presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness, of respect, trust, and integrity. We can conceive of peace as a tool to tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness and conditions that impel or compel violence at a personal, group, or national level toward creating understanding, compassion, and love. We can bring forth new understandings where peace, not war, becomes inevitable. We can move from wars to end all wars to peace to end all wars.
Citizens across the United States are now uniting in a great cause to establish a Department of Peace, seeking nothing less than the transformation of our society, to make nonviolence an organizing principle, to make war archaic through creating a paradigm shift in our culture for human development for economic and political justice and for violence control. (This what Dennis said)
(This is how the author of the article responds)
"Higher evolution of human awareness"? "Transform consciousness"? "Paradign shift"? What the hell is this crap? I expect this kind of crap out of Deepak Chopra (or Tom Cruise), not a serious presidential candidate.
Compared to some of his professed nonsense, belief in the multiplying of the loaves and fishes seems like the height of reason.
Well I can't speak for others...But I believe in multiplying loaves and fishes. I also believe that the last shall be first and the first shall be last...and that to truly lead, you have to be prepared to truly serve.
Now I'm not big into Deepak, but those statement are far from kooky.
What is a "Higher evolution of human awareness"? In this case, its getting the idea what violence really is at the gut level. I'm not talking about the high-level. Osama bin Laden is a rich brat, but he's a smart rich brat. He's playing on despair, and poverty for his agenda. I'm talking about
the gut level. The gut level is that guy in Ramallah wearing a Semtex vest. Seeing a wall around his town. No sewage system. No jobs and a hostile army firing tank shells at his house.
The gut level is a poor farmer in a town in Honduras trying to organize his neighbors, and getting messed with by government goons bought and paid for by some fruit company.
The gut level is a Nigerian fearing the government "Kill And Go" policemen, funded by oil companies.
The gut level is getting paid 24 cents a day to make Nikes. (that's the
"economic justice" part of the program)
Being aware of how these problems play into violence is gaining that higher level of human awareness.
From there gaining that awareness, we "Transform our Consciousness" -- We put our minds towards creating and implementing solutions..Then we have to put in the elbow grease. That means, we have to talk to people who may not what to talk to us. That means we'll have to visit Hugo Chavez, and Lula and Bachelet....and we'll have to go to Darfur and dig in...and we'll even have to talk to Iran and North Korea...
And we'll have to change trade policies and lift workers up instead everybody racing to the bottom.
And we'll just have to make human rights a priority.
The result will be that "Paradigm Shift" -- The idea that our country and the world is dealing with other in a new way, for result that will benefit all of us. Imagine how much more effective we could deal with global warming, energy, disease, and hunger in the world if the world was working together to provide the solutions.
Imagine how much better our inner-cities would be with expanded job programs, schools, infrastructure and health care. (Chipperback's rule -- Filled schools, factories and offices make for empty jails)
That's the paradigm shift...But a big part of them will involve making peace and social justice a real priority.
Now compare that to the way we are doing things now. Compare an emphasis on peace and justice to pre-emptive war, exploitation and economic violence at home and abroad...Then ask yourself who's "whacked out" and "crazy"?
As you think about this...remember these two song lyrics.
"There's no point to the conversation unless the conversation's peace." -- Stevie Wonder
"Free your mind and your ass will follow." -- George Clinton
If we don't put a belief that we can do better and commit to it, how can we expect "rational empirical" results in the challenges of the 21st century?
5. "Dennis is unelectable"
Dennis is electable...All we have to do is vote for him.
Now this is where I talk to fellow Kucinich supporters.
We have to suit up, buckle up the chin strap and get in the game. We know the odds are long. We know that the media is laughing at us all the way. But we have to follow the lead of our candidate:
Dennis is keepin' on keepin' on. Dennis is slugging it out. He's the 5'6" troll, but that man has a backbone, and a heart.
I've met the man. I'll tell you, he has what "Presidential" is all about.
But he can't do it by himself. We have work to do.
That's means
Stop whining about the media ignoring us...and the party ignoring us." When your area has party committee meetings
BE THERE! Spread the word whenever the opportunity is there.
Respect those who have a different view, but don't back down either. Whether it is here, or on the streets, or in the party meetings, etc.
To those who don't support Dennis, it's cool. We have a big field and all these candidates are a dang sight better than the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
A final thought...Before you call Dennis Kucinich crazy...Remember..
1776 -- "We hold these truths to be self evident..." ARE YOU CRAZY?
1787 -- "We the people, In order to form a more perfect union.." ARE YOU CRAZY?
1861 -- "Labor is greater than capital and should receive the greater consideration" -- ARE YOU CRAZY?
1872 -- "Women's sufferage. That damn Woodhull woman done gone crazy!"
1886 -- "Raise less corn and more hell?!?! That Mary Ellen Lease is Crazy!"
1903 -- "WILBER AND ORVILLE ARE CRAZY! THAT THING AIN'T FLYIN'!"
1907 -- "THEY WANNA BREAK UP MY TRUSTS??? IS ROOSEVELT CRAZY?"
1911 -- "YOU WANNA ACTUALLY PAY WORKERS DECENTLY? SO THEY CAN BUY THE CARS??? HENRY, YOU ARE CRAZY!"
1936 -- "WPA? TVA? Protect people's bank accounts FDR IS CRAZY?"
Somewhere in Germany, 1944 -- "THEY LANDED WHERE??? WHERE THE HELL DID ALL THESE BOMBERS COME FROM??? HOW DID THEY BUILD ALL THOSE DAMN TANKS??? ARE THOSE AMERICANS CRAZY???"
1955 -- "YOU AREN'T GIVING UP THE SEAT? WOMAN ARE YOU CRAZY?"
1956 -- "THEM DARN NEGROES AREN'T GETTING ON THE BUSES -- DANG CRAZY REVEREND NAMED KING GOT 'EM ALL RILED UP!"
1961 -- "WE'RE GOING WHERE BY 1970? THE MOON? KENNEDY IS CRAZY!!!"
Moscow, 1962 -- "TURN THOSE SHIPS AROUND NOW! KENNEDY IS CRAZY, LIKE A FOX!"
1963 -- "PROTESTORS ARE COMING ACROSS THE BRIDGE, SHERIFF...ARE THEY CRAZY?"
1965 -- "WAR ON POVERTY? LYNDON...YOU'RE CRAZY!"
1969 -- "THERE'S MEN ON THE MOON -- HOW CRAZY IS THAT???"
1976 -- "IS THIS CARTER GUY FOR REAL? OR JUST CRAZY!"
1979 -- "DON'T BE CRAZY STEVE, NOBODY'S PUTTING A COMPUTER IN THEIR HOUSE"
1991 -- "YOU'D HAVE TO BE CRAZY TO THINK GEORGE BUSH WILL LOSE IN '92"
2007 -- "DEPARTMENT OF PEACE? UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE? PRESIDENT KUCINICH? YOU ARE TALKING CRAZY!"
2013 -- "Universal Health Care? check! World trade that really works for workers? check! American industry and labor running strong? check! American building a lead in green technology? check! More respected in the world? check! That Department of Peace is getting some things done. AND THINK, IN 2007 EVERYBODY SAID PRESIDENT KUCINICH WAS CRAZY!" "Craziness" built America. "Craziness" grew America. Is it so crazy that think that the same can save America? I don't think so.