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I'm pretty removed from the election cycle right now. The primaries come and go every week and I watch the results come in. I take note of the outcome (specifically the fact that Ron Paul and Mike Huckabee are talked about as not being in the race even though they haven't dropped out). I also think deeply about what a future under Obama or Hillary will really look like. Anyways...
Back in August, I figured it was time to make a selection and choose to support somebody. I didn't know who Dennis Kucinich was.
I didn't feel like being a proverbial "independent." I didn't wish to wait until the primary in Indiana in May to pull the lever for who might be left in the race. I chose to watch some video footage on YouTube, do some research, and write some pieces as part of my figuring out whom to support. Dennis' candor and conviction won me over. (Later, I would look at the record and find I had made the best choice any American could have made in 2008.)
I wrote a piece that kickstarted my fight to keep Dennis Kucinich in the debates and the presidential race. It went after George Stephanopoulos who like every moderator on these corporate media debates did a poor job of getting the candidates to address the issues and giving candidates equal time responding to questions.
The piece was titled: "Actually, George, This Debate is Insufficient"
I posted the piece on the Action Center at the Dennis4President website. I was told by somebody to submit this article to OpEdNews. From that point on, I applied myself to submitting quality articles to OpEdNews for people to read about this election that always in some way had a bias in favor of Dennis Kucinich (or a bias against the black man or white woman the Democratic Party so dearly wanted to run as THE "change" candidate). My application led to me becoming a "trusted author," a privilege I greatly cherish.
Amazingly, my articles written during the fall were noticed by a documentary filmmaker who gave me the opportunity to participate in the production of her film.
I came to Chicago for college in the fall and for Dennis Kucinich, I stepped outside of my little shell and attended a House Party for Dennis. There I met several people who became the core group for the Greater Chicagoans for Dennis Kucinich.
This core group got me to for the first time ever go out and participate in the political process like all citizens should by petitioning for Dennis to get on the ballot in Chicago. I talked to many wonderful people who were willing to sign. I was introduced to the fact that Dennis was America's best kept secret. And I thought and imagined that what I was doing would pay off because all I wanted was to see Dennis Kucinich be a contender for the presidency.
We met weekly at a place called Mercury Cafe in Chicago not too far from the Loop. This cafe was a great setting for members of the Chicago campaign for Kucinich to gather and talk about news, politics, and outlooks on the future of America. We all were on the same page seeing that the deck was stacked against us but we had to fight the good fight.
I and others successfully got Dennis Kucinich on the ballot here in Chicago and the rest of Illinois. We filled the city with stickers for Dennis that at this moment are still on lamp posts outside.
Before Dennis was on, I also had another first: I marched in my first protest march on October 27th. I did it for Dennis Kucinich.
I got signatures for him to get on the ballot and then I took a "Bring the Troops Home" sign and taped two Dennis Kucinich campaign signs on the other side.
Walking in that march was a milestone in my history as an American. I had a sense that I was marching with the true voice of democracy. The march was representing all the most pressing issues: end the war, no war with Iran, 9/11 truth, health care not warfare, stop funding and occupation, end war and stop racism, etc. And being that it was an election season we all had our signs out for various candidates (Dennis and Ron Paul had the best showing but there were a few Obama and Richardson supporters).
I did not anticipate the battle Dennis would face with corporate media in the debates. I did mention that we needed people to give us money at the October 27th march so that Dennis could stay in the debates because they had already gotten Mike Gravel out. And once you are out, you don't get back in.
I stood in solidarity with all the actions Dennis and the campaign took in January to try to stay afloat. But there was something about the fight that was so disenchanting. The fact that media could tell a judge in Nevada that he could not defend Dennis' right to be included in the debates really bothered me.
From January to Super Duper Tuesday, I was kind of sour in a way. I really wanted nothing to do with talking about Dennis because in my opinion, few people were in a position to talk about what had led him to drop out. The media had not covered it accurately. The Democratic Leadership had not stood up for one of its leaders that gets as much attention if not more than Obama on YouTube. And people within the anti-war and impeachment movements just didn't seem to get out and stop business as usual the way they should have for Dennis.
And so the presidential campaign ended and we went to defending Dennis' seat in Congress.
People came out and got angry with him for trying to save his seat by stalling impeachment (for essentially a month---because if he wins the primary on March 4th, he can do whatever he wants to do for us). But some recognized that he was being "McKinneyed." Facing four challengers with AIPAC and corporations involved in supporting them (not to mention Paul Hackett and others), we knew he needed money now to stay in Congress.
That's the power of Dennis Kucinich. He's one man who gives us all hope because we see him take actions that all politicians (especially those in the Democratic Party) should be taking. He put out an analysis in October 2002 to stop the Iraq invasion which got over 100 members of the House to oppose the war. He drew up articles of impeachment for Cheney and has the articles of impeachment for Bush ready. He voted against the PATRIOT Act because as he said in the debates, "I read it." He brought up the hydrocarbon law in Congress which pertains to our stealing of Iraq's oil when nobody else would. He held a series of hearings on urban America that looked specifically at the subprime loan scandal in America. He stood up and said he would not allow military recruiters to come in and harass students on school campuses when he appeared on Democracy Now!. He has supported single-payer health care and the defunding of the Iraq war (witness his votes against all funding for the Iraq war). He gave us the most visionary ideas for changing America. He put out REAL change, not empty rhetoric in his campaign for the presidency.
Today, I am who I am, a person who does not fear putting my ideas out in public and challenging the status quo, because I found out who Dennis Kucinich was in August. I am a man who is connecting on campus with everyone who is inclined to act out for social change and political change because I discovered Dennis Kucinich's Prayer for America. I am a man who is planning to show the streaming of the "Winter Soldier" hearing on my campus in its entirety and uncensored for all students to see followed by a Town Hall Meeting on the war a couple days later because Dennis Kucinich inspired me to dig deep and find my soul.
Thank you, Dennis Kucinich.
It's acts like this shown in the videos below that make me eternally grateful that you, as some people would put it, try to change the Democratic Party from within unsuccessfully. You can keep trying as long as you want because if somebody doesn't---Well, the end of America may transpire.
