Granny D, Tom Hayden and Arun Gandhi
The following is an email sent out by the Kucinich campaign on July 8, 2003. You can sign up to be on the campaign email list at the official website.
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Endorsements Rolling In
What do these three people have in common -- a grandmother from New Hampshire who walked across America for campaign reform at age 89; a legendary 1960s civil rights and antiwar activist; and the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi? They all just endorsed Dennis Kucinich for President.
Momentum keeps building for our insurgent campaign as leading peace and justice activists add their support and influence. Yesterday, a multiracial group of feminists endorsed Kucinich and began recruiting the support of others. Today, we announce the endorsements of Granny D, former California State Senator Tom Hayden, and Arun Gandhi.
GRANNY D is the unstoppable social change activist, now in her 90s, from the first primary state of New Hampshire. In 1999, she wore out four sets of shoes and was hospitalized in Arizona for dehydration and pneumonia, but she would not be deterred as she marched for political reform from California to her triumphant arrival in Washington D.C. 14 months later. She sent a poetic statement of support that can be read in full at http://kucinich.us/wesupportdennis.htm . Here's an abridged version.
"I am proud to endorse Dennis Kucinich for President. When I walked 3,200 miles across the United States and inquired of people why they were not voting, they said: 'Find us someone who understands us, who cares about us.' I'm talking about people living in trailers; people living in small towns with boarded-up windows on Main Street; people coming out of farmhouses in Iowa, squeezed out of their livelihood by stinking agri-hog farms; people living in cities who have been out of work for over a year; people whose well-paid jobs have been shipped overseas.
I promised to look for someone who would understand them, that had a vision of the future for them, that believed in Peace, Love, Justice. Well, here he is: Dennis Kucinich. I believe he is the candidate who can bring new voters and disgruntled voters into the political process.
To those people I met on my walk across America: 'Now keep your promise to me and come out and vote for him!'"
TOM HAYDEN is another renowned activist endorsing Kucinich, who he refers to as "the candidate with the best stands and the best history." A founder of Students for a Democratic Society in the early 1960s, civil rights activist, author, leader of the anti-Vietnam War movement and defendant in the "Chicago 8" trial, Hayden went on to become an effective California State Assemblyman and Senator for 7-terms. He is a leading figure and writer in today's peace movement and the movement for global justice and against sweatshops.
ARUN GANDHI heads the M.K. Gandhi Institute of Nonviolence in Tennessee, where he carries on the work of his grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi. Arun is a U.S. citizen who is endorsing as an individual, not as a representative of any group. He issued this statement:
"I am happy to support Dennis Kucinich because I believe he is our only hope. Never before has it been so important that the nation rally around one candidate as today. This nation has been hijacked by right-wing politicians who are leading us on to certain disaster. Dennis Kucinich, with his progressive policies and love of peace, is the only candidate who can bring us back from the brink."
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