Kucinich would be a president with integrity and fresh ideas
The Capital Times publishes a guest editorial by Safiya Balekian in support of Kucinich.
Safiya Balekian: Kucinich would be a president with integrity and fresh ideas
By Safiya Balekian
August 4, 2003
Last year only 35 percent of the electorate voted in the November elections. That means 65 percent stayed home! Will you vote in 2004?
Many say there is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. Well, in the Democratic race for the presidential nomination in 2004, we have nine Democrats running for president, with wide-ranging views. Dennis Kucinich is a candidate who stands apart from the Republicans.
Congressman Kucinich represents the Cleveland, Ohio, area in the U.S. House of Representatives. Kucinich is co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and has a solid record in local, state and national affairs. Earlier this summer a progressive organization named MoveOn (www.moveon.org) held the first ever nationwide primary election to be conducted on the Internet. Nearly 318,000 people voted, more than voted in the Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina Democratic primaries in 2000.
Kucinich came in second. He had only been in the race for four months. Some candidates have been campaigning for nearly a year. Kucinich has shown he is a vote-getter. When people listen to him, they say, "He makes sense."
I personally think Dennis Kucinich can beat President Bush in the November 2004 elections because he has demonstrated strength of character and a courageous commitment to integrity.
When he was mayor of the city of Cleveland in 1978, Cleveland's banks demanded that he sell the city's 70-year-old municipally owned electric system to its private competitor (in which the banks had a financial interest) as a precondition of extending credit to city government. Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light.
In an incident unprecedented in modern American politics, the Cleveland banks plunged the city into default for a mere $15 million. Kucinich lost his re-election bid in 1979. When you hear critics blast Kucinich for "bankrupting the city of Cleveland," keep all the facts in mind!
Fifteen years later, Kucinich made his first step toward a political comeback, winning election to the Ohio Senate on the strength of the expansion of Cleveland's light system, which provides low-cost power to almost half the residents of the city. In 1998 the Cleveland City Council honored him for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."
Dennis Kucinich is a man of uncompromised values. He continues to display character, courage and integrity in the House of Representatives. He is able to step away from his own ego enough to listen to his constituents. He holds himself to a high standard, and he has proven he can be trusted.
At this time in our country's history, we are forced, once again, to question the integrity of our president. Clearly, much of the alleged "evidence" that stirred the support of Americans into an unprecedented pre-emptive war is slowly being revealed as outright lies and exaggerations.
I believe that I am not alone in wanting to have an exemplary candidate whom I can trust. I am looking for honesty and integrity, as well as fresh ideas and well-conceived plans for the issues of our time. As Dennis Kucinich has said:
"It is time for America to resume its glorious journey. Time to reject shrinking jobs and wages, disappearing savings and rights. Time to reject the detour toward fear and greed. Time to look out upon the world for friends, not enemies. Time to counter the control of corporations over our politics, our economy, our resources and mass media. Time for those who have much to help those who have little by maintaining a progressive tax structure. Time to tell the world that we wish to be their partner in peace, not their leader in war. Most of all, it is time for America to again be the land where dreams come true because the government is on the side of its people.
"Unfortunately, America now leads the world in categories we should not be proud of. America is now the world's leading jailer with an incarceration rate higher than China's. We lead the industrialized world in poverty and in the growing gap between rich and poor. And we are the only industrial nation not to provide national health care."
Ihope you will contact the Kucinich for President campaign toll free at 866-413-3664 or visit www.kucinich.us. For more information on what a Kucinich administration would work to deliver for America, visit www.kucinich.us/issues/issue_10key.htm.
Safiya Balekian of Madison is an artist, mother and start-up business owner who became interested in Dennis Kucinich's campaign after reading about his proposal for a Department of Peace.
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