Kucinich brings message to Marin
Originally published in the Marin Independent Journal
Kucinich brings message to Marin
By Beth Ashley, IJ senior writer
Democratic Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich made two appearances in Marin this weekend, bringing a message of love, peace and feel-good politics.
Saturday night, he played to a worshipful audience of political fans and spiritual seekers at a fund-raiser that featured vegan cuisine, Native American flute music and group visualization.
"We are the stuff that dreams are made of," Kucinich told 150 attendees, clustered around him in an East San Rafael living room. "We have the conscious power to create a new nation ... to truly create the world all over again, into something so powerful, so transcendent that the light forever shines in the darkness and the darkness never comprehends it."
The gathering was hosted by Enwisen software executive Stephen Dinan ("Welcome to my temple") and a raft of spiritual notables including Jack Kornfield, co-founder of Spirit Rock center in Woodacre; personal growth guru Shakti Gawain, who led the meditation; and a radiant Ram Dass, author/holy man/teacher, who said, "Dennis Kucinich represents my heart. It is exciting to have a politician who will represent your heart."
Kucinich might be trailing in the nationwide polls, but he appears to have Marin's spiritual, Buddhist, Spirit Rock vote well locked up.
Called a Kucinich Convergence, the event fell on a night when - invisible in a rain-sodden sky - the planets were lined up in an astrological bonanza called "harmonic convergence," said to be an opportune moment for oneness with the universe.
Kucinich chimed right in: "Our hearts are yearning to have a sense of connection to the everlasting," he said.
He recalled that as a child, he could close his eyes and "hear the music of the spirits," and he said he hoped Americans could return to the childlike qualities of innocence, receptivity, openness and trust that allow people to see the possibility of "the world as it can be."
Instead, he said, America today is "gripped by fear." People everywhere tell him of their yearning to reconnect to the American dream of freedom, equality and truth, he said.
"(They) are looking for the opportunity to come together, to affirm their interconnectedness, the interdependence of the nations of the world," he said. "They are waiting for leaders to come forward to help unite the world, not destroy it."
His talk came at the end of a program laced with inspirational dance (by teacher/ healer/midwife Arisika Razak), poetry (by Colette) and a rousing mix of music (including "tantric gospel") played by Taber Shadburne and his Radical Spirit Band. The audience clapped and swayed. Kucinich received two standing ovations.
His talk came at the end of a program laced with inspirational dance (by teacher/ healer/midwife Arisika Razak), poetry (by Colette) and a rousing mix of music (including "tantric gospel") played by Taber Shadburne and his Radical Spirit Band. The audience clapped and swayed. Kucinich received two standing ovations.
"I love him," said jewelry designer Tabra Tunoa, who had seen him five times before.
"He really has a vision, a dedication to education, health care and peace," said Sylvia Boorstein, author and teacher at Spirit Rock. "He has an uncompromised view of possibilities for this country."
"Dennis is our man," said Dinan, whose home houses a six-person spiritual community. "He is a living, breathing example of a new higher kind of consciousness that we've never seen in a politician before. He will bring love, depth and integrity into the political process."
The evening ended with dancing to the music of Suzanne Sterling and Alcyone, after which celebrants picked up the shoes they had parked at the door and left in the still-dripping night.
Yesterday, Kucinich was back, this time for a fund-raiser brunch at the San Rafael bayview home of Jonathan Frieman, who works in what he calls activist philanthropy. Some of the same Kucinich supporters were there, mingling with a crowd of 75, mostly baby boomers.
The candidate wore the same by-now-rumpled dark suit, blue shirt and red tie as the evening before, but this time he was in an exhortative mood, rousing his audience with "the message of this campaign, which is the end of fear and the beginning of hope."
He was introduced by county Supervisor Susan Adams, who cited her own grass-roots election effort as a demonstration that "anything is possible" in a campaign that even Kucinich admits is a long shot. (Can he win? he was asked Saturday night. "If you vote for me, I can," he replied.)
Adams praised the candidate's platform of environmental protection, social justice, health care for all, and peace in the world.
He, in turn, emphasized that America stands at a dangerous moment in its history, where our Iraq policy has disconnected us from the rest of the world and where our national good is sacrificed to a campaign of fear.
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself," he said, quoting Depression president Franklin Roosevelt.
Both weekend events cost "a minimum of $100" and raised an estimated $40,000
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