Populist, pacifist, 72, backs Kucinich
Originally published in the South Bend Tribune
Populist, pacifist, 72, backs Kucinich
Michigan campaign works to make converts.
'04: ON TO MICHIGAN
By KATE SHERIDAN
Tribune Correspondent
KALAMAZOO -- Like so many of the other 5,000 "Michigan for Kucinich" volunteers, Donna Treloar of Kalamazoo doesn't simply support her candidate's liberal activist view: She lives it. From civil rights activism in the late 1950s to Vietnam peace rallies a decade later, to volunteerism in human and workers' rights, environmental protection and opposition to job-exporting trade treaties, Treloar had no hesitation ticking off those issues that drive her support for Ohio congressman and 2004 presidential candidate, populist and pacifist, U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich.
"He's always been against the war in Iraq and is the only candidate with a specific plan to get out of Iraq and bring the troops home," said the 72-year-old retired English teacher. "He doesn't want to 'adjust' Bush's policies on free trade and the World Trade Organization, he wants to end them, now, before we lose another million jobs."
Treloar stood in the frigid sunlight outside Maple Street Magnet School for the Arts on Jan. 24, passing out fliers to help voters learn more about the Saturday Michigan Democratic caucuses.
The Magnet School, where Treloar taught for 20 years, is the city's caucus site.
"Dennis Kucinich led the fight in the House against the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) because he opposed media consolidation into the hands of a few big companies," she continued. "He believes the so-called 'Patriot Act' is wrong and isn't afraid to say so publicly, as the other candidates are."
From his support of the Kyoto Treaty on global warming to his demand for "a living wage, not a minimum wage," to his plan to break up agricultural monopolies, Kucinich voices positions that Treloar says are based in "traditional democratic principles" and that aren't on the agendas of the other Democratic candidates.
"He's got clear, concise, ethical views," she said. "And he's the only one of the candidates with an in-depth, complete vision of where this country should be headed. He doesn't make promises. He says, 'This is where I stand. This is what I'll do, this is what I'll undo.' "
Most of the foot traffic in and out of the Magnet School on Jan. 24 consisted of youngsters carrying basketballs and tennis shoes and parents, many on cell phones, hurrying across the snowy sidewalks behind their kids.
Sporting a bright blue "Kucinich for President" T-shirt over a heavy insulated vest, Treloar -- a lonely sentinel for the Kucinich cause -- smiled and pressed papers into the hands of anyone who slowed down.
"I talked to seven people here today, and converted two of them," she said.
The Kucinich campaign in southwestern Michigan is "very focused on Kalamazoo," where Democratic voters "aren't afraid to claim a generally progressive, liberal-activist stance," said Matt Flayer, the campaign's southwest Michigan coordinator.
"I went to Benton Harbor and went to Cassopolis. But there's so much fear these days in progressive politics, especially in the smaller communities dominated by conservatives, that many progressives are afraid to speak out," he said.
"My candidate speaks not only for workers in retail and factories, he has the best farm message of any of the candidates. Willie Nelson," the country music star whose FarmAid concerts have raised millions for US farmers, "has been a Kucinich supporter for months and months," Flayer said.
Michigan's hefty prize of 155 Democratic delegates and its strong progressive voter base will keep Kucinich in the presidential race through the Michigan primary, he said.
In order to secure the Democratic nomination for president, a candidate must lock down 2,162 delegates of the 4,322 delegates casting votes in July's national Democratic convention in Boston. In addition to Iowa and New Hampshire, six other states with a total 224 delegates will hold Democratic primaries and caucuses before Michigan's vote Saturday.
Flayer said the Michigan for Kucinich campaign has two paid directors and 5,000 unpaid volunteers who have been busy getting their candidate's message out, hoping to make inroads through the Internet voting which has already begun.
"He's right on all the issues. Once people hear his message, they know that, they are excited by it," Flayer said. "People who share Dennis Kucinich's progressive activist values are committed to him. They don't change their minds. We just don't lose supporters."
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