Student devoted to Kucinich even if polls aren't
Originally published in the Daily Bruin
Bruin devoted to Kucinich even if polls aren’t
Student admires candidate, AIDS campaign as research assistant
By Nancy Su
DAILY BRUIN CONTRIBUTOR
nsu@media.ucla.edu
Jane Shevtsov understands that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich has almost no chance of winning.
Yet the third-year ecology, behavior and evolution student feels an obligation to dedicate her time to being a research assistant on national issues for the Kucinich campaign.
Moving about campus with a Kucinich sticker proudly displayed among several environmental and anti-war stickers on the back of her wheelchair, Shevtsov said she supports Kucinich because he is the candidate with ideas most like her own.
Kucinich's platforms include expanding health care, funding for education, social security benefits and environmental laws, as well as an ardent anti-war stance.
Shevtsov is not giving up on Kucinich, the congressman from Ohio, though he has received less than 10 percent of the vote in all of the past primaries and caucuses except for one.
As part of her duties, Shevtsov was able to find historical precedents for the desire to create a Department of Peace during wartime, which helped bolster Kucinich's support for such a department.
Shevtsov also helped to expand Kucinich's senior citizen policies by relating them with disability and pollution issues.
Besides researching policy issues, Shevtsov is also responsible for tasks like replying to e-mails, editing papers and answering questionnaires.
Shevtsov works under Tad Daley, the national issues director for Kucinich, with whom she met and became friends when he was a visiting scholar at UCLA.
Shevtsov said her support for Kucinich stems mainly from his progressive ideas for peace, health care and education.
"He has bold ideas," Shevtsov said. "He's working for a more just and humane society."
Shevtsov said the United States, as the wealthiest nation, should strive to offer universal health care and free higher education like some nations in Europe.
She also disagrees with the United States' current level of military spending.
"There's so much good you can do if you just cut a little percent of that $40 billion," Shevtsov said.
Shevtsov believes that one of the most important things the president does is set the tone for the nation.
"The president affects how we react to things, especially when something bad happens," Shevtsov said. "After 9/11 Bush set an 'us against them.' I think Kucinich would have set a very different tone of mutual cooperation for us."
"The primary is not a time for compromise," she said. "It's important to support him for his ideas. He might not win this year, but someone else with the same ideas might win four or eight years from now."
Shevtsov said the one thing she likes to tell others is to act on their hopes because decisions made out of fear, she said, have a tendency not to work.
She called supporting Kucinich a matter of conscience for her and said she is following her own advice by acting on her hopes for a successful Kucinich campaign.
As an immigrant who came to the United States from Ukraine when she was 7 years old, Jane Shevtsov thinks of herself as a world citizen before being American or Ukranian.
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Shevtsov said she was drawn to Kucinich the first time she heard him speak because he talked about Americans as citizens of the world.
Shevtsov said many people are realizing the increased interdependence of different countries in recent times and Kucinich's progressive policies are a reflection of the importance of viewing the world as a whole.
"I think if it weren't for the fear dynamic, a lot more people would be working for progressive ideas that support a more united world," Shevtsov said.
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