Kucinich Campaign: Our Journey Continues
The following email was sent by the Kucinich campaign on March 22, 2004. You can sign up to receive these emails at the official campaign website
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Dear Friends,
I believe that all of us feel as I do that the work we do together on this historic campaign is perhaps the most important work of our lives - that the movement we're all part of will bring about significant, powerful, and uplifting changes in America and throughout the world. Who knew when we began this campaign that we'd come so far and that we'd so significantly affect the Democratic debate!
When we began this journey together we made a commitment, as did the candidate we so enthusiastically support, to see this process all the way through to the convention in Boston in July. There are still states that have not yet held their primaries and caucuses. In full support of our democratic process, we believe it essential that people in these states have their voices heard.
The movement we all support and will continue giving our energy to for years into the future is growing within our campaign. We will nurture and support it as we remain steadfast in our promise to see the nominating process through to completion. For this movement to survive, it is essential we ensure that the principles at its core are fully heard at the Democratic Convention.
Bobby Kennedy liked to paraphrase George Bernard Shaw, saying: "Some men see things as they are and say, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were and say, Why not?'" That is what our campaign is about; dreaming of things that so far exist only in our hearts and our minds, and daring to ask ourselves "why not?"
Some of the questions are ones we've asked throughout the Democratic debate: "Why aren't our troops home from Iraq? Why isn't the United Nations, and not the United States, in charge of rebuilding that country's government and infrastructure? Why don't we have a Department of Peace in addition to a Department of Defense? Why don't all of us in this, the richest and most powerful nation the world has ever known, enjoy full healthcare coverage, and not just a chosen few? And why do we watch in pained silence as our jobs - jobs working men and women and their families depend on - continue to disappear overseas? These are the questions we must ask, and ask again; these are the question we must not let our Democratic Party turn away from.
The debate we're seeing now within the Democratic Party about the upcoming presidential election is about more than just choosing our nominee; it's also about choosing a path for the Democratic Party. It's about the platform we want our party to stand for. It's about the heart and soul of the Party itself. And there is yet to be unity about what the platform - what our message - should be.
At this point it is apparent to everyone that John Kerry is likely to become our Party's designated nominee at the convention in July, but it is also apparent that we need Dennis Kucinich to stay in this race to keep articulating the ideals, the goals and the aspirations, that live at the true heart of the Democratic Party. Dennis's voice - our voices - must continue to be heard if we are to truly transform the political process, the Democratic Party, and the future of our human family.
We've seen before in our Party's rich history how the courageous voice of a single person can affect the course of our country's future, even when that voice belonged to an individual who was not the designated nominee:
- Jesse Jackson ran for president in 1984 and 1988. The movement that emerged, the Rainbow Push Coalition, continues to powerfully affect civil rights in our country to this day.
- Eugene McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy each ran for president in 1968. Both helped define that epochal decade which has so shaped subsequent American history, an era that birthed the progressive movement.
- Norman Thomas and Eugene Debs ran for president again and again in the early years of the twentieth century. They advocated rights and protections for working women and men, a government role in health care and social security and the economy, and limitations on the rapacious inequities of the unregulated free market. Neither Thomas nor Debs ever made it to the Oval Office. But in 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt enacted the Debs/Thomas agenda. Virtually all their ideas came to fruition through the movement known as the New Deal.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony were in their time the preeminent advocates of women's rights, both in the U.S. and abroad. Neither Stanton nor Anthony aspired to elected office. Yet their groundbreaking and courageous work laid the foundation for our country's recognition that the right to vote inheres to women as it does to men.
The unwillingness of individuals throughout the history of this country to be silenced in the face of what many might say is the inevitability of the outcome has been critical to the emergence and success of movements that have birthed significant change.
So it is with Dennis Kucinich. He is unwilling to say that war is inevitable. He is unwilling to say that it is not possible for everyone to have adequate health care. He is unwilling to say that it is not possible to create conditions that support economic justice and prosperity for all. And we stand with him in our determination to make certain that his voice is heard.
We invite you to continue the vital work of this campaign as we stand firm in our commitment to complete the primary and caucus season, state by state, and as we come together in Boston at the Democratic Convention. Together we will continue strengthening this movement that will make non-violence the organizing principle for the human family; that will ensure equal opportunity for people everywhere to achieve their highest potential; and that will unite our world in peace.
It will take all of us contributing our time, efforts and money to bring this to fruition. Please take a moment to volunteer and to send a contribution as we continue the journey through this historic campaign.
In the Spirit of Peace,
Dot
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