Go, Dennis, go!
The following email was sent by the Kucinich campaign on April 12, 2004. You can sign up to receive these emails at the official campaign website
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Hi, this is Mimi Kennedy recording an audio postcard.
I was lucky enough to catch up with Dennis and the campaign in Colorado. It was a surprise - I had been there so my daughter could see Colorado College, but there was Dennis speaking at the IBEW Union Hall in a very, very moving gathering because it included a lot of military personnel and retired military. A General Lentz introduced Dennis and spoke of how he has seen young soldiers coming to his church food donation program looking for free food so their families can make it through the month. This general absolutely endorsed Dennis' Department of Peace idea and truly understands that support for the troops means the things Dennis Kucinich is talking about. A decent wage for those who put their lives on the line for their country, and support for them meaning that political negotiations must be part of this nation's plan to live in the international community and be worthy of the sacrifice that we call upon our young people and military personnel to stand ready to make.
When Dennis spoke, you could see the room embracing him, embracing his ideas. In Colorado Springs it's very well known, it's a very conservative community, living cheek-by-jowl with progressive people. And at the end during the question period, a young man with a shaved head, Dennis called on him and he stepped forward, and in kind of a trembling but strong voice, he thanked Dennis. He said he had just returned from fighting in Iraq. And he thanked Dennis for himself and on behalf of all of his buddies that were still over there fighting, because Dennis was keeping the message of peace alive in the campaign and bringing it to the Democratic party.
I saw a lot of heads nodding around that hall and I almost wept when at the end, this young man put his hand on his heart and nodded his head. Because I read somewhere that the soldiers in Iraq are beginning to adopt this gesture, which is part of Muslim greeting, which says "My greeting comes not just in my words from my lips, but I greet you with my heart." So Dennis is keeping this message alive.
The national media is relegating a lot of the debate, a lot of what the nominee John Kerry is saying to the back pages, even as the guns of war blaze on the front pages. It's easy to feel helpless. Don't. We can help by supporting Dennis' message. He's campaigning in 16 states where voters are debating the issue of this war, where the local media is debating this issue of the war, because the primary is still to come. And we can send a message to the Democratic Party and really make this party come alive and make it be the hope of the world from July into November.
From 2002 the Democrats stood for this war with the leadership and for not much of anything else that the voters could make out. And that resulted in tremendous losses for the Democratic Party. Dennis and Dennis' campaign is bringing to the Democratic Party the new life and the new blood of the peace movement and even of the military personnel who understand that there needs to be a political component to their sacrifice. And it belongs in the Democratic Party and it belongs especially with our nominee Vietnam Veteran John Kerry.
So give to Dennis' campaign today. Thank God it's still alive. Make the media cover it - we heard him on Bob Edwards this morning [hear the interview] - and Bob, who hadn't shown a lot of respect for Dennis' candidacy, understands it now. Because as Dennis reminded us all, men and women are dying in the field. For some this war will never be over, they've already lost someone.
But it can be over, we can redirect our national wealth to health care, to education, to the environment, to jobs. That's the message Dennis is bringing. Help him bring it between now and July. Please contribute as much as you can, and thank you so much.
This is Mimi Kennedy saying "Go, Dennis, go!"
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