Kucinich Calls For Change In National Priorities
Originally published in the Mountain Times
POSTED APRIL 8, 2004
Kucinich Calls For Change In National Priorities
By Kathleen McFadden
Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) walked onstage at ASU’s Rosen Concert Hall early Saturday morning to a standing ovation and then delivered a speech and answered questions focused on key themes — themes he would repeat throughout the day at similar gatherings in Asheville and Winston-Salem.
Kucinich began by complimenting the university on its work in sustainable energy, commenting that “the future of the world depends on it,” and then segued into a condemnation of the war in Iraq and a call for the reorientation of national priorities.
“We have choices,” Kucinich said. “We can continue to push violence or take a new approach. We’re at a very grim moment with this policy in Iraq,” a policy, he said, that reflects the world view that war is inevitable. He called on the crowd to challenge that view. “It’s urgent to summon all the power in our humanity to question this world view and find ways to express the power of our own hearts and views.”
Kucinich discussed the domestic and international work that could be pursued by a cabinet-level Department of Peace. Kucinich introduced a resolution to Congress in 2001 calling for the creation of such a department that would make nonviolence an organizing principle in American society. “Imagine if we make peace the work of the nation,” he said, and through education and a focus on humanitarian ideals work to eradicate the attitudes and conflicts that lead to domestic and racial violence and to war. “We deal more with the symptoms than we do with the causes,” he said.
“Where is it written that war is inevitable?” he continued. “The idea of the inevitability of war is a lie.”
The Democratic Party’s failure to take an anti-war stand, he said, is the reason he has stayed in the race. “The nomination’s assured, but the direction of the country is not. I don’t think there are a lot of people in the country who are prepared to exchange a Republican version of the war in Iraq for a Democratic version.
“We need to go deeper. We need to get beyond partisanship and ask what we stand for, what we believe as a people.” He said that his continued candidacy is a challenge to the Democratic Party to stand for peace, universal healthcare, civil liberties via a repeal of the Patriot Act, job creation through withdrawal from NAFTA and WTO, guaranteed pre-K through college education, environmental renewal and clean energy, workers’ rights, reproductive choice and an end to the agricultural monopolies that have led to a significant decline in family farms.
Kucinich said that the country’s spending reflects its priorities and called for a change in those priorities. “We have money for war, weapons and tax cuts to the wealthiest people,” he said, and pointed out that the estimated $72 billion price tag for government-subsidized college educations was less than the $87 billion price tag for “tax cuts that the government wants to make permanent.”
Kucinich fielded questions about electronic voting and reproductive choice. He urged voters to ask their boards of election questions now about the source code and the audit and paper trail capabilities of new voting machines, pointing out that a list of relevant questions is posted at the www.kucinich.us Web site.
On the issue of reproductive choice via the preservation of Roe vs. Wade, Kucinich said, “The challenge to a woman’s right to decide on her own comes from some of the longest-standing principles of patriarchal society, which, by the way is where war comes from. The only way women can be truly equal is to make sure they have the right to reproductive choice.” And he called for a new type of discussion on the issue, one that is “heart to heart” and “sensitive to how other people feel.” He added, “We need some healing in this country on this bitterly divisive issue.”
Responding to a question about job loss in American, Kucinich pointed out that three million manufacturing jobs have been lost since July 2000, “but the statistics don’t tell you what happens when people go home and say, ‘The plant’s closing.’”
He said that NAFTA and the WTO are “about only one thing — cheap labor.” The trade agreements, he continued, “accelerated movement of jobs, not within the country, but outside of it. In the end, it’s all about greed. That’s all it is. It’s not about uplifting people anywhere. Wages went down in Mexico.”
A $550 billion trade deficit, he pointed out, “means that somebody’s taking and not giving.” The solution, he said, is to break the monopolies in our economy, establish new trade laws, get rid of NAFTA and the WTO and rebuild America’s manufacturing base. An important part of that strategy, he continued, is to focus on the development of alternative energies.
Kucinich closed by reiterating his challenge for peace. “Nonviolence is a difficult path, but it leads to social justice. Violence doesn’t change a thing. I think the tide is toward unity. People do want to get together.
“This election is about more than who gets the nomination,” he said. “It’s about the direction of the [Democratic] Party.”
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