Tick, tick, tick
The following email was sent by the Kucinich campaign on June 30, 2004. You can sign up to receive these emails at the official campaign website
***
There’s still time to have an impact on the Democratic Party platform, but the clock is ticking.
The 186 members of the Democratic Platform Committee will be meeting in Miami on July 9 and 10 to finalize a document that will lay out the Democratic Party’s official position and plans on dozens of important domestic and international issues. That document will then be voted on by the delegates at the Democratic National Convention in Boston.
There are four principal ways in which we can still influence the platform: continue circulating petitions , contact the Democratic National Committee (DNC), write letters to the editor to your local paper ( see details ), and most importantly, contact the Chairperson of the Platform Committee, U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones.
But time is of the essence.
At this very moment, the platform document is being drafted by representatives of the DNC based, to some extent, on testimony and comments submitted at two public hearings held earlier this month. That draft of the platform document is not expected to be available for review until a day or two before the Miami meeting.
The petitions that Kucinich supporters and friends have been circulating across the country for the past few months will be formally presented to the Platform Committee in Miami at the beginning of their public deliberations to persuade them of the strong public sentiment for positions that are unlikely to be part of the draft platform, including:
An exit strategy and end date for the occupation of Iraq
A Department of Peace
Universal, single payer health care
Jobs & Fair trade policies
Equal Marriage Rights
Civil Liberties & Repeal of the PATRIOT Act
It is our hope that sympathetic members of the Platform Committee in Miami will propose amendments to the draft document to more closely reflect our positions on those and other issues. If some of those positions do no receive enough votes to be adopted, but do receive support from at least 20 percent of the members, they become "minority planks" in the platform – a formalized "dissent" expressing a specifically worded alternative position on the issues. Those minority planks will be formally presented and publicly read at the National Convention.
Again, time is running out to have our voices heard.
If you want to contact the DNC directly, their web site provides that opportunity. If you want to send a message to Congresswoman Tubbs Jones, feel free to let her know—firmly but politely—how you feel about the issues. You can email her at stjcampaign@aol.com, fax her at 216-751-8241, or send mail to her office, 3645 Warrensville Center Road, Suite 323, Shaker Heights, OH 44122.
If you want to send copies of any of your correspondences or contacts to us, email them to volunteeraction@kucinich.us.
The primaries and caucuses may be over, but we still have an opportunity to influence the direction of the Democratic Party and the outcome of the November general election – IF we act now, while there’s still time.
Subscribe to this blog's feed