A Kerry supporter's Earth Day talk w/ Kucinich (photos)

[rivertext]

Even in the rain you can't drive a car to Earth Day if you have a John Kerry button on and all the friends you'll be meeting are bicycle activists and/or anarchists. Besides it was the best day to ride a bike across town to Earth Day in the rain because Portland was dotted with MoveOn.org bake sales. I bought a cookie at all of the ones along my route -- except the ones that were already sold out. So just relax, in 2 or 3 cookies, a salmon and a tomato we'll get to Kucinich.






Just another photo saved by a dog's nose.





This Bake Sale for Democracy on the south side of Hawthorne Blvd. had the best PDX bake sale name on the MoveOn site: "Taking back the White House one lemon bar at a time." They also had the best price list.

On my way back at 6 PM they had wrapped up but I managed to buy the last two cookies from the equally large bake sale directly across the street. "Eat cookies, Elect Kerry" had raised $1400 by 2 PM. So right here at the two bake sales on the 3700 block of Hawthorne Blvd. I'd guess the MoveOn election war chest had to have raised at least $3000 and possibly closer to $5000.




When, seven cookies later, I arrived at Earth Day the sun came out and the clouds made a majestic departure. Here is the river of light parade -- "Celebrating the human spirit, and our connection with the river, and the salmon."




Now a close-up of the tomato. The funnel needs some explanation. Please read the next paragraph carefully or pretend that you're the President and get someone else to read it and then go on vacation before they can explain it to you:

Set about 30 yards apart from each other were four giant vegetables -- Tomato, Garlic, Cabbage and Carrot. Each vegetable had three funnels connected to garden hoses that snaked over to each of the other three giant veggies. Theoretically this girl in Tomato could shout into the funnel labeled Carrot and then move that funnel to her ear and listen to the response from Carrot. Of course, the kids had too much sense to use the funnels in this awkward a manner. They put one funnel to their mouth and another to their ear and so shouted at one Veggie but heard another veggie's response. And they still communicated better than the various Bush intelligence communities did pre-9-11



Thanks for your patience with the cookies, the salmon and the tomato. Here, on the Manta Ray stage at the Portland, Oregon Earth Day celebration is Congressman Dennis Kucinich. The Congressman gave a brief feisty speech in which he acknowledged that Senator Kerry had won the nomination, but promised that he was still committed to continuing the fight for the soul of the Democratic party. I was taking pictures, not notes, so I can't deliver any of his phrases. It was very effective because instead of disappearing after that 4 minute speech he leapt off the front of the stage and begin shaking hands and talking to people. It wasn't like the other Presidential candidates I've seen in that everyone that wanted to talk to him had their chance.




I asked Congressman Kucinich if he is going to be supporting the Democratic nominee. He said that Senator Kerry had to commit to getting our troops out of Iraq first. I replied: "I've read your ten-point plan for bringing the UN troops in to replace US troops, and it made sense, but it sounded a lot like Senator Kerry's position."

"No, he isn't committed to getting our troops out. He's not there, yet. But, (the way the way the war is going), he will be soon." --Quoted from memory -- should not be taken as Kucinich's exact words - the part in parenthesis is the part I feel that I may be filling in a little of what I understood him to mean rather than what I have a clear memory of him saying.

I was much more impressed by this encounter with Kucinich that I had been by seeing him in the debates. My first thought afterwards was that I might vote for him in the Oregon primary to send a message to Kerry. But then, I thought I couldn't do that unless I knew that he was going to back the nominee. And talking about getting out of Iraq is a lot harder if you're actually going to have to do it.

In regards to getting our troops out now, I've just finished a new easily downloadable 4 minute film called "3 Moms" In it 3 moms who are also veterans, or whose sons are fighting in Iraq, or whose sons have already died there speak in no uncertain terms about getting our troops out of Iraq and Bush out of the White House. I expect it will be available for free download later this week. It uses an interesting technique called the "Ken Burns effect" to make a film out of stills of the March 20th demonstration on the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

I will post an announcement and link to the film in Activism/Events" sometime soon. The film will also be linked to from my "stuff" page where you can find photo essays from over a year of Portland's Dissent.


http://rivertext.com/stuff.html

[wheresthemind]

1. Hmmm...

I'm wondering if he mispoke, or maybe misinterpritted the question (thought you were asking him why he was not supporting the nominee now) because he has pledged over and over to support the nominee. He worked his butt off for Gore so I do not know why he would not throw his support behined Kerry. Besides his whole deal is that he is reforming within the party.

A vote for Kucinich is the only real way to get any change in the party right now. The more delegates Dennis has come the convention the louder his voice and in turn a lot of our voices will be.

[JohnKleeb]

2. he did work his butt off for Gore

who IMO was way more moderate than Kerry. He is supporting the nominee, I actually saw this asked to him, someone asked him will you go green, hes like no or something, he is a missionary in his own words. Heel my party Dennis lol.

[JI7]

3. he will support Kerry at the convention and after

but he wants to focus on getting his message out. he doesn't really attack kerry, and didn't attack him much during the primary either.if you WANT to vote for kucinich then you should do it.if you want to vote for kerry then vote for him.both are good guys and deserve any and all votes they get. kucinich is from ohio where kerry will really need his help in winning that state. he already named another liberal from ohio , stephanie tubbs-jones to a high position in the dnc.

so you don't have to worry about whether kucinich will support kerry because it's a sure thing. so just vote for who you want to.

[tomorrowsashes]

4. no matter how much you want Bush out...

No matter how much you want Bush out, even if you are willing to vote for Kerry, I would strongly caution against saying that he is a good guy who deserves any votes. He directly supported the war in which thousands of people are now dying in, and support Israel's apartheid against the Palestinians. He supports making gays second-class citizens by denying them the right to marry. He supports the NAFTA, FTAA, WTO, IMF, World Bank, G8, etc... all of which are weapons in the class war against the poor. Make a compromise if you feel the need to do so, but don't fool yourself into thinking that he actually deserves the presidency.

[corporatewhore]

5. hey tomorrow welcome

:hi: nice to see another lefty here

[JI7]

6. people don't agree on all issues

it's a democracy. many muslims oppose gay marriage and oppose israel. and many jews support gay marriage and support israel.

[rivertext]

7. Kerry deserves our votes (from an anti-Iraq invasion activist)

I'll consider all 4 of tommorowsashes' points -- one by one.


1. IRAQ

IF Kerry was President there would have been no invasion of Iraq.

:: Kerry's strategy for stopping Bush can be second-guessed, but not his opposition to the way Bush dragged us into this war. When Kerry made the Iraq war vote decision Bush was widely held to be unbeat-able.

2. APARTHEID AGAINST THE PALESTINIANS

The identification of Ariel Sharon & America would also never have occurred if Kerry were President. Right or wrong Kerry is doing what he feels he has to do to save America just as in Viet Nam he put his life on the line in an unjust war for the men he commanded. If there is remaining chance for peace in the middle east depends on getting rid of Sharon (corruption charges should do that) and Bush (only Kerry can do that.)

3. GAY MARRIAGE

Kerry took a principled risky stand by voting against the defense of marriage act because he saw that piece of legislation as gay bashing. He supports the SAME approach to dealing with gay marriage as most of the gay community -- letting the states work it out. Do you think Kerry should come out for a Constitutional Amendment mandating gay marriage?

4. GLOBALIZATION

Kerry isn't going to declare war on globalization but he will cut our dependence on foreign oil, bring us back into the fight against global warming and he will look for ways to amend and enforce our trade agreements so they consider the working conditions and the environmental damage that foreign factories create and how he can keep more jobs here.

So I went a long way in item number 4 towards granting your point that Kerry is not going to stop most of the evils of globalization. However, as soon as you use a phrase like, "weapons in the class war against the poor" you are talking like the interests of the world's poor are your concern. As soon as you make that admission I believe you have to accept your responsibility to vote Bush out of office for the sake of those poor. As Woodward reported on 60 Minutes tonight Bush has decided that he is on a mission from God to liberate people. Bush is also on a mission to do nothing to decrease the profits of the oil companies, as little as possible to stop the spread of AIDS and global warming --- all of which will continue to devastate the poor most of all.

-------------

I want to repeat here a bit of what I just wrote in another post:

 If Lincoln had called for abolishing slavery in his first campaign ... he would have lost the election.

Sometimes you need politicians -- politicians with guts, honor and cunning. We're lucky to have such a man, and such a fighter, in John Kerry.

[tomorrowsashes]

14. If you want Bush out that bad, vote Kerry

I have no problem with people voting for Kerry. I simply think that it is a mistake when people think that they are solving any of the country's real problems when they choose to do so. Kerry is at best a form of damage control, and at worst, just as bad as Bush. It seems kind of ludicrous to say that this man deserves the nomination. I'm not necessarily telling people not to vote for him, but simply to understand who they are voting for, and that he is simply a continuation of the same system that got us in our current position.

Your first two rebuttals to my points are mere assumptions, both of which may or may not be true. It is impossible for us to know what Kerry would have done, but I have not seen enough evidence to convince me that he would have done otherwise. It is my firm belief that if things were going better in Iraq now, Kerry would stand firmly behind Bush's march to war. It seems like he's just trying to play both ends against the middle to get as many votes as possible.

I strongly, strongly doubt that Kerry would do anything to get rid of Sharon.

Kerry says that he is against gay mairrage. You can say whatever you want about civil unions, but even separate, but equal, is wrong.

On the fourth point, you are again making assumptions which I see little evidence to support. Kerry will speak out against globalization when it is politically profitable, but his voting record does not stand behind that. The fact is, he is richer than Bush, and owes just as much to corporate interests. Perhaps he will improve our situation at home slightly through more intelligent economic management, but it will still be based on the unjust neo-colonial system in which we have lived for centuries.

It is completely up to every person to choose whether they will vote for Kerry, Bush, Nader, or completely reject the political system as a whole, and choose to stay at home. My only request is that people look at each candidate for who they are, and understand what it is they are voting for. People must never mistake the lesser of two evils as something positive.

[rivertext]

15. Lincoln's position - containing slavery was the lesser of 2 evils..

and in the end, balancing it all out, Lincoln was something positive.

It is not easy to see people for what they are, and not just what some questionable political purity test "proves" them to be. A powerful politician is always going to fail a political purity test. A battle-hardened soldier is going to have spilled some blood.The center-left needs a great politician now as much or more than we need some one like Kucinich to hold up our ideals.

Actually, on the 4th point I was agreeing with you more than you realize.

[Zookeeper]

8. Welcome to DU, Rivertext!

Your photos are stunning! :hi:

[blm]

9. You CAN TRUST that Kucinich will support Kerry. He likes him very much.

DK is doing what he feels best right now. He has NO intention of being disruptive in a negative way.

I have known DK for over 30 years and he LOVES the Democratic party and is a loyalist through and through. Trust him.

[goodhue]

10. Thanks blm!

Most certainly Dennis will support the Democratic nominee. This has never been in doubt. I continue to be suprised by the number of good democrats who persist in thinking of Dennis as some sort of spoiler. The reality could not be more different. Dennis is working hard to help build a progressive movement within the democratic party. Voting for Dennis sends a signal to the party about the direction to take. Dennis is nothing if not loyal to the democratic party. One only hopes that the party will be loyal to the progressive tradition that made it strong.

BTW, congratulations NC for sending four Kucinich delegates to Boston!

[no name no slogan]

11. Hey, congrats to YOU TOO, Mr. National Delegate!!!!

Most folk on DU don't know this yet, but goodhue is a delegate to Boston from Minnesota's 5th Congressional District!

I had the honor of co-chairing our Kucinich subcaucus at the convention when we elected our two delegates, and I'm proud to say that we made a great choice! Goodhue has been a die-hard Kucitizen for the last year, and has really done a lot for us in Minnesota!

Congratulations on a job well done! You deserve it!!!!

:toast:

[Desertrose]

16. a congratulatory kick to the top for goodhue

thanks for the heads up no name :thumbsup:

Wooo hooo!! :yourock: guys!!

indeed...:toast:

Thanks for the great photos rivertext!

Peace...the only answer.....
DR
Dennis HAS mentioned numerous times he WILL support the DEM nominee...I sure wish that this time it coulda been him .....

[marialicht]

13. Thank you,

We are thrilled and a little stunned (in my county, where he won over 50% of the vote)! We go on to the district convention with 7 Kucinich-inspired resolutions in hand. We just received congratulations from the Party regulars for our "stunning victory" and great organization. Several of us plan to be in Boston along with the volunteers who will become delegates. :)

[tiedye]

12. Kucinich is the US Dalai Lama

I saw him here in Uath at the International Airport and I was impressed as well.

Threee issues he spoke of...
Stop the Nuclear Nightmare.
Get out of NAFTA and the WTO.
Get out of Iraq
Single Payer healthcare

This should be what the democratic party stands for. Please, someone tell me what Kerry posesses that we could use. If Kerry takes lieberman on as his mate, I am off the democratic boat. Who's running on the Green ticket this year?