A Clue for America

I recently stumbled across the Feb. 17, 2002 speech that Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich addressed to the Southern California chapter of Americans for Democratic Action. The cause for me to stumble across this text was brought about by a discussion regarding the American vote today and whether politicians were really representing the majority of Americans, or if it is just the media who package the image of America and ship it out to citizens through radio waves and television.

Kucinich, in his speech to the organization, stressed a point which rang true to me as I read it. Were the politicians in our governments today the ones who swing the most power and have the most influence over us and the world? Do they really represent the majority of Americans? Or, are they really using their power and influence to take away the very liberties that made America, hiding it behind religious rights and values? Kucinich did state that the main weapon they use is fear.

It’s not hard to see fear being pushed daily in the media. Fear is so successful, since it is the mind that can make up so many varied realities. Whether these realities are true or not is a question of the individual, but it is safe to say that after Sept. 11 our realities of the world became very shocking and disturbing.

The main message of the speech was, of course, unity among Americans, and that “all people are essentially one.” That “the world is interconnected not only on the material level of economics, trade, communication, and transportation, but interconnected through human consciousness, through the human heart, through the heart of the world, through the simply expressed impulse and yearning to be and to breathe free.”

From a political standpoint, this message is very unorthodox. We are used to the rhetoric of politicians being about the short-term implications of our world and the “quick-fix” theory. To have a goal set in mind about the eventual unity of Americans, and daresay the world, it seems that Kucinich is less of a politician of today’s times, and more akin to the thought patterns of the forefathers, who put forth ideals of grandeur for the future of citizens.

An interesting image he put forth during his speech was one about the attorney general, who “covered up a statue of Lady Justice showing her bosom as if to underscore there is no danger of justice exposing herself at this time, before this administration.” This clever use of imagery, if one agreed with it, could symbolize the state of our nation today.

Of course, the public reason behind the attorney general covering the bosom of the statue was due to religious values and “public decency.” However, given all that has happened in the past few years, the notion of “public decency” is becoming more and more broad; for instance, the fear of speaking out against the government in exchange for patriotism.

Kucinich warned against a world driven by fear, since fear is the opposite of the goal of humanity. In a world that promises a war without end and a future riddled with terror, there is no other option or reality from that. It is true that war is economic, and we have been promised an endless war economy. To give war any other motive than economic is shrouding the concept of war altogether.

But he also asked us to “pray for our children.” Are the ones in power representing the youth – the majority of America? Or are they old politicians, in both age and thought, whose beliefs and motives for personal gain being hide behind a house of smoke and mirrors?

With that I will conclude with an excerpt from Kucinich’s speech: “Our children deserve a world without end. Not a war without end. Our children deserve a world free of the terror of hunger, free of the terror of poor health care, free of the terror of homelessness, free of the terror of ignorance, free of the terror of hopelessness, free of the terror of policies which are committed to a world view which is not appropriate for the survival of a free people, not appropriate for the survival of democratic values, not appropriate for the survival of our nation, and not appropriate for the survival of the world.”

To read the speech, visit http://www.house.gov/kucinich and click on “speeches.”