STWR - Share The World's Resources

The American swagger has become bombast, the cocky GI a bully. But with luck the pendulum may be ready to swing back.

Factors linked with mental illness (including poverty, homelessness, violence and social uncertainty) have run rampant during the Bush years while psychiatric treatment options have disappeared.

Dennis J. Kucinich is a Democratic Candidate for President of the United States.  Below is a transcript of a speech he made at the 10th Annual Wall Street Project Conference, Sheraton New York & Towers, Monday, January 8, 2007

We are losing our nation to a philosophy of war and destruction. It is time for policies of peace and construction. It is time for the philosophy of peace, nonviolence and economic justice. This was the philosophy of Dr. King, Gandhi, Jesus, Fredrick Douglas, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Fannie Lou Hamer, Sojourner Truth, Cesar Chavez, and Jesse Jackson.

We are all united with the philosophy which birthed the New Deal, the New Frontier, the Great Society, the dreams of social and economic justice which could be called forth by those who were ready to stand up, to speak out, to march, to demand, to testify about the good news:

The world is interconnected. The world is interdependent. We are not just our brother and sisters keeper, on a deeper spiritual level we are our brothers and sisters. This is the meaning of the Golden Rule, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. This is the meaning of Love Thy neighbor as thy self. This is why policies of unilateralism, first strike, and preemption are dead ends. This is why nuclear proliferation is a threat to every person on the planet. This is why the very idea that war should be an instrument of policy needs to be challenge. War is not inevitable. Peace is inevitable if we are prepared to work for it.

The TV show West Wing provided ordinary people with an emotional look behind the scenes in the White House, complete with political  manipulations, personal drama and a sense of being in the center of political history. While conservatives lack their own TV drama, they have reactionaries such as Bill O'Reilly, Ollie North and Rush Limbaugh to play on their emotions and provoke them to anger.

Political anger, campaigns, lobbying and elections are, of course, hallmarks of democracy and today's "cultural war" spurs more of the electorate into taking part in the political process. No doubt, such urgency provides some with a sense of purpose, but it can also lead to an overblown sense of self-importance and promote an emotionalism that is a disservice to the political process. Emotional responses polarize the electorate and lead to stalemates.

The role of a citizen is not to imagine oneself making political decisions for the country. In a democracy, the primary duty of a citizen is to be informed, while voting, lobbying, fund raising and other activities play their parts. A citizen best serves society by using reason to choose the best possible leaders and policies to romote the common good of the community, state and nation, not by antasizing about being in charge of US policy.

 

Americans are divided about many things, but on at least one issue they stand united: During the past decade, polls have consistently shown that Americans overwhelmingly want Congress to raise the minimum wage. According to a report earlier this year from the Pew Research Center, 83 percent of the American public—including 72 percent of Republicans and 75 percent of those who earn over $75,000 a year—favor boosting it to more than $7 an hour. But, since 1997, Congress has refused to act, leaving the minimum wage stuck at $5.15 an hour.

Frustrated by Congress' intransigence, a growing number of states have made an end run around Washington. Before Election Day, 22 states had enacted laws—by passing ballot measures or by legislative action—to raise their minimum wages above the federal level.