[GPRI] FW: [usgp-dx] Alan Kobrin responds to Elizabeth Kucinich on omission of the Green Party from antiwar message

[Greg Gerritt]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Scott McLarty <scottmclarty at yahoo.com>
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2007 07:41:50 -0700 (PDT)
To: <usgp-media at gp-us.org>, <natlcomaffairs at green.gpus.org>
Subject: [usgp-dx] Alan Kobrin responds to Elizabeth Kucinich on omission of
the Green Party from antiwar message

>From Alan Kobrin <alan at miamidadegreenparty.org>
of the Florida Green Party.....

Elizabeth Kucinich wrote today

<< Today as the Democratic leadership celebrates
the passage of HR 1591, Dennis and I are in
mourning. We mourn the deaths of those who have
passed and those whose lives are now on the line,
both in the military and civilian Iraqis. We
mourn the destruction, the ecocide. We mourn with
families in Iraq and the US who will see more
death and devastation. We mourn the callous and
calculated political spin cloaking the Congress's
hawkish support of war with the rhetoric of
peace.

Congressman Kucinich voted NO. Standing firm with
him on this NO vote were 13 Democrats... >>

I could hardly agree more with the sentiments and
position taken in her correctly named message,
"It is Time to Take a Strong Stand."
<http://kucinich.us/node/3804>

Indeed, it is WAY past time to try to muster some
resources, or even sentiment to resist this
hijacking of our nation which, let us be frank,
has been going on for decades. It has been
occurring in slow motion, and with the help and
collaboration of both major political parties (or
as many would say, the Duopoly).

You name it -- schools, housing, healthcare,
decent jobs, livable wages, womens' rights,
healthy food supply, air quality, political
representation, dialog, respect, peace -- which
of these has improved in the past decades??

So, of COURSE, it is time to stand up against
putting more of our dwindling dollars into
further ghastly dismembering of nameless
residents of lands which house resources we
covet, not to mention the the mincing of our own
children in the  process.

We should stand up strongly, as many of us as we
can get together.

That is why I wrote her to take exception with
Elizabeth's statements when she thanked those who
have stood together

<< I would like to thank Iraq Veterans Against
the War, Military Families Speak Out, Veterans
for Peace, Code Pink, Gold Star Mothers and all
those other organizations who have worked so
valiantly in recent years to raise awareness
about what is going on in Iraq and to end the
war. >>

It's "hats off" to the efforts of all those
stalwart and courageous groups. However, in those
"other organizations" was a political party, the
Green Party, which stands and says out loud all
that most Democrats have run away from. Having
put in countless hours along with many other
Greens in many venues working, educating, and
fighting for issues such as getting Congress to
stop the funding of this immoral debacle, I
decided to set the record straight with this
letter to Elizabeth:

================

Dear Elizabeth,

I couldn't agree with you more on your statement,
and give encouragement to those who REALLY stood
up for America's troops and best interests by NOT
voting for more funding for the criminal
occupation of Iraq.

Indeed! It's time to take a strong stand!
Sometime it's incredibly lonely out here trying
to get a message out to this society of what to
us seems common sense and moral behavior. At
times it is incredibly difficult and wearing.
Those taking such stands must work together and
try to grow.

That is why I write you, Elizabeth. In your
mention of groups out there doing the hard work
you should include the Green Party, even though
that would seem to go against certain political
niceties.

If you are willing, however, to stand up to those
in your party who work hand in hand-out with the
oligarchy, then I think it behooves you to
recognize publicly that there is another
political party that does not have trouble in
telling its constituents to  take a strong firm
stand against escalating this war and in
demanding an end to this illegal occupation. We
are on the same side, mouthing YOUR message,
something your own party won't do.

I have always marveled how the Democratic Party
(certainly not your followers) reserve more
vitriol and action against the Green Party than
they do against our real adversaries. Funny, no?
The Republicans, especially the neocons and
religious right threaten the very substance of
our land, its institutions and Constitution. What
do Greens "threaten"? Apparently it is the
Democratic piece of the power pie, which seems to
be more important than all the rest.

That would make sense if when they did get a
piece of the pie they would do the People's
business, but both you and I know that the
pushing of NAFTA, the media concentration and
destruction of welfare and social services,
served not the people, but those who have usurped
all the rest of the peoples' roles in deciding
anything.

It might do wonders for your party to be forced
to recognize that it is possible for a political
party even in America to represent people, not
corporations even in these times. My sad
conclusion: those who run your party do not trust
nor really care for the American people.

If the Democratic Party ever truly wanted to do
something decisive, important and -- why not --
patriotic for this country to really end this
war, or, say, to get universal health care all
they would have to do is to call upon the People
to back them in public. Populism. Dennis may
appear alongside concerned citizens and activists
at antiwar rallies, but your party, as a party,
does not show up. The Green Party is always
there.

If the Dems, once in their history actually
CALLED such a rally themselves to show what
Americans truly wanted, there would easily be
millions showing up in DC. We could end this war
in one WEEK, if the Democrats trusted the
people...sadly they don't, they can't -- or have
higher obligations. A dirty little secret no one
wants to talk about: With two political parties
in America, neither represents the interests of
the people first. At best it is about the size of
the crumbs.

One of the problems in the US is that we need
political PARTIES saying the words and offering
the visions that can unite a population to
reclaim their citizens' roles in democratic
decision-making. You who still opt to work in the
shadows, as it were, of a party which never says
out loud what its base wants  -- and therefore
never really LEADS the nation in a progressive
direction that is truly necessary to deal with
the most pressing life and death issues -- should
be GLAD to show that it IS possible for a
political party to take such stands, and
encourage yours to emulate.

A ship cannot arrive anywhere if it has neither
chart nor destination. An organization cannot get
anywhere without at least saying out loud where
it is they are going. Anything else is
obfuscation and does nothing to build a conscious
constituency prepared to fight for its
disappearing rights.

When John Kerry said in 2004, "This is the most
important election of your lifetime," he was
probably right. But not only did he not bother to
tell the American people WHY, he did not ACT as
though it were all so important when he backed
away from facing down voting fraud in Ohio (as
though they were HIS votes, and not the
peoples'), and when he lobbed softballs at W in
the debates.

The constant moves for appeasement being passed
off as "compromise" or "civility" or "being
cautions for electoral reasons" have absolutely
nothing to do with what you and I both know is
required to fend off this great menace which now
threatens us. In fact, agonizingly, it only
serves to keep us UNinformed and UNprepared to
fight the real enemy assaulting us, which -- let
us not mince words here -- is domestic.

For those of your colleagues who are not pleased
that Greens exist and actually offer alternatives
both in goals and in process, they have a few
options. We can work together for the same
issues. They can retain their votes by satisfying
the goals and desires of our constituents to whom
the Green agenda is meaningful, and indeed very
important. They can fight for electoral reform
such as proportional representation and Instant
Runoff Voting to make it easier to bring new
topics and meaning into the nearly inexistent
American political dialog.

Sadly, in general the Democratic party does NONE
of those things. They curse us and try to ignore
us, and then attack us when we actually succeed
in making a crack in the the dumbed down
consciousness of those willing willy nilly to let
"others" to decide everything. Those "others"
have destroyed our industrial base, sent our jobs
overseas, left the people without healthcare,
sent us off to die and kill in phony wars based
upon delusions (or worse) -- all while under the
watch of BOTH major parties.

And they want US to be quiet and disappear???

What ever happened to democracy?? Ahh, the
"marketplace of ideas"...whose? When did it
become only a chess game of power?

The Democratic game, it would seem, is to take
the sincere efforts of people like yourself and
Dennis, and those who support you, and use it
ultimately to back the central party power
brokers which never attends your -- or the
peoples'-- agenda. So...they silence you
(effectively), and they attack or ignore us.

Therefore, as colleagues actively working on the
same side of a progressive agenda, and under
similar circumstances, I would expect that we of
the Green Party deserve minimally the same
recognition from fellow progressives that
advocacy groups receive when describing those who
are working for peace, sanity, and responsibility
in our nation.

Alan Kobrin
spokesperson, Green Party of Florida





 
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