The interview is from earlier this year, but does a good job of letting Kucinich demonstrate his strengths. No wonder this guy gets so little coverage. Way too smart and willing to let people know how much they're getting screwed by the way the world is currently organized. Last thing we need are voters thinking a better world is possible.
http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0303/article/030312d.html<edit>
Kucinich: We live in a world in which dichotomous thinking has led to war. I try to look at the world holistically, to emphasize the ways that we are interconnected and interdependent, as an integrated whole. The job of an American leader is to bring about healing and reconciliation, by helping us overcome the divisions in our society between Blacks and Whites, rich and poor, us vs. other countries. If our world is going to survive, we are going to have to rise above these kinds of polarities, and to rise above all the conditions which restrict our definitions of Who We Really Are—so that we can free ourselves to become more than we are, and thereby through our own ascent elevate the human condition.
<edit>
There are seventeen nations in this world today pursuing, developing or currently holding nuclear weapons. Twenty nations are doing so with biological weapons, twenty-six with respect to chemical weapons, and seventeen nations are developing missiles capable of delivering weapons of mass destruction. Does it occur to anyone that we are at a time in human history when we have the means of destroying our world? And yet within the capacity of our hearts we also have the means of healing our world. If there was ever a time when we need to fashion our swords into our ploughshares, this is it. If there was ever a time when America needed to lead the way to disarmament, this is it.
<edit>
Bombing Iraq will not diminish terrorism; it will create more terrorism. We have an obligation to challenge terrorists. We have to do so within the rules of international law, without impairing civil liberties. The U.S. has taken a serious turn against the interests of civil liberties with the passage of the Patriot Act, and the Administration continues to revise, through fiat, established criminal justice procedures. We have the right to defend ourselves as a nation, but we have to defend those human rights and constitutional protections that make the condition of nationhood something we celebrate. Terrorists win when they create conditions which lead our government to roll back constitutional freedoms.
<edit>
We must use our hearts and heads to move toward reconciliation and not let any group be separated from others or divided from their own humanity. We must find the common ground that will allow for all people to survive and prosper. We need to be ready at every moment to create a new world, and not be trapped by old ways of looking at reality.
more...
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
