The Dennis Kucinich you may not know - Democratic Underground

Karmadillo

(1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore

Sun Sep-07-03 12:08 PM
Original message

The Dennis Kucinich you may not know

I would guess most voters, dependent as they are on a less than adequate national media for information, don't know much about Dennis Kucinich. What they do know about him no doubt suggests Don Quixote probably had a better chance of knocking down a windmill than he has of winning the Presidency. It's not all that surprising that even some progressives may have succumbed to their inner Tim Russert or Candy Crowley to decide someone with his progressive views can't be elected in the oppressive darkness of the nightmare world gleefully ruled over by George W Bush. Still, I can't help but believe that if voters knew more about Kucinich, who he is, where he came from, what he wants for his country, they might be willing to reconsider.

By any measure, his life is inspirational. I linked to an article below that describes the hardships he faced as a child, including serious poverty which led to his family having to live, at times, in a car. And as if that wasn't enough for one family to bear, he and his siblings had to live in an orphanage for five months due to his mother's illness. Also discussed is his rise and fall as Cleveland's mayor and his amazing political comeback (there's another link to an article giving a good summary of the controversy surrounding this time of his life). Once you learn how hard he fought to escape the circumstances into which he was born without ever forgetting where he came from and those who didn't escape, once you learn how he remained true to himself even in the face of devastating adversity, you might begin to view him in a different light.

You might even expect to find he was one of those elected representatives willing to stand up, regardless of the cost, against the Patriot Act and the Act authorizing the disastrous War on Iraq--and you would be right. He not only voiced opposition to these blows against freedom, he not only voted against them, he not only took a public position at severe odds with the majority of voters, he did every single thing he possibly could to stop these measures from passing. He fought and he fought and he's still fighting.

During the last debate, though I thought he performed well, he came off as very serious, sometimes angry. Not exactly the choice demeanor in today's happy talk entertainment world. Still, I'd ask you to think twice before judging him too harshly. Given his genuine concern about the terrible poverty of so many, both here and across the globe, given his concern about our obscene health care system where profit is funneled to the usual suspects while those in need suffer, given his concern about the grotesque exploitation of the many so the few can luxuriate in a coccoon of indefensible comfort, given his concern about our insane destruction of the environment, he has a lot to be angry about. So do we.

But there's more to Kucinich than anger, though he doesn't always let it show. He has an excellent sense of humor. Here he is discussing his childhood:

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/News/Nation/DB88CD9E7D0290E586256D920032A060?OpenDocument&Headline=Kucinich%2Bthe%2Bstreet%2Bfighter%2Bjabs%2Bfrom%2Bleft%2Bin%2Buphill%2Bfight

<edit

His life story is about beating the odds, he says. He became a successful politician after a hand-to-mouth childhood in which his family was forced at times to sleep in cars.

"But they were American-made cars," he joked last week in front of a labor union audience.

<end>

Before deciding to not vote for Kucinich, it's worth remembering progressives have not had a successful national candidate in years. The Sixties were a long time ago and I would bet there are any number of people out there who can't seriously imagine a better world is possible if only enough people would be willing to join together to put their hands to the task. Without hope, with idealism considered nothing more than a heartbreaking form of delusion, they're quickly lost to the seductive enticements of the corporate web of ignorance where in a world of 24 hour news and analysis our ideas aren't even put up for consideration. It's nonstop tax cuts, it's nonstop defense budget increases, it's nonstop terror alerts, it's nonstop everything but what we have to do to bring needed change to this increasingly worst of all possible worlds.

A successful Kucinich candidacy could do an awful lot to turn hope and idealism into fuel to set the progressive movement on fire. Sure, the national media would be quick to express the alarm of their corporate owners and would work overtime to trot out a chorus of well paid pundits to convince us that by daring to oppose entrenched power, we risked losing everything. Who would expect anything different? Entrenched power as repugnant as that which exists today can continue to survive only by convincing us to become complicit in our own enslavement.

But we don't have to fall for that old, old lie. We can write our own Emancipation Proclamation if only we have the courage to pick up the pen. We can, no matter how much we're told we can't, change the world. There are men and women and children dying right now for lack of medical care, for lack of food, for lack of our simply caring enough to do something about their suffering. If all Kucinich does is wake us up to the fact we're stronger than we've ever imagined, remind us impossible dreams have been achieved over and over again throughout history, make us believe once more the fight for a better world is always worth the risks and the discomfort and, dare I say it, the disapproval of Tim Russert and Candy Crowley, he'll have achieved something of incalculable worth.

So maybe rather than throwing in the towel early, rather than compromising before the battle has even begun, progressives should continue to fight for the one candidate willing to fight for them. If Kucinich eventually loses, there will still be plenty of time to unite behind the Democratic nominee in the general election. The Bush Administration has to go and you know Kucinich will be there working day and night for Howard Dean or John Kerry or whoever wins the nomination to make sure this time the votes are counted and the will of the people rules. And if Kucinich wins, well, I know some windmills that are going to be feeling extremely insecure.

http://www.dmregister.com/news/stories/c4788998/22187297.html

Kucinich's hard childhood a 'gift' yielding strength, compassion

Cleveland, Ohio - Dennis Kucinich's unsinkable optimism stems from a poor and chaotic childhood in which he lived in 21 places, including the back seats of cars, and spent a holiday season in an orphanage.

"That childhood actually prepared me for just about anything," said Kucinich, 56, an Ohio congressman who is one of nine Democratic presidential candidates. "It was a gift that remains as a great source of strength today, and a gift of compassion for understanding the kind of stuff that people can go through."

Kucinich is hailed by supporters as a fighter for the little guy and champion of grass-roots politics, even as critics point to his weak fund-raising and poll showings, and say he should step out of the race.

"For him to understand where the rest of us have been, are now and could be - that gives him such an insight that the George Bushes of the world could never understand," said Janice Lascko, a military veteran and single mother of three who works at the American Legion in Cleveland.

The eldest of seven children in a family of Croatian-Irish heritage, Kucinich remembers the difficulty his parents had finding a place to live. His father was a truck driver and his mother a homemaker. They never owned a house and were considered to have too many children for most apartments, so the family was sometimes evicted.

When Dennis Kucinich was in the sixth grade, caring for the children got to be too much for his mother, and she fell sick. Kucinich and his siblings were sent to a Catholic orphanage called Parmadale that Thanksgiving Day, and they spent the next five months there.

"It was a time when no one else would take us in," said Kucinich's brother, Gary, who manages a car dealership in Cleveland. "I remember that being a sad time because we were separated from both of our parents and were in very unfamiliar surroundings."

more...

For those interested, here's a link to the Cleveland Magazine article discussing Kucinich's tenure as mayor:

http://www.clevelandmagazine.com/editorial/thismonth_features.asp?docid=363

Dennis Kucinich: The Story
from Cleveland Magazine, May 1996

It's Opening Day, 1978.

Swarms of Clevelanders descend upon Municipal Stadium, leaving their posh offices and suburban homes with hope in their hearts. It's a new beginning, they think - the suits, the steelworkers, the bubble-blowing kids - as they anticipate the sound that to them is like no other: the crack of a baseball smacking a bat.

Below them, Mayor Dennis Kucinich waits outside the Indians dugout, his famous mop of hair lilting with the wind. His chest is tight on this 43-degree day - not only with anxiety, but within the protective vise of a bulletproof vest he strapped around his body only hours ago. He's had countless death threats. And he's prepared. All he wants now is to throw out that pitch.

"When they called my name, I got a standing boo from about 75,000 people," he recalls.

more...