There is absolutely, positively, no stopping us now. Since I last wrote to our Students For Kucinich on Thursday morning, Dennis has climbed into first place on Democracy For America's 2008 Pulse Poll! This amazing feat is thanks to all of you out there, and Dennis is definitely paying attention: He even mentioned his gratitude yesterday when I saw him here in New Hampshire.

However, there is one last collective push for us to make if we are going to secure national media attention for Dennis and his message of Strength Through Peace.

The Democracy For America poll is still open until midnight on November 5, which only gives us this weekend to secure a considerable enough lead to earn the coveted DFA endorsement. Will you take a moment of your time to encourage your friends to join you at http://www.democracyforamerica.com/pulsepoll and vote Dennis Kucinich as their first choice for President?

You and I have already maxed out our allowed votes to help Dennis secure his lead; now, it's up to us to bring new voters into the mix to help us carry the majority percentage required to gain the endorsement. Start by e-mailing the http://democracyforamerica.com/pulsepoll link to all of your friends and family members with instructions on how to vote, then follow-up by posting blogs and social-networking announcements to everyone you know!

Together, our grassroots campaign can keep growing into something great. Together, we can show the world that we don't need our Presidential candidates accepting money from corporations and billionaires elites in order to obtain press coverage.

And together, we can get Dennis Kucinich into the White House.

If you will indulge me, I would like to share with my large-hearted yet fearful friends why I believe Congressman Dennis Kucinich can become President of the United States in 2008.

We have reason to fear being optimistic, and our efforts to protect ourselves from more disappointment are understandable. Yet, if we only look to the past to predict the future, we will only get more of what we don't want. I understand how our protective thinking has come about regarding a progressive candidate like Kucinich, and yet I am compelled to challenge it. We are living in a unique time with new potential. Suddenly ‘Green’ is cool! Something has shifted.

I hear people say, "Oh, if only Dennis could win. He's my first choice, but he's not electable" or "I really like him but he doesn't have a chance." My answer is, "Why not?" As Dennis says, he's electable, if we vote for him. That's all we have to do, although sending financial contributions to his campaign would certainly help, as would talking with other people about him and his plans.

I know Kucinich has a chance of winning— IF people vote for him in the caucuses and primaries.

I spent two days on the road with the Kucinich campaign in New Hampshire in early April, and from what I saw, I believe he can win. In those two days he did nonstop radio and TV interviews plus town hall meetings at which people kept saying, "You're the only one saying this" and "You're the only one being specific on these issues."

My belief is that he can win the New Hampshire primary. And since the primaries are closer together this year than in past years, if he wins in New Hampshire, he has a better chance of winning more primaries than previous candidates in that position. Kucinich has defeated Republican challengers, including incumbents, in his home district in Ohio.

Michael Moore has been telling audiences that the only presidential candidate supporting nonprofit health care is Dennis Kucinich, which is helping his name get out there. Ed Schultz devoted a 3-hour show to interviewing Kucinich a couple of weeks ago on progressive talk radio.

This year, unlike 2004, Kucinich has been treated like the serious presidential candidate that he is on Late Night with David Letterman and The Tonight Show. He was interviewed by Newsweek in February of this year, whereas in 2004 he was not mentioned and was cut out of a photo of the Democratic presidential candidates on the cover of Newsweek.

With only six minutes to talk in the presidential debate on ABC-TV's "This Week" a few weeks ago, Kucinich came in FIRST in the online vote following the debate. This man CAN win!

So let’s challenge our cynicism, understandable as it is, because it gets in the way of us going for what we really believe in and putting our energy behind it. Fear depletes energy; vision creates it.

In 2004, people voted their fears— they voted against something rather than for something— and that got us nothing but more Bush, more war, more debt, and more erosion of our civil rights.

Recently a wise friend of mine said that "cynicism is the intellectual side of despair." That really resonated with me. So I'm willing to acknowledge my despair, challenge my cynicism, and put it aside, at least until after the 2008 primaries.





The preceding "open letter" was penned by Sharon Abreu, a vocal Kucinich supporter in Washington, and has been reproduced with her permission. When she's not writing letters to the community in support of sending Congressman Dennis Kucinich to the White House, Sharon can be found uploading anti-war and Kucinich-themed videos on YouTube at http://www.YouTube.com/Sharmuse; in addition to presenting her work at http://www.sharmuse.com.

Ending the Stronghold of Globalization
and Upholding Workers’ Rights



Stop. Take a look around.

You see that girl drinking a latte? Notice that guy's new sneakers? What about the last time you called your cell phone company about your bill, and received help from a friendly foreign accent? Chances are, you're encountering the results of unfair labor practices every day—and you probably don't even realize it.


The workers who pick and process those coffee beans—often women and children— are subjected to low wages; discrimination; and sexual, physical and verbal abuse. This violates both regional and international law, but it continues to happen nonetheless. Kenyan coffee workers earn about $12 USD a month, which is the cost of just three lattes made from the very same beans they're picking. Additionally, 60% of the workers on Kenyan coffee plantations are children. Working 10-12 hours a day, like adults twice their age, prevents child workers from getting an education. Because coffee workers of all ages begin working as children, illiteracy persists into adulthood. When female workers were interviewed about labor rights in Guatemala, 84% indicated that they did not know what "labor rights" meant.


It’s not just the female workers in Guatemala, either. Women throughout the Global South—the developing countries located below the Equator—are being exploited at alarming rates, put to work under slave-like conditions in sweatshops from Argentina to Zimbabwe. Globalization occuring through NAFTA and the WTO allows large transnational corporations to violate people in less-developed regions of the world through substandard working conditions. Think we’re safe here in the U.S.? Think again. Sweatshops can be found in some of our nation’s most industrious cities’ garment districts where labor rights violations run rampant. But sweatshops are only the beginning of labor rights violations here at home: some of the worst offenders are American mass-market retail chains that refuse to acknowledge the universal rights of their workers to unionize.

That’s not all globalization is doing to devastate our country’s workers. Outsourcing is stripping our country's workforce of the jobs that at one time were filled by hard-working Americans. But you’re getting a degree, so what do you have to worry about? The truth is that white-collar industries like the ones being offered as majors at universities—such as mechanical and electrical engineering, and computer programming—are now being outsourced to places like the Indus Valley before the Silicon Valley. Even one of those customer service jobs would be great for spending cash while you’re in school… only problem is they’re getting outsourced, too.

Now is the time we have to act. We have to send a message to Washington, D.C. to make them realize that the current policy towards “free trade” is not working. A shift towards bilateral fair trade is a better alternative, and helps us concentrate on creating sustainable work environments that uphold workers’ rights and provide living wages, in addition to keeping a focus on stabilizing local job markets.

One candidate who gets this message loud and clear is Dennis Kucinich—and that’s why we need to elect him for President in 2008.


XO,
Josef

Creating a Culture of Compassion

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”
-- the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham Jail, 1963.

This Fall 2007 semester, while you are experiencing anxiety before an exam, nineteen of your fellow Americans will be experiencing anxiety before an execution, as they wait on Death Row. Think that Quantitative Methods of Calculus is torture? In this same semester, 340 detainees sit in their cells on American soil at Guantanamo Bay, living their lives at risk of enduring cruel forms of punishment… and real torture. And although you might be fine with skipping breakfast on your morning rush to class, millions of American schoolchildren have also skipped their breakfast—and last night’s dinner too, since they live in extreme poverty and hunger due to frighteningly high levels of economic disparity in our country.

It’s time that humanity begins helping humanity, and that time is right now.

As a member of Congress, Dennis Kucinich introduced the Federal Death Penalty Abolition Act of 2003 to establish an end to capital punishment. There is no reason that our government should be killing its own citizens—especially when there have been well-documented cases of innocent people being found on Death Row. Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole is the best alternative to government-sponsored executions.

When Eleanor Roosevelt helped draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights at the United Nations in 1948, she stressed Article 5, which states, “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.” This concept is not new. Our founding fathers even wrote in Amendment 8 of our Constitution’s Bill of Rights that “…cruel and unusual punishments [shall not] be inflicted.” So why is our country still committing cruel acts of punishment in the form of torture? We consider ourselves to be an advanced civilization, yet torture is the most barbaric a society can get. Torture should never be an option.

Economic disparity has sharply increased, with the poor finding themselves trapped in their socioeconomic class. Balconies of expensive high-rise condominiums in our country’s major urban centers often overlook dilapidated housing projects just blocks away. Our healthy “organic” foods have become costly luxury items even though they are cheaper to produce than the genetically modified and preservative-loaded foods that are the only affordable option of the working poor. There shouldn’t be such a contrast between the “haves” and “have-nots”—for us to be a just society, both “haves” must be able to come together and form a more equal whole.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich has plans to help create this “culture of compassion” in American society… and it begins with your pledge to send him to the White House in 2008.


XO,
Josef

Same Sexes! Same Rights!
Supporting the Right for All Couples to Marry

“Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.”
-- Article 6, the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights

However, as of right now, the United States of America is not recognizing same-sex couples as people before the law in terms of legalizing marriage. It’s time that our generation changes that.

In 1967, during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, the United States Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the Loving v. Virginia case that anti-miscegenation laws prohibiting whites and non-whites from marrying were unconstitutional. In it’s ruling, the Court declared that “Marriage is one of the ‘basic civil rights of man’…”

Mildred Loving, a woman of mixed African and Native American ancestry and a co-plantiff in the Loving v. Virginia case, said on the 40th anniversary of the Court’s decision:

“…[N]ot a day goes by that I don't think of Richard and our love, our right to marry, and how much it meant to me to have that freedom to marry the person precious to me, even if others thought he was the "wrong kind of person" for me to marry. I believe all Americans, no matter their race, no matter their sex, no matter their sexual orientation, should have that same freedom to marry. Government has no business imposing some people's religious beliefs over others. Especially if it denies people's civil rights.

I am still not a political person, but I am proud that Richard's and my name is on a court case that can help reinforce the love, the commitment, the fairness, and the family that so many people, black or white, young or old, gay or straight seek in life. I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what Loving, and loving, are all about.”

Forty years ago, laws preventing the races from marrying on the basis of their mutual love were reversed. Forty years later, there are now laws preventing members of the LGBT community from marrying on the basis of their mutual love.

Congressman Dennis Kucinich is the most prominent candidate for President of the United States of America that fully supports the right for all American citizens to equal marriage—and not “civil unions” which unfairly discriminate same-sex couples from opposite-sex ones. Other candidates seem to be in favor of these “civil unions” that deny gays and lesbians their “equal right” to have marriage. Civil rights extend to all people regardless of race, religion, and sexual orientation. These “other candidates” are not in support of equal civil rights like they claim... so let’s use the power of our votes to send a message about true equality—and Dennis Kucinich to the White House in 2008.


XO,
Josef

Hey everybody; Josef here, and I want to take a moment to introduce myself a little bit for my first blog entry.

I'm a 23-year-old college student from Florida with a burning passion for upholding the concept of universal human rights, and that's one reason why I joined the Dennis Kucinich Presidential Campaign.

Before I moved to Cleveland for the semester, I interned for State Senator Ted Deutch. As a thank-you to his interns, the Senator and his wife invited me to be one of their guests at this year's Jefferson-Jackson gala in West Palm Beach, where Congressman Dennis Kucinich was one of the keynote speakers. Before we were seated for dinner, there was a "mixer" for all of the guests to meet and greet each other. When the other two interns and I spotted the Congressman from across the room, we felt like we had just seen a rock star in person... it was very surreal and very exciting. We tried our best to contain our dorky glee and not gawk, but the Senator's wife, Jill, took notice and nudged at her husband to go and introduce us.

My friends and I momentarily freaked out amongst ourselves when we realized we were about to be face-to-face with such an esteemed American figure whose political history we had followed for quite some time.

Anyway, so Ted (a/k/a Senator Deutch), didn't hesitate to put us out there; introducing us interns to Representative Kucinich by saying, "Hey Dennis, these are my three interns, and they're big fans of yours who wanted to meet you, but they're too shy to come over on their own. Would you mind saying hello?" Dennis was really very kind to us, and we all ended up chatting for a long time (once we got our gushing out of the way). By the end of the conversation, we had discussed everything related to international and domestic human rights, from his global trade policies (he's against the WTO and NAFTA— even marching with protestors at the WTO hearings in Seattle— because they exploit humanity for cheap labor via sweatshops and the like) to politely lobbying him to divest his personal investments from companies doing business with Sudan, as a means of helping stop the genocide in Darfur (his response: "Personal investments? The only asset I have is my house in Cleveland that I bought for $21,000 in the 1970s! I'm the poorest member of the U.S. Congress, in case you haven't heard. But I applaud your efforts..."). Yeeeeeah, we were pretty embarassed.

By the end of our conversation, the other interns and I wanted to really help this guy get elected, so we asked him what we could do to help. The best way for any of us students out there who want to see Dennis get elected is to start a Students For Kucinich group on your campus. You can do that by contacting our office at 1-877-41-DENNIS (1-877-413-3664), or by e-mailing us. What we'll do is help you mobilize a group at your school, and send you all the materials you'll need to get things started. We're even working on having Dennis himself speak with your group one-on-one via weekly conference calls, so you too can experience that personal dialogue that I am grateful to have had.

Our generation really needs to listen to what Dennis Kucinich has to say. While it's fine that the "big three" (who shall remain nameless because they don't need any more press) are busy pushing an agenda designed to woo our parents' and grandparents' votes, the truth is that our generation is being dramatically overlooked on issues that will directly impact us in the next few years. Issues like college education, a potential draft for Bush's Iraq War, and "living" wages as opposed to "minimum" wages are just some of these kinds of issues that Dennis Kucinich is speaking up about on our behalf. We have to send a message to the old folks in Washington, D.C. Establishment that we demand to hear about issues relevant to us— and we have a voice in Dennis Kucinich.

So let's band together and show everyone that there are Students For Kucinich. Contact us today and get a group started at your school tomorrow.

XO,
Josef