Eugene weekly., April 05, 2007, Page 13, Image 13

Not Only Doctors at
Doctors Without Borders
BY ALAN PITTMAN
Kucinich Visits Eugene
INFORMATION AND RECRUITMENT TOUR:
UO • Pacific Hall, Room 123
Wednesday, April, 18 • 6:30pm
Presidential candidate touts passion for peace
Dennis and
ennis Kucinich,
Elizabeth
the Democratic
Kucinich
presidential pri-
mary contender with the
strongest anti-war record,
spoke about his passion
for peace to a crowd of
about 600 last week in
Eugene and received
standing ovations.
Kucinich, a U.S. rep-
resentative from Ohio,
opposed the Iraq war
from the beginning and
has called for an immedi-
ate pull-out and end to
war funding. “There’s no
one else running for presi-
dent who has the record I
have on these things,” he
said.
Kucinich ran for presi-
dent in 2004, but finished
sixth in the Democratic primary. In Eugene,
Kucinich won 26 percent of the vote com-
pared to 69 percent for John Kerry.
Kucinich’s plan for Iraq is to immediately
stop additional funding. Already approved
funding will support the troops through mid-
July. By that time they will have all been
brought home, he said.
A U.N. peacekeeping force including
large contingents from Muslim nations
would stabilize Iraq as U.S. troops leave. The
plan acknowledges the fact that “the occupa-
tion is fueling the insurgency,” Kucinich said.
He said the U.S. should not abandon Iraq
but owes it to the Iraqi people to “spend the
rest of our lives” to repair and reconstruct the
war-torn nation. “Perhaps as many as a mil-
lion Iraqis have been killed,” Kucinich said.
“Our nation in our name has been responsible
for their murder.”
“We need to redeem the soul of our na-
tion, ” Kucinich said, calling the war “a stain
on our national history.”
Kucinich decries the current reconstruc-
tion effort as a “criminal enterprise,” describ-
ing the $10.8 billion in $100 bills shipped to
Iraq that disappeared without accounting. He
describes Blackwater and other security
firms as private armies who make money by
perpetuating war.
Kucinich said Bush administration offi-
cials should be “brought to justice” for their
torture and illegal imprisonment policies.
“They must be held accountable,” he said.
“Every single one.”
The mainstream media have already dis-
missed Kucinich as a long shot. Kerry out-
spent him 20-fold in the 2004 primary. But
Kucinich describes himself as the determined
underdog that could.
Kucinich said even at 4’9” and 98 lbs. he
made his high school football team as a third
string quarterback. “Sometimes I was a quar-
terback and sometimes I was a football,” he
joked. Growing up in Cleveland, he said he
lived in many different rentals, and twice he
lived in cars.
At 23, Kucinich was elected to the
Cleveland City Council and at 31, won elec-
tion as the youngest mayor of a major U.S.
Join Chris Sauer, a firefighter from northern California, as he shares his experiences working as
a logistics specialist and administrator for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières
(MSF) in the Darfur region of Sudan, southern Sudan, Uganda, and Liberia
One out of every three MSF aid workers is a logistician, amdministrator, or other non-medical special-
ist. These are the people who dig wells and rehabilitate hospitals, transport medical supplies to emer-
gencies, negotiate security agreements in conflict zones, hire staff, manage budgets ... and much more.
D
RSVP visit www.doctorswithoutborders.org or call 1-800-601-1466
O PEN FOR
L UNCH & D INNER
ALAN PITTMAN
(Angela Englert & Bill Town’s New Eatery)
‘There’s no one else running for
president who has the record I
have on these things.’
Featuring:
Mediterranean Inspired Tapas
• Fr.-Sat. Smoked Prime Rib
• Parties, up to 20 Guests
• World Class Desserts
• Full Bar featuring Seasonal Drinks
EUGENE
WEEKLY
CAMP
GUIDE
Monday Nights Cheese Fondue
—Dennis Kucinich
city. While he was mayor, banks tied to a cor-
porate utility threatened to put the city into
loan default unless Kucinich agreed to sell
the city’s public utility to the corporation, he
said. Kucinich refused, and the banks threw
the city into default, costing Kucinich his re-
election. Fifteen years later Kucinich was ac-
claimed for saving the city a fortune by hav-
ing the foresight to not sell the municipal util-
ity. The praise helped propel him into his con-
gressional seat, he said.
Along the way Kucinich had a daughter,
divorced twice, became a vegan, changed
from anti-abortion to pro-choice and married a
British woman with long red hair who’s sev-
eral inches taller than he but half his age of 60.
Two months before the 9/11 attacks,
Kucinich called for the creation of a federal
Department of Peace to pursue domestic and
global nonviolence.
The “war on terror” is “a monstrous lie
told to keep war in perpetuity,” Kucinich
said. Now, “our leaders act as sociopaths in
the world community,” he said. “We can’t
keep doing this.”
“All over the world people are waiting for
a new America to emerge,” he said describing
travels with his wife, Elizabeth. Just after the
recent Israeli bombing of South Lebanon
using U.S. bombs, Kucinich describes crying
at the grave of a “cherubic” toddler who died
when a U.S.-made bomb destroyed his apart-
ment building. “Tell the American people we
don’t like your leaders, but we love them,”
Kucinich said members of a gathered crowd
told him. “We don’t hate Israel. We want to
live in peace.”
Kucinich called on voters to not be “daz-
zled by an American Idol type campaign” but
to focus on real issues.
Kucinich said as president he would ban
nuclear weapons and land mines, strictly
limit global warming, protect endangered
species and promote conservation and renew-
able energy. He said he would do away with
international trade agreements such as
NAFTA, GATT and the WTO that don’t pro-
tect the environment and workers’ rights.
“America should be leading the race to the
top, not to the bottom,” Kucinich said. ew
460 Willamette Street • 343-1586
Mon.-Sat. 11-10 • At 5th & Willamette
in the Historic Lane Building
M A GI CA L D R EA M T IM E
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1 0 41 Wi ll am et t e S t re e t ( Ac r o s s f ro m th e Mc Do n al d T he at r e) • 3 44 -0 3 51
APRIL 5, 2007 13