Purple
Hearts, Democrats
Abroad And Kucinich
By Heather Wokusch
19 March, 2007
Countercurrents.org
What
do you get when you cross Robert's Rules of Order, progressive activism
and wounded veterans?
Welcome to the annual meeting
of Democrats Abroad (DA). Nicknamed the 51st state since it sends delegates
to the DNC and represents many of the roughly six million Americans
living abroad, the DA is currently meeting in Germany to chart its future
path. I am blogging the event exclusively for Democrats.com.
Around 100 people attended
the opening reception last night, where the featured speaker was Phil
Murphy, Democratic National Committee (DNC) National Finance Chair.
Murphy is a wiry, affable man who speaks in sports analogies and seems
relentlessly upbeat about the Democrat's possibilities for 2008. To
paraphrase Murphy: It boils down to how much money you can raise and
how you spend it.
Unfortunately, his talk came
on the backdrop of the Democrat's scandalous decision to make it easier
for Bush to invade Iran. How that betrayal of the voters' trust would
improve fundraising possibilities was not addressed.
For this blogger, the first
official day of the meeting has been a mixture of bureaucratic boredom
and gut-wrenching introspection.
As in any large gathering
of Democrats today, you have those calling for order in the plenary
and those calling for impeachment. But here, the handshakes and water-cooler
pleasantries mask an underlying sense of tension. You've got various
candidates vying for executive-committee positions (and the status they
afford), you've got big and small countries in a power play for representation,
and you've got those wanting to assuage the system pitted against those
determined to fight it.
The trick is in finding a
common voice.
I keep hearing that the goal
is to elect a Democrat in 2008. But my goal is to elect a candidate
worth my vote. And I'm more than a little disgusted with what I have
seen from the Democrats recently.
That is, with the exception
of Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who recently said: "Since
war with Iran is an option of this Administration, and since such war
is patently illegal, then impeachment may well be the only remedy which
remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran." (http://kucinich.us/node/3667)
By lucky coincidence, today
I hung out with Elizabeth Kucinich, Dennis' remarkable wife. Elizabeth
has been repeatedly introduced as 'representing Dennis Kucinich,' but
ten seconds with this timeless woman and you realize that she actually
represents peace and wisdom. Fortunately, so does her husband.
In another coincidence, a
massive Defense Department military hospital and treatment center for
the wounded in Bush's wars happens to be less than two hours from where
the DA is currently meeting. Elizabeth was determined to visit the troops
during her short time here, and while Landstuhl Regional Medical Center
is off-limits to the general public, Elizabeth was allowed access due
to her status as the wife of a Congress Member. This afternoon, the
New Hampshire State Co-ordinator for the Kucinich campaign, Christina
Kraich-Rogers, and I joined Elizabeth in a visit to Landstuhl.
It's hard to describe the
impact of what we saw. A 23-year-old soldier recently medevaced from
Iraq, physically shattered and facing blindness. Couldn't even see the
newly-earned purple heart pinned to his pillow.
Relentless stories of IED
attacks and sniper assaults; youth putting a brave face on lives torn
apart and innocence tragically lost.
Through it all, Elizabeth
remained warm, engaged and connected.
On the ride back to the DA
meeting, she was quiet then said: 'The feeling I come away with is that
we are sacrificing our nation's future to pay for war. We are plundering
its treasures and its communities, and leaving young lives irreversibly
broken. It's like the Mayan snake with the head eating the tail. It's
that cycle of violence.' Elizabeth then spoke of the campaign to establish
a Department of Peace (www.thepeacealliance.org) and the need to embrace
non-violence both at home and abroad.
I come away from this day
feeling that there is a time for Robert's Rules and a there is a time
for urgent action. The Democrats Abroad can take pride in having introduced
recent DNC resolutions including restoring Habeas Corpus, condemning
torture and ensuring voting rights to Katrina refugees. But we must
do much, much more.
For as a young US service
member recently learned, a foreign policy based on 'an eye for an eye'
can leave you blind.
Click
here to comment
on this article