News Reporter
United States Congressman Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, stopped by Eugene Monday night to discuss his 2008 presidential campaign, as well as his desire to establish a “Department of Peace.”
Kucinich’s speech at the First United Methodist Church was sponsored by the Democratic Party of Lane County, which Chairwoman Val Hoyle said has the first “peace caucus” in the United States.
A crowd of more than 350 packed the church. After some technical difficulties with the sound system delayed the start of the speech, the crowd rose to its feet and cheered as Kucinich walked to the stage.
University sophomore Linsey Lombardi said she came to the speech because she supports Kucinich’s desire to withdraw troops from Iraq as soon as possible.
“I think Kucinich has some very important ideas to enact in Washington,” she said.
Lombardi, who will be voting in her first presidential election in 2008, said she’s very happy about Kucinich’s ideas and hopes he has a successful campaign.
After joking a bit about the sound problems, Kucinich spoke about the importance of standing up for the truth at all costs.
“We’re being told that war is the essential reality of this world,” he said, “Yet in our heart of hearts we know that at the core of this story is a lie.”
Kucinich said that the war in Iraq is a “road that did not need to be traveled.”
Many politicians today “put truth on a scale with gold bars,” Kucinich said, suggesting that money is held to be more important than the truth about the war.
“If war were not profitable, Wall Street would stop it,” he said.
He said the lie of the war is so big that people continue to believe it regardless of what other information comes out. He said that in order to heal the planet and promote peace, people need to “explore our own humanity” and live by the principles of peace.
Kucinich said the America he wants stands for ideas such as peace, abolishing nuclear weapons, signing the Kyoto protocol and working to reverse global warming.
Throughout the speech, in which Kucinich drew from several sources including the Bible and works by Lewis Carroll and Alfred Lord Tennyson, he was interrupted by cheering and several standing ovations.
University junior Beth Shuler said she came to the speech because she followed Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign and found his ideas to be “radical.”
“I think we really need that in Washington,” she said.
Shuler said she likes that Kucinich has spoken out against the war in Iraq since before it began because the nation needs people who are willing to take a stance on the issue.
Kucinich spoke about the need for every person to embody the principles of peace. He said all symptoms of violence in society come from the belief that nothing can be done about it.
He said it is “heartbreaking” to see America be a country that spreads war and violence instead of one that leads a movement for world peace and unity.
He told a story of traveling to Lebanon after its war with Israel last year.
He described seeing people sitting on piles of rubble and seeing the “debris of war” – pieces of clothing, books, televisions, furniture, etc. – and being reminded of the daily lives of those who died.
One day, as Kucinich visited a site of a bombing, villagers who heard that he was a United States Congressman gathered around and called out to him.
“Voices called out, ‘Tell the American people we love them,’” he said. “‘Tell the American people we don’t like your leaders but we love (you).’”
Kucinich said the villagers told him that they did not hate Israel and only wanted peace. He said he has met with citizens and ambassadors from all over the world and hears the same message.
“There is such a hunger for peace all over the world,” he said.
The villagers in Lebanon reminded him of the capacity of people who have been stripped bare of everything to call out from their hearts, he said, saying that America could take that message to the world.
“That, my friends, is the America that resides within your heart,” he said. “It is time we let the world know it.”
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