Mike Gravel’s Most Powerful Video Yet: Young Men and Women are Dying Every Day
It’s a safe bet that Mike Gravel will never be president of the United States. He’s too old, too poor, and too…grumpy. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore him. As anyone who thinks seriously about what’s going on in the world knows, he has a very, very good reason to be grumpy. While the media has focused on Gravel only to poke fun at his disturbing and “cantankerous” demeanor, it’s the major candidates — nonchalant and unaffected as they are when discussing war and the role the U.S. military machine plays in the world — who are truly disturbing.
Thousands of innocent Iraqis and young coalition troops are maimed or killed each month, millions of Iraqis have been forced to flee their homes (producing the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world), and every single presidential candidate except Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel, and Ron Paul refuses to even consider whether offensive war should continue to be an instrument of U.S. policy. Whether we like it or not, we are responsible for this madness. We bear some responsibility for each and every life that is extinguished before its time in Iraq. Just thinking about it makes me grumpy too.
If the media and more Americans took Gravel seriously — not necessarily as a candidate, but as a moral leader — our country and our democracy would transform in ways we never thought possible. Instead, even “far left” sites like DailyKos, and their moral leader Markos Moulitsas, write articles which proclaim with the authority of the internet’s most popular political blog, “Mike Gravel is a Waste of Our Time.” Like I said at the beginning, Gravel probably isn’t going to be president. But to say he is a waste of our time — without even considering the courage it took for him to read the Pentagon Papers into the public record during Vietnam, or the courage it takes for him to speak the truth today as best as he can, or how central his warnings are to the future of our democracy — is, well, sad.
This isn’t about voting for Gravel. It’s not about voting for Kucinich or Paul either. It’s about rising above the corporate-sponsored and prepackaged political discourse to make our own decisions about what is right, and what is wrong. Bravo to Gravel for doing just that in his latest, and greatest, message to Americans. (h/t Truthdig):
Filed under: Gravel, Politics, News, Video on August 30th, 2007
I love Mike Gravel, but this commercial reminds me of the 10,000 pyramid.
I totally agree. Gravel certainly should not be igorned, and his latest video is the best one I’ve seen yet, and not just from him, but from any candidate.
Depending on who the next president is, it’s possible that Gravel could take the position as a moral leader for this country. We could certainly use one right about now, especially with his perspective on foreign policy.
There is a write up on the Garling Gauge political blog as well:
http://garlinggauge.com/2007/08/29/gravels-new-acid-test/
Thanks JillR. I really enjoyed the post over at Garling Gauge. This is such an important video, and I hope it continues to get exposure despite the virtual boycott the media and most of the Democratic Party have placed on Gravel.
That’s a good video and I hope it receives a wide audience on the web.
If we’ve got hope for Kucinich, we’re not discounting Gravel either. Talk about a movement even lonelier than we are.
Who took the train? “I took the train!” Mike Gravel.
Course, Dennis also didn’t raise his hand for that question.