Elizabeth Kucinich for First Lady

As a long time supporter of the Presidential aspirations of Congressman Dennis Kucinich I was thrilled to get a call from Larry Johnson who is our Fresno County Democratic Central Committee representative on the State Party Executive Board saying that he had met Elizabeth Kucinich at the State E-Board meeting and that she promised to visit Fresno.

Not long after that I got a call from Sandra Marshal of San Luis Obispo who is Elizabeth’s campaign coordinator for California. She wanted me to pick a day and draw up a list of events she might be able to speak to. I picked Saturday, December 1st and gave her a list of six events. On Wednesday, just three days out from the target date. I finally got the word that Elizabeth would be able to be here.

She arrived in Reedley late Friday evening to speak to the Reedley Peace Center. The next morning she spoke to a citizens group that is trying to stop the destruction of Jessie Morrow Mountain (a burial ground that is sacred to a local Indian tribe) by a gravel mining operation.

I rendezvoused with her campaign at a lunch break at Laborer’s Hall in east Fresno where the State Party was conducting a campaign training workshop. As a thirty something and six foot or better in height with long straight flowing red hair she would do well as a model for haute couture on the runways of the world stage for latest trends in clothing. But here she was in an out of the way acoustically challenged hall in an out of the way city in a politically overlooked part of the country representing a largely ignored second tier candidate for the most important job in the world.

As soon as she spoke her first words with her clear, pleasant, audible, English accent tinged voice she convinced everyone that beauty and brains are not necessarily antithetical to one another. It was startling to hear her intellectually insightful passion as opposed to the usual vague pablum like sound-bite all-things-to-all people clichés of shop-worn campaign rhetoric.

She spoke about how her husband, Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, was distinct among the plethora of Democratic candidates seeking the nomination for President. She pointed out that Dennis Kucinich actually most represents what most Democrats and the American people want. He is the only candidate to vote against the war in Iraq and against the funding that keeps it going. Kucinich has an actual bill before Congress (HR 1234) that would responsibly end the war.

He is the only candidate who has a plan (an actual bill in Congress) to have a national, non-corporate, not-for-profit, health insurance coverage for all Americans. This would be funded by saving the money that currently goes in the pockets of the wealthy insurance corporations.

He is the only candidate who voted against the police state spying Patriot Act. He would restore rule of law both under our Constitution and under International Law. Kucinich calls it “Strength through Peace” that engages the rest of the world in nuclear disarmament and in solutions to the economic problems that result in wars.

He is the only candidate who has a plan called the Works Green Administration modeled on Roosevelt’s WPA that would link and promote economic development and sustainable and environmentally safe energy solutions like wind and solar.

Kucinich is a long time advocate of universal pre-school as one way to help get at-risk children from economically and socially challenged families and neighborhoods get started on a path that leads to useful employment and not to street gangs, drugs, crime and prisons. He would fund jobs initiatives and education with the peace dividends that come from cutting back on our illegal, immoral and unnecessary wars and their huge burden of cost.

He would promote jobs and economic development by rescinding NAFTA which has sent most of manufacturing base to China. He is the only candidate who is a union member and the only one who opposes NAFTA and voted against the China Trade Agreement. As our President, Kucinich would insist on fair trade (not our so-called free trade) that would respect workers’ rights, women’s rights, health and safety, and the environment.

Elizabeth was asked to respond to the accusation that Dennis is a “spoiler.” She responded that her husband is a life-long Democrat and the one candidate who is most reflective of the values and principles that Democrats are supposed to stand for. She pointed out that her husband, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, has a long and successful political career as a Democrat who is not afraid of taking on the entrenched corporate interests and defeating incumbent Republicans.

Elizabeth also visited the feeding of the homeless by Food Not Bombs, spoke to the Hmong-American National Conference, spoke at the Peace Faire, visited the homeless living on the street near the Poverello House in the dark, and attended a reception and fundraiser in her honor hosted by noted Peace activist Jean Hays in north Fresno, and then drove back to Los Angeles for the next day’s flurry of speaking engagements.

I am looking forward to seeing a wonderful era of peace and prosperity under President Dennis Kucinich and his First Lady, Elizabeth.

Jay Hubbell