Mobile, Global Citizens Say Dennis Makes the Difference

They can't vote, but internationals love Dennis Kucinich for U.S. president,

OpEdNews.com

"When you feel yourself starting to become whole, it's all right to accept positions  of power, but not before then. The overriding problem with our country, and our world in general, is that we are, in large part, managed by incompetents.  Most of these are men who have spent their lives seeking power rather than themselves."

~ Robert James Waller, from the book, "Old Songs In A New Cafe'"

            There's a movement afoot that redefines the term "grassroots." Around the planet, non-U.S. citizens, ineligible to vote in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, are buzzing about a dark horse candidate who, like the famous thoroughbred Seabiscuit, seems destined to come from behind for a stunning finish. These global citizens share a common kinship: their faith that Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich spells "sea change" on a worldwide scale. Catalyzed by the tenor of the times, they're reaching out to support a spiritual voice with a practical purpose.

            People tend to refer to Kucinich by his first name, signifying an affinity for the man who grew up in poverty and is committed to creating a "Workers' White House." This recognition of "The Friend," as the Sufi mystic Rumi calls his teacher, is both ancient and cross-cultural. Collectively, we've manifested a beacon for quantum evolution.

            Canadian-born Soleira Green, who lives in the U.K., describes our current crossroads well: "America is on the verge of a choice so huge. Will they choose to become the global stewards for an internationally connected world or will they choose to continue on as they are? My sense is that the American people are split fifty-fifty on this one and it could swing either way. What's it going to take to get us all, all around the world, to consciously choose the new?"     

            Kucinich's peace platform speaks to all peoples, in a common tongue. It's remarkable how people from vastly different cultures, who do not know one another, express their feelings in almost identical language. We might infer that Dennis Kucinich is the fulcrum for scripting our Declaration of Interdependence.

Japanese writer and musician, Yumi Kikuchi, lived a quiet rural lifestyle in Kamogawa, Japan until the events of 9/11. "When I saw the World Trade Center collapsing, something collapsed in me, and a calling emerged from tears," she says. "I knew dropping bombs and killing more innocent people would not stop terrorism." She was impelled to launch The Global Peace Campaign, which raised enough money from small donations by peace-loving Japanese to place a full-page ad in the New York Times: a Vietnam veteran's plea to the current administration, "If we kill one innocent person, we become a terrorist."

Then a year ago, someone e-mailed her a speech that had her turning spiritual somersaults. Kikuchi had discovered Dennis.

"He was talking about the U.S.'s role in the world, saying the U.S. should give food not bombs. He also talked about creation of a cabinet-level Department of Peace. I was very impressed, as the U.S. was poised to attack Iraq. It must have taken great courage for a U.S. Congressman to say that, I thought. So, I wrote an article about him for the first time. I ended, 'Imagine if this man were the president of the United States, what kind of world is possible?' He had not announced his candidacy yet."

            Five months later, Kikuchi left her two toddlers with her husband and flew to California to meet Kucinich. She subsequently translated his best-selling book, "A Prayer for America," into Japanese. Divine intervention supplied the publisher, who brought the book out on Kucinich's 57th birthday, October 8, 2003. By the end of December, 5,000 copies were nearly sold out.

            "Many Americans do not know how much U.S. foreign policy is affecting the rest of the world. After 9/11, many Japanese do not feel our government is in Tokyo, but in Washington, D.C.," Kikuchi says. "Increasingly our government does not listen to the Japanese public but they respond quickly to the White House. Now the Japanese Self Defense Force is in Iraq. For what? It is the first time we ever sent our soldiers overseas into combat since World War II.

            "I sometimes feel I should have a right to vote for the U.S. president, as our future is pretty much in his hands: he decides who is a terrorist and who is not, and which country to bomb next, etc. He can withdraw from all international treaties. Many countries and people in the world now feel threatened by the USA and can never say no to the U.S. as we are afraid what the U.S. may do if we do not go along with her."

            Maria Delmonte* would agree. Born in Germany, Delmonte lived in Italy for more than twenty years, then traveled to Nicaragua to work with indigent children there. Recently she's been visiting the States, listening to interviews with Kucinich on Radio Pacifica. She says, "When I was a little girl I did not understand how Hitler could bring a whole country to follow his horrible plans. I said to my parents, 'But why did you not do anything against him?' I never understood how subtle these things are, what they do to you: you get the police in your own mind! You do it to survive!

            "The USA to me and to others in the world is looked at as Hitler's Germany, in this moment. Ask who you want""to tell them, 'this is the country of the free', you get a laugh. It's a bitter laugh.

            "In every other country but the USA people are fearing a third world war. In countries where they have experienced war in the last generations, there is no wish for war. The U.S. has not had a war on its own territory for generations. They have brought war to other countries. People around the world know this, and they are well informed. They all feel threatened by the politics of the current president.

            "I really feel, if there would be a president like Dennis Kucinich in the U.S., willing to collaborate with other countries and to keep world peace, a lot of tension would disappear and people would be able to put their energy on important issues, such as education, healthcare, care for the planet, spiritual growth, understanding different cultures."

            Kikuchi adds, "Dennis is the only one who has a plan to get the U.S. out of Iraq and the U.N. in. He is the only one talking about canceling NAFTA and WTO, replacing them with fair trade agreements. [His vision includes] twenty percent renewable energy, single payer universal health care, free education from pre-kindergarten through college, and a fifteen percent military budget cut."

            Chantal Devereux* is a teacher in Normandy, France""the nation that built The Statue of Liberty for the U.S., as a gift of friendship and goodwill. She's excited about Kucinich's stance on public education, and the ripple effect she perceives it will have for her country. "Quality education can only be helpful for us. Our system, from one of the best in the world, has become, in twenty years, one of the worst: a complete collapse, with the rejection of the basic values of work and moral values.

"An effort on education is for me the basis of all programmes. Education shapes the future members of our future society. If Americans could re-instill the notions of quality, good work, respect (of education itself, of the pupils, of the teachers) that would be such a help for us"I told colleagues last week, 'I can no longer stand your lack of respect for the children, to underfeed them that way, to level your teaching to the lowest one, despising those who want to work, and this, only for the greed of a promotion inside a rotten system!'"

            Yet Devereux recognizes that a fundamental shift is in progress. Like Kikuchi, she translated some of Kucinich's speeches into her native language to help educate her compatriots about him. "We are now living a period of great spiritual awakening"it is felt everywhere on all levels. When I read Dennis's speeches last summer, I immediately thought, 'This man must be known to the greater number on the planet,' because what happens in the U.S. is so heavy with consequences for the rest of the world. Planet Earth is becoming a big village, and the town hall seems to be in America."

            In Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nila Tadic de Ossio knows the truth of Devereux's assertion. "Both big and small countries, powerful or not, are concerned who the next U.S. president will be. Whether we like it or not, it will certainly affect us all."

            De Ossio, who belongs to World Service Intergroup (WSI), a spiritual service organization that meets annually in different countries, was deeply moved by Kucinich's 'Spirit and Stardust' speech. "Reading Dennis's [words], we can't avoid feeling a great hope for the future. I would like to quote from 'Spirit and Stardust':

            "'Though flames of war from the millions of hearts and the dozens of places wherein it rages, may lick at our consciousness, our gaze must be fixed upward to invoke universal principles of unity, of cooperation, of compassion, to infuse our world with peace, to ask for the active presence of peace, to expand our capacity to receive it and to express it in our everyday life. We must do this fearlessly and courageously and not breathe in the poison gas of terror. As we receive, so shall we give.

            "'As we aspire to universal brotherhood and sisterhood, we harken to the cry from the heart of the world and respond affirmatively to address through thought, word and deed conditions which give rise to conflict: economic exploitation, empire building, political oppression, religious intolerance, poverty, disease, famine, homelessness, struggles over control of water, land, minerals, and oil.

            "'We realize that what affects anyone, anywhere affects everyone, everywhere. As we help others to heal, we heal ourselves. Our vision of interconnectedness resonates with new networks of world citizens in nongovernmental organizations linking from numberless centers of energy, expressing the emergence of a new organic whole, seeking unity within and across national lines"'"

            Says de Ossio, "We, as citizens of the world, cannot add any more wisdom to these words. God bless us all."

Sydney, Australia, resident Geoff Lane, who is widely traveled, states unequivocally, "Western nations can no longer rely on old paradigms. We need to go beneath the cycles of intervention, occupation, war, terrorism and counter-terrorism. We need to question why it is that others would rail against us. Why do we pursue aggressive, self-serving trade policy? Why do [industrialized nations] insist that our way is the only way? These paradigms ignore the truth of unity""that we are all one. What we do to others, we do to ourselves. This is not simply some spiritual ideology but an everyday reality which involves every single one of us, whether we acknowledge it or not."

            Thanks to the Global Renaissance Alliance, Lane has long been aware of Kucinich's proposed Department of Peace. "What a triumph, should this be successful! I am currently looking for the opportunity to question our own government on this. It almost defies imagination, what effect on the planet if we replaced 'defense' spending with equitable wealth distribution. If we sent tractors instead of tanks around the world, we would smell peace not napalm.

"In your country, at this moment in history, there is one man who carries a potential for meaningful, lasting change. By entering the 2004 electoral campaign, Representative Dennis J. Kucinich presents the possibility for a new order."

Echoes Kiara Windrider, from India: "Dennis's words carry for me a gleam of hope in a world that is dangerously close to self-imposed catastrophe. More and more today, we are living in a one-world economy, a one-world political machine. Whether we like it or not, the decisions made by the president of the most powerful country in the history of the world, the United States of America, affect the lives of every nation, every human, every tree, and every species still remaining on Earth. I strongly maintain that the decisions being made by George W. Bush and his advisors do not reflect the opinions and best interests of the American people, nor of my own country (India), nor of this beautiful planet I wish to nurture and protect.

"If there is someone I could trust to represent the best interests of the common people throughout the world, and to represent Mother Earth herself, I can think of nobody better than Dennis. In a world where we are seeing increasing chaos, polarization, and despair, I truly believe that Dennis Kucinich can help turn the tide. In a world increasingly held captive by the forces of tyranny and terrorism on the highest levels, I believe that Dennis Kucinich is the one candidate for U.S. president who clearly, compassionately and courageously represents the second global emerging superpower in the world today, the voices of ordinary people united throughout the world!"

In the U.K., visionaries Soleira and Santari Green would like to see Kucinich expand his mission and vision. Soleira writes, of the proposed Department of Peace, "I'd love it even more if it was called something like the Department of Global Unity, Global Connectedness, or Global Creation. Peace is a bit misunderstood by people as a word and an energy. It implies passivity and that's not where evolution will occur. It's in the vibrant, passionate, exciting possibilities of creating new ways that we'll find our new future together."

Her husband Santari agrees, adding, "Where Dennis might distinguish himself further would be to present a programme that focuses on identifying what people are desperately trying to say all over the world : 'Hear us, listen not to our grievances or our cries for help but listen for the rise of consciousness in every one of us. We have a voice, yet who is there to hear what we truly seek to say? Who is there able to nourish our wishes for self-empowerment?

"'Who is ready to see us for who we really are? To show that we are not enemies, and not divided peoples, but are the rising tide of new beginnings? Who will stand for that? Who can honour and value the preciousness of life, talking not of some compromise of power between nations but seeing that we are the power, and have within us a vast capacity for bringing out the excellence of all.'

"Basically it needs someone of stature to revolutionise all the world systems so that every person is recognised at full value. No amount of thinking will give us the reality but we can start from a point that unhooks people from fixed destinies and allows them the freedom of finding out what 'to live' really means. If Kucinich is perceptive and able to dance outside of the old paradigms to deliver the revolutionary changes that are now required then he will go further than any leader this world has seen, because that is the level of conversation and action that people are gearing for."

Threaded throughout every view is a high regard for Dennis The Friend, who was tempered in the alchemical fire and emerged a torchbearer. What's more, he has maintained a level of integrity unheard of in conventional politics.

In 1978, as the youngest mayor of a major city, Kucinich said "No" to a proposed corporate takeover of Cleveland, Ohio's city-owned power company, Muny Light. In retaliation, major banks""supporting private monopoly power""drove the city into default and Dennis out of office.

Fifteen years later, he was vindicated for resisting a big business agenda and saving Cleveland residents hundreds of millions of dollars on their electric bills. In 1998, the Cleveland City Council honored him for "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system." Kucinich went on to win five consecutive elections, defeating a Republican incumbent each time. For the past decade, his campaign symbol has been a light bulb.

Says British-born John Graham, now living in Australia, "He does not represent vested interest for the economy. He speaks from the heart with good intelligence and high moral and ethical stance. He speaks positively and without judgment of others. This in itself is unique. Any leader who speaks for peace, for the people and without hypocrisy has to be a winner."

Agrees New Zealander, William Burgess*, "He caters to no one, doesn't need to be 'liked', and generally has integrity like no one I know. I think other countries would/could let down their guard because he would be non-threatening. We would truly be headed toward a more kind and gentler world."

From German native, Anja Hubrath, now in the U.K., "Was he to become president it would probably secure world peace, it might lead to a redistribution of wealth and hopefully to a less paranoid society in general. It would make me a happier person as I wouldn't have to worry about some illiterate brad spreading rumors of mass destruction, terrorists and danger to the U.S."

Swiss national Rudolf Meyer* concurs, "The fact that America's mainstream TV ignores Dennis Kucinich proves that they are afraid of his ideas. His ideas are very important for a peaceful and just new world where America will regain its real place in the world and be healed from its 'superpower syndrome.'"

A world in which, we might add, four out of twelve respondents would not want to use a pseudonym in fear of possible reprisal for speaking their truth.

In one form or another, each "Kucitizen" has articulated Dennis's focus on wholeness. His talks are infused with references to the Feminine principle, because he understands that acknowledging the Goddess is as necessary to balance as night to day, black to white, moon to sun. And this sacred reunion was possible from the start:

Few people realize that the U.S. Constitution is patterned directly on the Iroquois model of leadership, with one glaring omission. We have no Council of Clan Mothers, which was integral to the Native American structure that so inspired Thomas Jefferson. Perhaps if our Founding Fathers had included Founding Mothers in the new nation's governing equation, we'd consider ritual-based decision making, that honors both masculine and feminine voices and envisions the outcome unto the seventh generation, the natural course for balance and well being. Imagine what our culture might be like if the White House consulted a group of wise women prior to implementing any major policy change!

With a leader who embodies both energies, we stand poised to yinify""that is, to unify in the Feminine essence, one with Gaia, whom we call Mother Earth.

As we return to our Spirit-guided beginnings, it's abundantly clear that, regardless of whether they can vote at the polls, our global allies can vote with their hearts. This campaign is being played on levels beyond the literal. Just as Y2K didn't devolve into the widely predicted mass chaos because, collectively, we "voted" for a higher outcome, Dennis Kucinich can become the next U.S. president with a critical mass of awakened souls voting with their hearts for this scenario. Voting for the one who will voice the vision for us all. Voting for the Light.

Yumi Kikuchi, now traveling in the U.S. on behalf of Kucinich, puts it succinctly: "Dennis is electable if all Americans have a chance to hear him once. I am not American, but my son, born in Hawaii, is. I want to raise him in the USA and I do not want to raise him in fear but in love.

"Fear ends and hope begins with Dennis Kucinich. Dennis wins, Peace begins."

For more information, please visit:

http://www.kucinich.us

http://www.friendsofkucinich.com/international.htm

Amara Rose is a life purpose coach, interfaith minister, wisdom circle facilitator, speaker and writer. You can subscribe to her FREE monthly e-newsletter, What Shines, through http://www.liveyourlight.com. Amara may be reached at amara@liveyourlight.com or 800-862-0157 in the USA.