Introducing John Kerry

[Englander]

By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Thursday 30 September 2004

>> The story of any person begins with their parents. John Kerry was born to Richard Kerry and Rosemary Forbes, who met in Paris just before the war. Richard Kerry, marked early in life by the suicide of his father and the death from polio of his sister Mildred, became a student of the law who eventually distinguished himself in the Foreign Service during the Eisenhower years. Rosemary, despite her Forbes and Winthrop heritage, was not spared her own deep trials. When the Nazis invaded Paris, Rosemary had to flee the city on a bicycle. She spent weeks foraging for food, hiding in barns and cellars, avoiding German soldiers and falling bombs, until she finally reached Lisbon and boarded a ship bound for Boston.

>>John Kerry served in the Navy from 1966 to 1970, volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam, and earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts, two Presidential Unit Citations and a National Defense Medal. Upon his return from the war, he became centrally involved with Vietnam Veterans Against the War, helped to create Vietnam Veterans of America, and brought the realities of Vietnam into living rooms all across America. He served as a prosecutor in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, beginning in 1976. From 1977 to 1982 he served as First Assistant District Attorney, during which time he successfully battled organized crime, prosecuted and jailed the number two crime boss in New England, fought for victims' rights, and organized rape counseling programs.

>>From 1983 to 1985, John Kerry served as Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor, and transformed what had been a symbolic position to one with muscle. He organized Governors all across the country to combat a new and disturbing reality - acid rain caused by industrial pollution that was destroying lakes, rivers and the country's water supply. This activity began what has since become a lifetime of activism to protect our environment, a lifetime of activism that has made John Kerry perhaps the most effective fighter for environmental protection in American government.

>>Judicious, contemplative and thorough. In a dangerous world, made vastly more dangerous by politicians who think in violent black and white because simplicity polls better and fits into soundbites, a man like John Kerry may seem out of place. He is, in fact, in exactly the right place at exactly the right time.<<

Most,most excellent.Mr.Pitt hits the bullseye,yet again.

[Maeve]

1. Link

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/093004A.shtml

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

2. Character counts. Vote the man, not the party.

..John Kerry is the one that has the best character and record of achievement. Thats one very good reason to vote for him.

[PATRICK]

3. Many still have not heard this

summary or worse, presume they have. The ability to present oneself to a huge electorate distracted and harried in myriad ways, ill served in ways they do not comprehend by the press, is daunting and money is a weighty curse upon democracy.

The choke point starting unknowingly in 1960 is the debate. Though the opportunity to hear Kerry has been repeated from the primary debates through campaign stops etc., the Super Bowl audience has blanked all that out like fans unwilling to make the obvious judgment before the big contest.

A contest rendered disastrously phony and purposely perilous. Erased the image and integrity and clarity of Kerry's superiority and the nation's true need. Erased the memory and the unease with Bush's rotten record and past ludicrous campaign promises. He is the "Champ" with a champ's edge and Kerry the "Pretender", even though Bush never won the presidency(or a forensic debate) in the first place. If this treatment had been given to any other sports contest the media and the champ would be up on fraud and RICO charges and 80-90% would be rooting for Kerry.

Meet,,rather, the American electorate. Profile the experience we have had these past four years and where the minds for a critical choice are now, poised upon a single TV appearance to decide whether to surrender our money and our lives to an ongoing con game- and forget the horror and the embarrassment of being wrong about "our" President.

Erase the empathetic Cheney sneer, the rote memes of scorn and ridicule for liberals who put people first, smart politics second, the ersatz elation of armchair patriotism, the joy of unthinking. Your grandchildren hold you accountable today for what horrors will, must, happen at the hands of an ill-spoken deceiver and fraud. They wish us to make a compact of guilt in terrible crimes, in moral suicide- for the first time.