Why I’m running for Congress
I was a kid who believed the American Dream. Long ago I sat in a Michigan 4th grade classroom - transfixed with awe as my teacher told the story of the American Revolution and the meaning of American democratic values. I had a fundamental, transformational religious experience. I learned that I had the unalienable right to individual freedom as long as I didn’t hurt anyone else. Kings, tyrants, warlords and priests may have crushed the human spirit in the past, but since I had the immeasurable blessing to be born American, I would never be a puppet or a slave. I treasured the special birthright of freedom that I had as an American, and would have made any sacrifice to defend it. I would browbeat the music teacher to let us sing patriotic songs like “The Marines Hymn”, and singing them was as ecstatically thrilling as anything I have experienced. I loved the Constitution and carried it around with me. I read the Bill of Rights for fun and inspiration. I loved my country without reservation.
I read the stories of American revolutionary heroes. In dreams I imagined myself in their place. I practiced the oration of Patrick Henry, ending with “Give me liberty or give me death”. In my mind I was John Paul Jones, standing on the deck of my tiny battered ship shouting “I have not yet begun to fight”. I died the death of Nathan Hale after he said “My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my country”. I pledged that when I grew up, I would find any remaining Redcoats and obliterate them.
I loved it when Superman on TV said he was fighting for “truth, justice, and the American Way”. While still in elementary school in 1956, with my dad, I stood in front of a Michigan polling place and passed out leaflets for the ticket headed by Eisenhower. I was ten.
Eisenhower in 1960 warned America about the danger of Militarism (after spending most of his life in the armed forces and rising to the top). The victorious WWII commander of all allied forces spoke plainly:
“Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry….we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. In the councils of government we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Then came Vietnam, when I was in college. I saw that I was expected to be a modern day “redcoat” in an imperial army which was slaughtering people halfway around the world. In defense of American anti-colonial values, I fought against that war. Now I see our young people being sacrificed in Iraq for pure imperialism, over oil.
The Bush administration is wedded to the politics of fear and threat, the oldest, most powerful, and slimiest trick in the political book, articulated aptly by Hermann Goering, Nazi air force commander:
“Naturally the common people don’t want war…but after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along,… That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger.”
Karl Rove could have not said it more clearly. Endless war hides the fact that the Republicans have nothing worthwhile to offer the American people. They have no domestic or foreign policy other than war and the mixing of church and state into the “Culture of Corruption”. Nothing works like endless war to strengthen government and the power of the executive branch, curtail individual liberty, drain the national treasury into cronies’ pockets, and wipe out assistance for citizens and the environment.
The unspeakable tragedy and outrage of 9/11 did not force our nation into war. 9/11 is a crime, and requires a laser like focus on finding and terminating its perpetrators.
Terrorists did not attack us because they “hate our freedoms”, they attacked us because of our foreign policy. If our government responds to those who “hate our freedoms” by taking these freedoms away from us, we voluntarily sacrifice the best of our heritage and give moral victory to al Qaeda. President Bush and Osama bin Laden function in perfect symbiosis, each benefiting greatly from the actions of the other. Has President Bush made a single move since 9/11 that is not exactly what Osama desired? American actions give wide legitimacy to his “jihad”, help with fundraising, provide more new recruits than he knows what to do with, and ensure that terrorism will never end. We are expected to trade our liberty for “safety”, as terrorists multiply because of our foreign interventions.
Government must provide more than illusory “safety” for the populace and a giant “slop bucket” for the superrich.
Universal health care is a must, for a growing variety of reasons. We must build new schools and provide the world’s best education in every American neighborhood. College must be free or nearly free, because we can’t afford not to develop the brainpower of all of our citizens who are willing to study hard and achieve. Infrastructure, mass transit and alternative energy programs must be prioritized. An enormous economic regeneration will occur (much better than any war) when we make sustainability and a healthy future into the central organizing principles of our nation.
The “Drug War” is another counterproductive way that our nation chooses war over peace. Ending this anti-American drug war, slowly and carefully, is another reason I run for national office. The “American Way” is freedom with personal responsibility, not federal “nanny” government control of anything we put into our bodies.
The most dangerous and addictive drugs are legal. Tobacco and alcohol together kill about 550,000 Americans annually. Fatalities from illegal drugs total only one or two percent of that. In a democratic republic, drug abuse must be a medical and public health matter, not a criminal concern. Drugs must be regulated and taxed so that crime and imprisonment will drop, drugs will not be adulterated, profits are kept from terrorists and criminals, and risky substances are off limits to young people.
For illegal drugs, the “forbidden fruit factor” results in far higher rates of drug use and overdose in the USA than in countries that don’t make a “war” out of it. Drug war has failed to bring drug use under control. Our police forces have been corrupted, we have constructed the largest prison system ever seen on earth, terrorists and criminals have an eternal source of funding, and our sacred Bill of Rights has been trashed.
How could all this possibly be worth it (unless some of these consequences were unspoken goals all along)? Drugs can’t wreck our nation, but Drug War certainly can. Jesus said “Not that which goes into the mouth makes a man unclean, but that which comes out of the mouth” (Matthew 15:11).
I was completely happy in my 33 year career teaching kindergarten. I saw the bright promise of the future in the quality and magic of our children. They trust us to give them a country that reflects our best American values. That is our national mission.
Instead, our nation now marches in the opposite direction – toward the economic destruction of the American middle class and the systematic degradation of the environment we depend on. Far-right Republican leadership is building the base for a police state at home and abroad by sanctimoniously perverting the Constitution and spitting on every core American value that our citizens have historically cherished.
I have taught more than 1500 youngsters how to read and behave themselves. I quit the job I loved totally because the future of my children is so critically threatened. I know that it is my duty to spend my remaining time politically fighting so that all children can grow up in a world that is not so brutal, uncaring, and unsustainable.
I know how to motivate people, formulate goals, and get them accomplished. I have 18 years of experience in government and am the best candidate to shape the future direction of our great and good country.
I began my elected political career to protect the land. Nearly two decades later Washtenaw County is Michigan’s leader in land preservation, with a total of about $100 million set aside to preserve our beautiful and valuable natural features forever.
My struggle to legalize medical marijuana (cannabis) grew from my life experience. During the fight against the Vietnam War I developed stomach pain so extreme that it finally led me to consider suicide. I had excellent medical care and handfuls of pills to take – but nothing made any difference until a friend gave me cannabis (marijuana). It is not fair to keep this effective, ancient, and cheap medicine away from suffering people. I formed the Washtenaw Coalition for Compassionate Care and won a medical marijuana city charter amendment in Ann Arbor with 74% in favor.
In the same 2004 election we passed Proposal J in Scio Township, a .5 mill levy that gives our township some “matching funds” with which to protect our most precious land. I also won my 5th term as trustee in Scio Township, and I thank the voters.
In early 2005 I united with anti-tax and civil liberty forces to challenge an absurdly huge ($314 million) county jail millage proposal. The county spent $100,000 to push this huge tax. My “No Giant Jail Committee” spent under $800 and defeated this wasteful boondoggle (which was favored to win) in a landslide.
After this defeat the Washtenaw County commission decided to build the new jail anyway! They planned to float a bond to pay for construction and grab the operating funds from the budget of the Sheriff’s department’s road patrol (and double the amount that townships would have to pay for each deputy).
A group of township officials and sheriffs deputies then formed “The Committee to Save our Sheriff’s Department”, and elected me “spokesman”. We gathered 22,000 signatures at a rate of over 1000 per day, and made it impossible for the county to evade the voter’s decision and bond for new jail funds. In Nov. 2006 we will run candidates who support funding the county sheriff’s road patrol and we will “flip” the majority on the county commission.
I decline to run for further local or state offices because the root of our many problems lies with the U.S. Congress, the most powerful dysfunctional group ever to grace our planet. State and local governments are being starved and marginalized; it is not fun being in government when your main job is to decide what to cut. Only by joining Congress can I make a difference in the country that our children will inherit.
First I would get us out of the quagmire of Iraq. Iraq contained three separate political entities before British colonialism pasted together the nation of “Iraq” in 1920. It will again be three separate nations when American colonialism finally ends. Why force them (and us) to participate in a horrendously barbarous civil war? Only by quickly dividing Iraq into three nations (with the Sunnis having a fair share of the oil) can we bypass the ocean of blood that our actions have made inevitable. Only when each of the three peoples of Iraq have their own army, police, and jails will they want to stop fighting and build productive lives.
Then I would speak strongly and persuasively and create alliances capable of accomplishing goals. I am a “workaholic” who never gives up. My office will also be committed to helping our constituents find solutions to problems that relate to the federal government. Congress doesn’t need another lawyer. What it needs is one good kindergarten teacher to straighten it out; to teach it to be fair, to work together, to play well with others, and get the job done.
We can still choose peace, engage our armed forces only when necessary, and preserve our birthright of freedom and democracy. These basic questions of morality, of right and wrong, are the reason I am running for Congress.
Our early presidents Jefferson and Adams thought all religion boiled down to the concept “be just and good”. We need to be a wealthy and powerful nation that is “just and good” at home and abroad.
Please join our campaign! Help celebrate the victory of common sense and American values in Michigan’s 7th congressional District on Nov 7, 2006.
E-mail me at chuckreamforcongress@yahoo.com
