After so much critique in my last post, I want to write something positive today, and yeah, it has to do with John Kerry, how could it be otherwise? ;-)
Yesterday the Democratic US Congress passed a vote on a troop funding bill that will let GW Bush continue the war in Iraq without setting a deadline for troop withdrawal. Emotions ran high in the blogosphere and certainly in the American population that opposes the war 3 to 1. People are frustrated and disappointed and in this atmosphere John Kerry posted a diary on Daily Kos to inform people that he votes "no" on the bill and to tell people not to give up.
(Isn't that so typical for John Kerry?! Think about his words in 1971: "This is not the struggle of one day..." - You can read them in full and listen to them by scrolling down to the bottom of my blog.)
From Kerry's diary (please read the whole thing, it's great!) :
I’m not going to call on you to do anything specific today; you’ve done so much already. I’m not going to ask for patience, because the truth is big policy changes like this are only achieved by impatient people – in huge numbers. I’m just telling you that I’ll continue to work every single day (every damn day as my old friend Ron says) to apply pressure to change this broken policy. There will be new avenues of attack, new paths to take. But, for right now, it’s up to folks like me to do our part to keep the battle going, so all of you can work to keep the pressure going. Together, we can win this, as long as we keep the battle joined. Keep punching.
And later John Kerry answered some comments and that was as beautiful as his original post:
Cynicism (19+ / 0-)
I think this Administration is counting on us to get cynical, disillusioned, and just quit on the whole enterprise. That’s how they win. These are really good reasons to be fed up -- fed up with Washington games, turned off by a political process that moves too slowly while good people die. But none of those are reasons to pack it in, they’re reasons to become more activist, to redouble our efforts. I understand your feelings, as well. This is a bitter struggle, I’ve been there before and this feels like déjà vu remembering Vietnam and a President who wouldn’t budge back then too. But one thing I’ll tell you is, I don’t come here to do anyone else’s bidding or speak out of anything other than my own conviction. I actually think it’s a strength and not a weakness of our Senate leadership and our caucus that no one in the leadership even knew I'd post a diary here; that's not the way we operate, that’s the way the other side operates. They’re the ones who demand Stepford-like message “discipline” – hence the reality of Roadblock Republicans who know this policy is a bust but cling to it with a stubbornness that reflects their leadership. I've been here before calling for action, I'll come here to celebrate when we win, and I thought I owed it to you to come here now when the bill didn't go the way I wanted. If I came here to call for support for the bill, you might have a point, but I didn't.
Although I will tell you something else, a completely personal aside that you can take as you will, Harry Reid and I haven’t always walked lockstep in the tactics of how to change the Iraq debate, but the depth of his feeling that this Iraq policy is tragically wrong is something as sincere and genuine as it comes. Look at Harry Reid’s face, he wears the anguish of this war for everyone to see, and he cares as deeply as anyone about forcing a change of course. He has more quiet determination than anyone about seeing this through.
by John Kerry on Thu May 24, 2007 at 02:18:20 PM PDT
And this "Never forget" in answer to someone who is frustrated over more dying soldiers:
Thank you (7+ / 0-)
The only reason that people get so upset, is that troops and innocents are dying in the time it takes to get things done. That fact just never goes away. It's always in the back of our heads, always. If you are like me and know people who lost their lives in Iraq, and I have no doubt you do sir, then you know that the pain never goes away - and the delays in ending the war just create more dead bodies and more people with a hole in their heart, where their friends' life used to be.Cheers, keep fighting!
by cycloptichorn on Thu May 24, 2007 at 09:19:38 AM PDT
Never forget (14+ / 0-)
Never out of my thoughts, and never will be. It hurts like hell to go to some of the funerals I’ve been to, more and more as this war goes on. Those faces at Walter Reed never leave your thoughts either. You bet this is personal. I've seen what happens in war; I know what it's like, I’ve seen my friends wear it for the rest of their lives, and I have friends I loved who never got to grow old the way I did.. It's exactly for that reason that I fight for this.
by John Kerry on Thu May 24, 2007 at 02:12:06 PM PDT
Yesterday the Democratic US Congress passed a vote on a troop funding bill that will let GW Bush continue the war in Iraq without setting a deadline for troop withdrawal. Emotions ran high in the blogosphere and certainly in the American population that opposes the war 3 to 1. People are frustrated and disappointed and in this atmosphere John Kerry posted a diary on Daily Kos to inform people that he votes "no" on the bill and to tell people not to give up.
(Isn't that so typical for John Kerry?! Think about his words in 1971: "This is not the struggle of one day..." - You can read them in full and listen to them by scrolling down to the bottom of my blog.)
From Kerry's diary (please read the whole thing, it's great!) :
I’m not going to call on you to do anything specific today; you’ve done so much already. I’m not going to ask for patience, because the truth is big policy changes like this are only achieved by impatient people – in huge numbers. I’m just telling you that I’ll continue to work every single day (every damn day as my old friend Ron says) to apply pressure to change this broken policy. There will be new avenues of attack, new paths to take. But, for right now, it’s up to folks like me to do our part to keep the battle going, so all of you can work to keep the pressure going. Together, we can win this, as long as we keep the battle joined. Keep punching.
And later John Kerry answered some comments and that was as beautiful as his original post:
Cynicism (19+ / 0-)
I think this Administration is counting on us to get cynical, disillusioned, and just quit on the whole enterprise. That’s how they win. These are really good reasons to be fed up -- fed up with Washington games, turned off by a political process that moves too slowly while good people die. But none of those are reasons to pack it in, they’re reasons to become more activist, to redouble our efforts. I understand your feelings, as well. This is a bitter struggle, I’ve been there before and this feels like déjà vu remembering Vietnam and a President who wouldn’t budge back then too. But one thing I’ll tell you is, I don’t come here to do anyone else’s bidding or speak out of anything other than my own conviction. I actually think it’s a strength and not a weakness of our Senate leadership and our caucus that no one in the leadership even knew I'd post a diary here; that's not the way we operate, that’s the way the other side operates. They’re the ones who demand Stepford-like message “discipline” – hence the reality of Roadblock Republicans who know this policy is a bust but cling to it with a stubbornness that reflects their leadership. I've been here before calling for action, I'll come here to celebrate when we win, and I thought I owed it to you to come here now when the bill didn't go the way I wanted. If I came here to call for support for the bill, you might have a point, but I didn't.
Although I will tell you something else, a completely personal aside that you can take as you will, Harry Reid and I haven’t always walked lockstep in the tactics of how to change the Iraq debate, but the depth of his feeling that this Iraq policy is tragically wrong is something as sincere and genuine as it comes. Look at Harry Reid’s face, he wears the anguish of this war for everyone to see, and he cares as deeply as anyone about forcing a change of course. He has more quiet determination than anyone about seeing this through.
by John Kerry on Thu May 24, 2007 at 02:18:20 PM PDT
And this "Never forget" in answer to someone who is frustrated over more dying soldiers:
Thank you (7+ / 0-)
The only reason that people get so upset, is that troops and innocents are dying in the time it takes to get things done. That fact just never goes away. It's always in the back of our heads, always. If you are like me and know people who lost their lives in Iraq, and I have no doubt you do sir, then you know that the pain never goes away - and the delays in ending the war just create more dead bodies and more people with a hole in their heart, where their friends' life used to be.Cheers, keep fighting!
by cycloptichorn on Thu May 24, 2007 at 09:19:38 AM PDT
Never forget (14+ / 0-)
Never out of my thoughts, and never will be. It hurts like hell to go to some of the funerals I’ve been to, more and more as this war goes on. Those faces at Walter Reed never leave your thoughts either. You bet this is personal. I've seen what happens in war; I know what it's like, I’ve seen my friends wear it for the rest of their lives, and I have friends I loved who never got to grow old the way I did.. It's exactly for that reason that I fight for this.
by John Kerry on Thu May 24, 2007 at 02:12:06 PM PDT
-----------------------------
We discussed this all as well in the DU JK group and here are some reactions from my fellow Kerrycrats over there (sorry guys, but I just had to post this here!) :
beachmom in regard to these comments from Kerry:
...they're so poignant. I can't believe this man almost made it to the WH. The Oval Office would have been GRACED with him. John Kerry is the exception in my lifetime -- the only person I voted for president that had so much integrity, decency, grit, and, yes, grace.
fedupinBushcountry:
He is speaking from his heart and gut - this country is missing out on so much. IMO there is no politician that can ever top him.
I wholeheartedly agree with both of them. We later had a "Thank you, John Kerry" thread and I wrote the following:
Thank you, John Kerry, for keeping the image of the "other America" alive!
I can't tell you how often in the past 5 years I came close to give up on the USA. That I still like your country, that I still have hope for your country and its people, that's all thanks to you! I took an interest in politics a long time ago here in Europe and have seen a lot over the years. And sometimes, rarely but sometimes, there were politicians I really liked, but I never thought that I could admire a politician as much as I admire you. I never believed in role-models and now I'm too old to start with this stuff. *g* But if I'm asked today if there is some person in the world I can look up to, I won't hesitate a second to name you.
I hope that other people in the world have the same view on you and your country as you meet and met with a lot of foreign government officials who seem to trust you more than they trust the Bush regime. I can't help but think that over the years you have helped creating a kind of parallel US foreign policy, and I'm glad to see you involved with the "American Security Project". I'm sure that whatever will happen in the next years and whoever will become the next US president, you will continue to work relentlessly to restore the America we all knew and liked before Bush came to power, and I can't thank you enough for that.
Finally, in the afternoon, John Kerry came to the Senate floor and (as in response to my earlier blog post) he said the following:
I think in the last week or two, I've been to 3 funerals, Mr. President. One funeral, the son of a man who has opposed the war, a military man, a West Pointer himself, a man who gave us his career. But he's opposed to this war. And he dared to use the word to me in a conversation on the very day his son was being buried about how it was important for us to redouble our efforts here in the Senate, to bring this to a close. How it was important for us not to allow these young men and women to have their lives wasted; a word that if any politician used, we'd be pilloried for. The father of a man who was being buried used that word on the very day his son was being buried.
globalvillage has the full videos of JK's speech up on YouTube :
(check her channel, she has much more amazing videos!)
Thanks again, John Kerry, for being this man of integrity and honor you have always been. Keep fighting, Senator!
