Green Party's McKinney Says She Offers an Alternative to Those Upset with the System

by: Andy Birkey Tue Dec 11, 2007 at 11:54:29 AM

Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney is not afraid to speak her mind on the issues and ideas she cares about, and she joined local Greens Monday morning to do just that. She spoke on her experiences as a representative in Congress for more than a decade and as an activist on a number of issues at a small meeting of bloggers, reporters and party activists at the Midtown Exchange as part of a two-day trip to Minneapolis to gain support for her presidential bid. McKinney has seen her fair share of controversy and accomplishment in her political career. One of her first actions as a politician in 1986 after winning a seat in the Georgia House through a successful write-in campaign spearheaded by her father (she was living in Jamaica when she won her seat) was to change a repressive dress code at the Georgia Capitol that said all women representatives must wear dresses. Thanks to McKinney, they may also wear slacks to work. McKinney spoke of some contentious moments at the Georgia legislature, particularly her anti-war stance. "The one event that catapulted me to the United States Congress, that was when President George Herbert Walker Bush decided to bomb Baghdad," she said Monday. "And outraged, I stayed up all night and wrote a speech, went to the floor of the house and said among other things 'President Bush ought to be ashamed of himself.' That was when my colleagues got up and walked out on me."

Andy Birkey :: Green Party's McKinney Says She Offers an Alternative to Those Upset with the System

"The four years I was in the Georgia legislature I infuriated people," she said. It wouldn't be the last time she infuriated people. Her campaigns were plagued by charges of anti-semitic remarks, especially by her own father and her security staff. Racial tensions have also run high with McKinney calling her Republican opponents "holdovers from the Civil War days" and "a ragtag group of neo-Confederates." She raised eyebrows in a letter to Saudi Prince Al-Waleed-bin Talal that criticized U.S. foreign policy. Al-Waleed donated $10 million to relief efforts after Sept. 11, but with the caveat that perhaps if the United States took a more moderate stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict, these things wouldn't happen. It was rejected by charities in New York. McKinney wrote him suggesting he give the money to other charities. Perhaps one of her more well-known statements was her insinuation that the Bush administration knew about Sept. 11 before it happened. "I thought that was a perfectly good question to ask," she said Monday. "and so I said let me ask the question pertaining to Sept. 11 that the American people ought to have answered: What did the administration know and when did they know it about the tragic events of Sept. 11?" Because of her work supporting indigenous people in Columbia, the United States and Australia, she "had a long history of upsetting people in the Congress who were not accustomed to being upset," and said members of Congress were already out to get her for those reasons. That statement likely cost her reelection in 2006. She said 48,000 Republicans crossed over to vote for her Democratic opponent because of her statements about Bush. Her time in Congress has also been spent looking into the events of Sept. 11. In 2005, she held hearings on unanswered questions regarding Sept. 11, and the media treatment of those hearings was not kind she said. "The quote 'mainstream media,' which is becoming less mainstream because fewer people are subscribing to them -- and that's a good thing -- labeled this briefing with these esteemed people as a meeting of conspiracy theorists." Her time in Congress was spent on many human rights issues for which she gets very little attention. She's worked with Congress for action in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central and South America, and sponsored legislation to prevent the United States from sending military supplies to countries with undemocratic governments or human rights violations. She also played a key role in both investigating the government's response to Hurricane Katrina and Rita and securing relief funds for the disaster. At the meeting Monday, several prominent Green Party Activists endorsed McKinney. Former candidate for mayor of Minneapolis Farheen Hakeem introduced then endorsed McKinney. U.S. Senate candidate Michael Cavlan "proudly" endorsed McKinney. Candidate for the 3rd Congressional district, Amy Alexander, also endorsed McKinney. The McKinney campaign is working to secure federal elections money by raising funds in at least 20 states, and is trying to secure ballot status in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. So far, only Illinois has succeeded in getting McKinney on the ballot. One of McKinney's goals is to ignite those who have been disenfranchised and who are upset with the current political system. "We've got young people who have been taught a set of values, the difference between right and wrong," she said. "They see so much wrong, and they see no one being held accountable." source: http://www.minnesotamonitor.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2883