Cynthia McKinney stands for real change
by George Gonzalez
Tuesday, 15 July 2008
I want to introduce myself, not by name, but as a person. My family moved to San Francisco toward the end of World War II.
We moved in with relatives living in the Hunters Point projects. When my grandfather got a job with the government, painting ships at Ft. Mason, we were eligible for government housing and moved to the Portrero Hill projects. From there we went to the Mission District, from 16th Street to Army Street, between Portrero and Dolores Streets.
I was fortunate because a number of Puerto Rican families moved around the same time and we lived in the same area. It made it easier, dealing with the racism; we tended to back each other up so what happened to one, happened to all. People learned to leave us alone, except for the police.
Between 1960-74, I was a stepchild of the California Department of Corrections (CDC). By 1974, I was married, with a child. We were politically active in the community. With Cointelpro in its prime, and police assassinations frequent, the “red squad” threatened to take our 3-week-old daughter from us. It was at that point we decided it was best to leave the police state of California and see if the rest of the country was as bad.
We ended up in Maine; it was as far as we could get from California, in a car. We settled at the turnoff that said “last exit before Canada.” We never ceased fighting against racism and being active in the struggle for social justice.
For the years we lived in Maine, we formed the Southern Aroostook Committee for Racial Understanding and the Palestine Solidarity Committee of Maine. My wife was the president of the local chapter of the state employees’ union when she worked for the State of Maine; for years she fought to have state pension funds removed from any investments in South Africa.
We were continually writing the papers opposing the Contra War, the Cuban blockade, the invasions of Lebanon, Grenada and Panama. We also joined a coalition against nuclear power.
I ran for the state House of Reps, first as a Democrat and then as an Independent, which is why we have a broader understanding of the political process. We know “reformists” within either major party will never change it.
My wife went to law school mostly to defend us from the constant threats by the system. She ended up being the only people’s attorney in the entire area. We can honestly say that we did help some people. We also had help from good friends and comrades.
In the long run, we realized there was not a reason for us to stay in the U.S. Between racism and the enlargement of the police state across the nation, we knew it was only a matter of time before the government “conintelro-ed” us.
It is from this background that I write this article for those people who feel that Obama might be the great Black hope and to those who see him as the great White hope. The first group is hoping that he will do for Blacks and the poor what has been promised by so many before him, and the second group knows he will do as he is told like all those before him.
Many people thought Jesse Jackson would be the great Black hope within the Democratic Party. No one thought he would win the nomination but we thought he would advance the five platforms set forth by a coalition of minorities, working class whites and the poor. Instead of using his support to obtain some or all of those platforms, he appeared to sell out for a short lived CNN talk show that said nothing.
That does not mean we give up or abandon hope. There is a true warrior for the oppressed that is in the running for president, though you wouldn’t know it from the major media. This is someone who has stood for justice for young people, Black and Brown people, poor and working poor, unions and prisoners her entire political career. She is not bought and paid for by the Israeli lobby. She stands for real change around the world. I am, of course, talking of Cynthia McKinney.
She is a woman who stood up to a racist Congressional security guard who personally attacked her and she is a woman who would stand up for all that she believes in.
She knows she will not win the election, but if she gains 5 percent of the vote, she advances the Green Party, making it eligible for matching funds and making it easier to be put on the ballots for the next election. It is a move to validate a third party, which everyone talks of wanting, until Election Day.
George and Candy Gonzalez live in Belize, where they are leaders in movements for human rights and environmental justice and many of the other worthy causes they championed in the U.S. They can be reached at [email protected] e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . The Bay View salutes and thanks them for their long and very strong support over the years.
