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Senator John Kerry and his wife are releasing a book in late March titled This Moment on Earth. It's a collection of stories about environmental pioneers and change-makers, people who stepped up to do what was right and what was necessary, to help protect the planet.
Sir, it is now time for you to do what is right and what is necessary to help protect our planet. It is time for you to step up to the plate and announce your candidacy for President of the United States. Now is your moment in history.
Kerry's detractors often say that "he had his chance and America rejected him."
Well, yes, apparently the latter is true. But Americans can make a mistake, and in recent months they have acknowledged that they did indeed make a mistake.
The last two years have been horrific. Two terrible tragedies have hit the nation, both of which were avoidable and would have been avoided if not for the great mistake of November 2, 2004. The tragedy in Iraq is staggering -- not just the 3,000+ American dead, but the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who were killed, the thousands of soldiers who were wounded, the tens of thousands who experienced psychological trauma, and their loved ones. Just as one example, Army Specialist Alyssa Peterson, one of the first who died in the war, was assigned to a facility to interrogate and probably torture prisoners of war. She died on Sept. 15, 2003, as a result of a "non-combat weapons discharge," military jargon often used to describe a suicide. If that is in fact what happened to her -- if she took her own life because the sights and sounds in that interrogation facility were too much for her to cope with -- what does it say about the other soldiers who were also ordered to commit acts against their own human nature? There are hundreds of Alyssa Petersons out there. Although the election was too late for her, how many of them would not have experienced what they did if the war had been stopped in 2005 under a President Kerry?
The soul-wrenching tragedy of Hurricane Katrina continues to this day. 2,000 people lost their lives. A booming region lost its vitality. New Orleans lost over half its population. Entire neighborhoods were abandoned to rot. A landfalling hurricane will almost inevitably have a death toll and a damage toll, but how much of this had to happen? How many people died in the storm itself because of inadequate transportation out of the city, or in the horrific aftermath because help arrived too late and too throttled by bureaucracy and low funds? How many lost all their worldly goods because no one was there to fight for them?
But there are other, less known tragedies. Each day, Americans lose their homes, their jobs, their livelihoods, and often their lives because of the cruel joke that is the U.S. health care industry. President Kerry would have addressed this, and Senator Kerry still has a detailed plan that would provide for health care for all Americans.
The damage that has been done to the American psyche is another great tragedy of the Bush administration. The administration has cynically used the threat of terrorism to terrorize America itself, and to lay waste to the institutions of democracy that we have cherished since our beginning as a nation. Americans in general do not fall for it anymore, but the damage has been done. We have been conditioned into cynicism about all who work in politics. We have come to see other Americans as the enemy. We are no longer surprised when Bush says he can read our mail without a warrant; we're just surprised that he bothered to tell anyone about it. We are not surprised when another piece of information comes out about the rottenness and corruption of someone in a high office; we just wonder what has not been uncovered yet. President Kerry would have opened the books on all the dirty deeds, exposed them to the public, and brought Americans of all political stripes together to stand up and say, "Not in our name!" He would have restored trust to the government. Senator Kerry still wants a return to open and ethical government.
Even with the rampant cynicism about our elected officials, a recent poll showed that even fewer Americans trust the media than the government. The media consolidation that has been encouraged by the Bush administration, and has contributed to this cynicism, would have been dealt with by President Kerry. Senator Kerry has long supported impartial oversight of those who purvey news. The taint and distrust of the Fourth Estate is one more tragedy wrought by Bush.
Yes, America -- a thin majority of Americans -- made a big mistake in 2004. But the important thing is that they know it. They know it was their mistake, too, not John Kerry's.
I am not going to pretend that "it's better this way." It isn't better for those who have suffered as a direct result of the 2004 election. I'm also not going to pretend that "Kerry just wasn't meant to be in 2004." It minimizes the real impact of such events to try to convince ourselves that it was all for the best in the long run. Not everything that happens is like that. Sometimes we can reach the same end result without going through needless pain and suffering, and I believe that 2004 was one such time. What happened was not for the best, but it happened anyway. 2004 could have been Kerry's moment in history, but it simply wasn't.
In times of great trial, America has realized its dire situation and has selected leaders who end up going down in history for their greatness. Kerry is such a person. Rather than self-serving angry rhetoric, nice-sounding but ultimately meaningless sound bites, or nakedly political stunts and photo-ops, he offers a comprehensive, workable, doable set of solutions to the things that are wrong with America today. After fixing what's wrong, he would be proactive in building up what's right with America. He has the experience in public service to do this, both as a U.S. Senator and an executive -- Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts. He has the ideas and eye for detail to make it happen. When he interacts with people, he can't help but exude warmth because he truly does understand and care. And, as a bonus -- he's been through the ringer already against the worst bunch of dirty politicians we have known in our lifetimes. He knows what to expect, and they used up their arsenal against him already. No one else in the field has all of this.
Sir, this is your moment in history.
For the sake of America, for the sake of the planet, please run.
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