Vote Green

Good Afternoon. I am proud and excited today to announce my candidacy for the Green Party nomination to challenge Mark Pryor for the privilege of representing Arkansas in the United States Senate.

Although this election is still more than a year and a half away, I knew I could no longer wait to make my challenge known because I have watched the recent actions of Mark Pryor. I have seen him turn a deaf ear to the people of Arkansas who cry out for him to help bring our troops home and to keep them safe from being put in harm’s way for false or ill-conceived reasons. I have seen him turn his back on the American principles of liberty, justice and limited government by voting for the Military Commissions Act. This un-American piece of legislation promotes torture and suspends the Writ of Habeas Corpus without the presence of a rebellion or invasion so blatantly violating the plain language of the Constitution that, in order to justify his vote, Mr. Pryor has joined the likes of Alberto Gonzales in arguing that the scope of our great Constitution is much narrower than the broad, clear language in which it is written, that there are people and places within our nation or under its control to which the protections of the Constitution do not apply but over which the President exercises inherent power not granted or limited by the People or by Congress.

After witnessing these repeated and ongoing attacks on the fundamental basis of our American way of life, I felt it was time to let Mark Pryor know that his actions have consequences. I felt that it was time to give the people of Arkansas an opportunity to show their support for a candidate dedicated to maintaining a free America ruled justly, by the law, not arbitrarily by men.

I chose this day, Earth Day, on which to announce my campaign because at this moment in history the world is facing the very grave challenge of man-made global climate change. Yet, the United States is unable to provide the leadership that the world needs to come together and solve this problem, because men like Mark Pryor have allowed our nation to follow a path of unilateralism and contempt for the international community that has divided us even from our closest allies. We have to get American back on track, acting according to its own highest principles and best interests, so that we can conquer the global challenges of the 21st Century.

Men like Mark Pryor attempt to excuse their role in empowering the government at the expense of the People by constantly repeating that 9-11 changed everything, that after the events of that tragic day, America can no longer afford such precious values as freedom, justice and mercy. While it is true that Al Qaida’s outrageous, unprovoked attack upon the United States changed the world in many ways, I think it is time, after more than five years, to talk about the things 9-11 did not change.

After 9-11, it is still self evident that human beings are created equal and endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, including the right to liberty. Creative interpretations of the Constitution may violate these human rights, but they cannot remove them.

After 9-11 it is still the case that no one can be lawfully stripped of his liberty by the United States except with due process of law, including the right to have notice of the charges and evidence against him and a meaningful opportunity to defend himself against them. Therefore, even after 9-11, locking human beings away indefinitely without trial because we do not know which of them may be our enemies is not erring on the side of caution or protecting the American way of life. It is an attack on the American way of life as diabolical as 9-11 itself.

After 9-11, the question persists whether a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal can long endure upon the Earth. Mark Pryor and others in Washington seem to believe that the answer to this question is “no,” that any nation that remains dedicated to these principles will be destroyed. They would have us trade our freedom for the promise of perfect safety, which they cannot provide.

We need more people in Washington who understand the wisdom of Benjamin Franklin, who said, “those who would sacrifice liberty for security will get and deserve neither.” Mark Pryor says that most Arkansans agree that the Constitution doesn’t apply to everyone. I think he’s wrong. I hope you’ll send me to Washington to prove it. Go to my website www.kennedy2008.org. Find out more about how we’re going to get America back on track. I thank you for your time and I ask you for your vote.