SENTIENT TIMES April/May 2002

Making the Choice to Run for Public Office

Peter Buckley

It seemed like a major leap, even to the people who are closest to me. Looking at it from this point, though, I can see it has been building up for a long time. It is almost like being on parallel train tracks—you can see the other track running along side, and you get the idea that at some point up ahead, your track and the other track are going to come together.

The track I’ve been on until now is one that is familiar to a lot of people, the track of growing up, going to school, stepping out into the world, meeting people, falling in and out of love, finding a career path, getting married, having kids, perhaps, like I have, helping out as your parents and other members of your family die, looking at the world differently with every birth and every death, riding the track like the roller coaster it is, good times, bad times, a life.

It is a challenge to ride that track well, and it has been a goal of mine for a long time to ride it as well as I possibly can. At the same time, though, I could always see that other track running alongside.

The other track runs from somewhere larger than the track I’ve been on and it heads in the direction of somewhere larger still. It holds everyone else on it, and everyone who has ever ridden and everyone who ever will. It holds the basic struggle to move forward. The American section of it holds our revolution, the birth of our country and the ideals that fuel it, the blood, tears, triumphs and losses of the end of slavery, the wars we have fought, the labor movement, the murder of John F. Kennedy, the civil rights movement, women’s rights, Bobby Kennedy killed, Martin Luther King killed, the end of the Vietnam war, the cold war and everything that has followed.

I have crossed over onto the track many times in the past to try to accomplish something specific, to work for a specific cause or to create something that addresses the track itself. And I have studied the history of the track and I read and listen and follow the progress of that track with great intensity, because looking at it from this point, I somehow knew the track I was on and the parallel track were going to merge up ahead. Now they have, and what seemed like a huge leap just a few weeks back seems like it has been coming for a long, long time.

I’m decided to run for U.S. Congress in the second district of Oregon.

People, even those close to me, step back when they hear that and want to know why. It has to do with what I see on the track behind us and underneath us and ahead.

There has always been a struggle for power and progress in our country. The right to vote in America, you might recall, was originally intended only for male property owners. There has been a nonstop struggle for actual democracy since the birth of our nation—victories have taken place, but the struggle continues. And we have hit a point that I never expected on this track, where the stakes now seem higher than ever.

If you go back even just to the start of the last century, you can read about Teddy Roosevelt railing against those who would profit at the expense of the country and at the expense of us all. FDR pledged his life and work against what he called Big Money, and he welcomed their hatred. It was Big Money who fought against labor rights, including child labor rights, against giving women the right to vote (or almost any other right for that matter), against civil rights, against social security, against the minimum wage, against any constraints for their greed for wealth and power, these same kind of people now control our government almost entirely.

They show a disdain for the world itself, pollute it in their drive for profit, abuse anyone who stands in their way. The election of 2000 was a disgrace for our democracy, and what has happened since has only compounded it: America pulling out of any true work on global warming and arms control; America demanding the right to expand and use its military any way it wants to achieve any ends it desires; America brushing off the continuous cries from those at home and abroad to work for justice, progress and peace. Instead, the focus is on greater wealth, greater power for a small percentage of people who already have more wealth and more power than any others have ever had before.

Big Money is not only pushing the government now. It is running it. And it has to be opposed. It is wrapping itself in the American flag, using the horrific events of September 11 to browbeat us into silence, demanding, as Bill Moyers said in a recent speech, that we stand with our hands over our hearts as they pick our pockets once again.

And it isn’t just the money, it is the power as well. We do not live in a monarchy, but the power is so concentrated at present, the distance from democracy so great, that we might as well. The desires and needs of the majority of American citizens and the majority of people around the world are not the priority of our current government. The continuous increase of money and power to the privileged few is the fuel behind virtually every action our government currently takes. They own and control every major media outlet, and they pound their worldview on us relentlessly. They have done everything possible to stifle debate and demonize any possible opposition. They have promised endless war and are demanding that we finance it with our taxes and by abandoning our dreams for our communities, our schools, our senior citizens, our small businesses, our environment and our children’s future.

To add insult to injury, they are demanding that we pay for weapons systems that don’t have anything to do with even the loose definition of the endless war they promise, weapons systems designed for twenty years ago that even the military no longer wants but profit some of the major campaign contributors to those in power.

It is that blatant now. The energy companies write the energy plan for America, including massive tax breaks and incentives for themselves. The defense contractors write the military budget. The corporations who set up dummy companies offshore to avoid taxes and who pollute our country are now represented in every agency designed to regulate them, and they are passing the costs of cleaning up polluted sites from the corporations who created the pollution on to the rest of us.

It goes on and on. It is an ugly time on this track. As a father of three kids, I stare at those who are screaming for endless war and I believe them to be insane. There is talk in Washington DC of 200,000 of our soldiers being sent to invade Iraq. Have we declared war on Iraq? Has Iraq attacked us? Why would 200,000 of our young be sent there to kill or die? Who decides this? The king?

We have made progress on this track, and we will again. But to do so, we have to stand up, speak out, work hard. The track I’ve been on has merged with the larger track at this point in time, I believe, because this is when the work on the larger track is needed the most. I’ve been heading in this direction for a long time now, and I think many other people have as well. We’re all needed now. Make the choice to speak out, to make a difference, to run for office or get active in community or national campaigns. Step up. Step forward. Everyone, no matter what your background, is needed now. Step onto the track. It’s time.

Peter Buckley lives in Ashland, Oregon and is a Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress, District Two. Contact him at Omword@aol.com.

SENTIENT TIMES
PO Box 1330 Ashland, OR 97520
PHONE (541) 512-1084 • FAX (541) 512-1085
dmokma@jeffnet.org