And so it goes

I went to a peace picnic today, starting to get actively involved with the local movement. I figure now that we've been here a couple of months and it looks like we'll be here a while longer, well, damn well time to make some connections.

Unfortunately (from my perspective), most of the activity either ongoing or proposed had to do with getting John Kerry elected.

Fortunately (from my perspective), a lot of that was against the background of looking for ways to pressure Kerry to be more outspoken and forceful on issues of concern to those of us in the progressive and radical communities - that is, to pull him closer to us. This wasn't an "Anybody But Bush" crowd, it was more like a "When life gives you lemons" crowd. I gathered that a number of them had been working for Kucinich. In fact, some still are: It seems the Kucinich campaign is trying to put together some activities, workshops, whatever, on issues he raised that Kerry either is not addressing or addressing only weakly.

(Not that Kucinich was a leftist radical's dream but he was my favorite among the Democrats and certainly is clearly to the left of John "I'm not a redistributionist Democrat and what's more, we need more troops in Iraq" Kerry.)

I've mentioned before that I live in a safe state; if everyone who is inclined to vote for Nader or the Greens or whoever else is a progressive alternative to the right wing v. centrist campaign of the major parties actually did so, Kerry would still carry this state comfortably. That's relevant here because the big effort to support Kerry involved doing outreach to swing states rather then "get out the vote for John!" That indicated a certain degree of political acumen that is rare enough in the peace movement and I was glad to see.

I have a whole bunch of things to take care of tonight so this may be it. But I expect I'll be back later because there are a few things worth noting that I don't have time to address right now. See you soon.