http://www.gnn.tv/videos/15/Cynthia_McKinney_Live_in_BK
Cynthia McKinney: Live in BK
Fri, 22 Oct 2004 05:27:07 -0500
Bring The Troops Home Now!
On a hot night in the late summer of 2003, a small but well-known church in Brooklyn is packed to the rafters with people of all colors, religions and political affiliations. Despite their obvious cultural and social differences, tonight they are gathered together, as people have in places of worship all throughout history, to find comfort and courage in a time of strife
The event, organized by International ANSWER, is billed as a kick-off for a national campaign to ‘Bring The Troops Home Now!’, which will culminate in a Mass March on Washington on October 25. Scheduled to speak are some of the more articulate and passionate voices in the anti-war movement on the East Coast, including civil rights attorney Ron Kuby, labor leader Brenda Stokely, and long time human rights leader (and minister of the House of the Lord Church) Rev. Herbert Daughtry.
But everyone knows who the real draw is – a woman up from Atlanta who understands more than anyone the price that is to be paid when elected officials speak out against the vastly entrenched, politically enfranchised military industrial complex. This crowd have come to see the former Democratic Congresswoman from Georgia, Cynthia McKinney.
A heroine of the GNN core, McKinney is best known for being one of the first, if not the first, national elected official to openly question the Bush Administration’s handling of 9/11, as well as the troubling links between elements in the President’s inner circle (including his father) and Saudi Arabia – a country increasingly implicated as a major funder of anti-American terror. For her efforts, McKinney was labeled a “conspiracy nut” and “unpatriotic.” After brutal misrepresentation and ridicule by the mainstream press, and a massive financial and organizational effort on the part of the GOP, McKinney paid the ultimate political price: she was defeated in the August 2002 Democratic primary.
Ironically, a year later, the very same issues she raised are beginning to be brought to the fore thanks to mainstream journalists like The Iron Triangle author Dan Briody, ex-CIA operative Robert Baer, presidential hopeful Sen. Bob Graham – even economic gurus like Jeffrey Sachs.
Proving the eternality of that adage about things that do not kill you…, Cynthia McKinney wears the proud face of a vigilant crusader and speaks in the voice of a fearless servant of the public interest.
When she rises to speak, the crowd lifts to their feet and cheers. And they are not to be disappointed. Covering a spectrum of controversial issues – from Dyncorp’s involvement in military smallpox vaccines to a Halliburton subsidary’s (no-bid) contract to supply food and other support to the troops in Iraq – McKinney drops more knowledge in her ten-minute speech than Fox News Channel does in an entire news cycle. Her passionate appeal on behalf of U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan demonstrates the nature of true patriotism and respect for those who have pledged to defend the United States.
GNN is proud to present Cynthia McKinney’s Brooklyn address, in its entirety, for both high (45 M) and low (19 M) bandwidth streams.
NYCLAW: NYC Labor Against the War 