No debate about it: We need to hear more viewpoints

[24hrlib]

No debate about it: We need to hear more viewpoints

September 18, 2008

BY ROBERT RADYCKI
My Polish-born wife tells me stories about her father in post-World War II Poland that Americans should hear.

He used to put a blanket around the door to their apartment to listen to "Radio Free Europe'' and "Voice of America'' in the early morning or late evening. The radio had to be muffled so no one could hear. If you were caught listening by the Stalinist government, it was off to jail or to a mental hospital.

Yet Poles defied their masters. There was the fire in their bellies to seek the truth.

I am a native-born Chicagoan of Polish descent. After taking a trip to Europe as a college student, I decided to learn the Polish language. I'm glad I did, because recently I read in the Polish language paper Dziennik Zwiazkowy about an "Open the Debates" rally with Ralph Nader in Chicago's old Polish immigrant neighborhood on the Northwest Side. My grandparents lived in that neighborhood when they first arrived from Poland, and I proudly returned there on a Saturday to again seek the path to a stronger democracy.

Unlike my father-in-law, I didn't have to use a blanket to listen to the speaker, but I did have to read about this rally in a foreign language and not in my native English. I read about the rally not in the Chicago mainstream media but in a small ethnic newspaper.

Why do I have to go to alternative sources to seek the truth? Whatever happened in this country to Greek and British ideals of democracy? Have we sold out our souls for the almighty dollar?

Americans proudly declare, '"free speech'' but what about, "free access?'' Will I someday have to put a blanket over the door here in Chicago to listen to a foreign radio station in a foreign language so I can get the truth?

Many Americans this election year will never get to hear the issues presented to them free from the framing of vested interests. This is because the organization that sponsors our presidential debates was founded and continues to be run by former heads of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee. This Commission on Presidential Debates deprives voters of an accurate choice and robust debate.

When the CPD took over, in 1987, the president of the League of Women Voters, the organization that had previously sponsored the debates, had this to say:

"The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debates . . . because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The league has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.''

I commend the Chicago Sun-Times for endorsing the Citizens' Debate Commission. This initiative consists of national civic leaders from the left, center and right of the political spectrum who are committed to maximizing voter education. The spirit and promise of America still lives, but it gets harder and tougher to seek it out.

Open the debates!

Robert Radycki is a retired computer programmer who lives in Rogers Park.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/1170841,CST-EDT-open18b.article

Write your local newspaper and ask them why we have to read alternative papers to learn about ALL of the candidates!!

[Javier]

No debate about it: We need to hear more viewpoints

September 18, 2008

BY ROBERT RADYCKI
My Polish-born wife tells me stories about her father in post-World War II Poland that Americans should hear.

He used to put a blanket around the door to their apartment to listen to "Radio Free Europe'' and "Voice of America'' in the early morning or late evening. The radio had to be muffled so no one could hear. If you were caught listening by the Stalinist government, it was off to jail or to a mental hospital.

Yet Poles defied their masters. There was the fire in their bellies to seek the truth.

I am a native-born Chicagoan of Polish descent. After taking a trip to Europe as a college student, I decided to learn the Polish language. I'm glad I did, because recently I read in the Polish language paper Dziennik Zwiazkowy about an "Open the Debates" rally with Ralph Nader in Chicago's old Polish immigrant neighborhood on the Northwest Side. My grandparents lived in that neighborhood when they first arrived from Poland, and I proudly returned there on a Saturday to again seek the path to a stronger democracy.

Unlike my father-in-law, I didn't have to use a blanket to listen to the speaker, but I did have to read about this rally in a foreign language and not in my native English. I read about the rally not in the Chicago mainstream media but in a small ethnic newspaper.

Why do I have to go to alternative sources to seek the truth? Whatever happened in this country to Greek and British ideals of democracy? Have we sold out our souls for the almighty dollar?

Americans proudly declare, '"free speech'' but what about, "free access?'' Will I someday have to put a blanket over the door here in Chicago to listen to a foreign radio station in a foreign language so I can get the truth?

Many Americans this election year will never get to hear the issues presented to them free from the framing of vested interests. This is because the organization that sponsors our presidential debates was founded and continues to be run by former heads of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee. This Commission on Presidential Debates deprives voters of an accurate choice and robust debate.

When the CPD took over, in 1987, the president of the League of Women Voters, the organization that had previously sponsored the debates, had this to say:

"The League of Women Voters is withdrawing its sponsorship of the presidential debates . . . because the demands of the two campaign organizations would perpetrate a fraud on the American voter. It has become clear to us that the candidates' organizations aim to add debates to their list of campaign-trail charades devoid of substance, spontaneity and answers to tough questions. The league has no intention of becoming an accessory to the hoodwinking of the American public.''

I commend the Chicago Sun-Times for endorsing the Citizens' Debate Commission. This initiative consists of national civic leaders from the left, center and right of the political spectrum who are committed to maximizing voter education. The spirit and promise of America still lives, but it gets harder and tougher to seek it out.

Open the debates!

Robert Radycki is a retired computer programmer who lives in Rogers Park.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/1170841,CST-EDT-open18b.article

Write your local newspaper and ask them why we have to read alternative papers to learn about ALL of the candidates!!

24hrlib Thank you for this, it is a must read to all of us.

[24hrlib]

It is a fabulous letter to the editor.  And in a major newspaper too.  I hope it inspires more to do the same.  I know I will!

[24hrlib]

Another strong editorial in a Minneapolis Newspaper:

Last update: September 23, 2008 - 10:46 AM

Letters to the editor for Tuesday, Sept. 23
In the midst of national economic crisis, phony presidential debates
The presidential debates begin on Friday. The candidates square off to debate the important issues of the day to help us choose the person who best represents our interests.

I'm joking, of course.

Only the "major" party candidates are allowed into the debates. And there is no real debate, just answers to pre-approved questions. Worse, these so-called debates are controlled by the Republicans and Democrats and large corporations. The Commission on Presidential Debates is headed by Paul Kirk and Frank Fahrenkopf, former heads of the two parties.

During a time of national economic crisis, it is imperative that another voice be allowed into the debates. Ralph Nader, a man who has long predicted the present meltdown on Wall Street, deserves to be included and show the citizens of our country what a real debate looks like.

Barack Obama and John McCain are loath to debate Nader, of course because he would bring up an embarrassing point: Not only are the Democratic and Republican parties both guilty of causing this crisis, but two of the most notorious Wall Street toadies are associated with the Obama and McCain campaigns: Obama's Robert Rubin, a major Clinton administration force behind the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act, and McCain pal, Phil Gramm, Rubin's Republican counterpart in that corporate-friendly decision. Further, Rubin was also among the first to benefit personally from it, in moving from his Treasury position to co-direct the newly merged investment/commercial banking conglomerate Citigroup. Rubin and Lawrence Summers of Clinton's Treasury Department were the guiding forces for financial deregulation. Now, President Bush -- with candidate McCain's and a Washington, D.C., bipartisan blessing -- will bail out the Republicans' largest group of campaign contributors, the Wall Street no-risk "gamblers."

Just who is ready to seriously take on the largest and most inequitable transfer of wealth since the land giveaways to the railroad barons during the Civil War era? Not Barack Obama, not John McCain. My fellow citizens, it's time to rise up, question the status quo that says third-party candidates are not worth your vote, and support public citizen No. 1: Ralph Nader.

MARTIN J. SCHOEN, ROSEVILLE

http://www.startribune.com/opinion/letters/29609709.html?page=2&c=y

If you're interest in hearing more about Third Parties and their policies.  Write a letter to your local paper.  Tell them it's time to support Open Debates for all. 

It's easy!  Just go to Congress.org and click on media.  The website will send your letter to any and all you choose.

[bevanslow]

My post to NYT blog:

I have listened carefully to both Obama and McCain for nearly a year on television. I question whether there will be much new on the debates. Millions of voters feel that that we need a third party candidate to participate in the debates.

Not only will this increase the number of viewers, but it will allow voters to feel that the Commission on Presidential Debates is not afraid of open discussion.

It will indicate that both Obama and McCain have the courage to debate Ralph Nader who, after forty years in Washington, probably knows more about all of the issues and the two of them put together.

There is a great deal of negativity circulating on the web about the Commission. Allowing a third party to take part in the debates will prevent the backlash bound to come if the debates are limited to the two major parties.

-bev

[B4JRE]

Nice job, bevanslow!  thanks for your work!!

[24hrlib]

I second that!  Go, Bev!