David Sole, Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate, will be leading a demonstration of supporters at the U.S. Senate candidates debate on Sunday, October 15, at 10:00 am at the WGVU studios in Grand Rapids, MI. The demonstration will protest Sole's exclusion and by extension the censorship of the majority anti-war position from this so-called debate.
In a discussion with Ken Corby, assistant General Manager of WGVU, Corby attempted to justify Sole's exclusion by claiming he doesn't show 5% in election polls. Corby never cited what polls he was referring to. Most important, he could not dispute that polls show the majority of U.S. and Michigan residents have expressed opposition to the U.S. war in Iraq. In light of Stabenow's and Bouchard's support for the war (Stabenow has voted for every single appropriation for the war), Sole's exclusion means that this majority anti-war position is being effectively censored by this "public" television station. History has shown, as witnessed by the Jesse Ventura campaign in Minnesota, that under the right conditions, when a third party candidate is allowed to participate in the debate and give the voters access to his position, his poll standing can skyrocket overnight.
Sole argues that the war is the number 1 foreign policy and domestic issue as well. If the over $300 billion spent on the war in Iraq had been used for human needs instead, Michigan's share alone, over $8 billion, could have gone a long way to rebuilding our cities and providing health care, jobs and education for all our residents.
Sole is a UAW president with 40 years in the civil rights, anti-war and union struggles. His knowledge of foreign policy and first-hand experience with issues affecting poor and working people far exceeds Stabenow and Bouchard, and it is up to the media, if it really believes in democracy and not just in elections being bought and sold by big business, to let the people hear his views.
Posted: October 13, 2006