Al gore gives emotional speech at nobel peace prize lecture.
Al gives an emotional speech accepting the Nobel Peace Prize. I personally found this very moving; it suprises me that people can listen to gore and believe that he is insincire rather than a passionate advocate for a vital issue.
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posted by Calvin Jones @ 9:21 PM
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I wrote this open letter to Vice President Gore before we in the Draft Gore movement were asked to stop our ballot initiatives. But recently, the Vice President gave a quote which compels me to post this letter nonetheless.
He said,
"I don't know how to get the point of urgency across to people. I wake up every morning and wonder what I can do to be more effective? What can I say or do differently to get this point across? I wish I could find the words to connect from my heart to yours, my passion for this."
WAITING FOR OUR ONCE & FUTURE PRESIDENT:
(an open letter To Al Gore)
November 2007
Dear Mr. Vice President:
I will come to the point of this letter shortly, but first, profound congratulations for your well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize! It’s a thrill to see you finally acknowledged as the great champion of our planet’s habitability.
Mr. Vice President, you'll always be my favorite President of the United States, whatever you decide in future.
Okay: my intention is to be one more drop in a vast ocean of persuasion in convincing you to re-evaluate how magnificent your accomplishments for America and the world could be as our once and future next President. It’s a great conceit, my writing to you. After all, if President Carter hasn’t yet moved you to reach for the presidency, what chance do I have? But I think of what Gandhi said: "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it." These thoughts, hopes, talking points, and dreams have been gathering within me since the stolen election of 2000, and since the end of our 2004 hopes for you.
I remember fondly the days of yore:
The surplus, democracy, & President Gore
Your reasons to not choose a presidential run make absolute sense: You don’t need this job. As a private citizen, you can focus exclusively on your greatest priority, which is to change global consciousness and action on the climate crisis. Politics (as has been practiced particularly in the last 7 years) has been very toxic. The conglomerate media could either ignore or distort what you say, or divert attention to the latest scandal or triviality. A president has to spin so many plates in the air. All of this is true, and it’s a sorrowful thing that great public servants are driven away by partisanship, the money chase, stalkerazzi "gotcha" journalism, finger-in-the-wind policy-making, battle mentality, and general ugliness.
But I have no doubt that you are the best President we never had ... yet ... In fact, you may be overqualified, but we’d never hold that against you, Sir! But, Mr. Vice President, even a visionary can have a blind spot; I wish you could see as so many of us do how necessary it is for you to become our president - again.
Re-Elect Al Gore 2008:
Back to the Future!
Whenever I think of you, your life's journey, and your service to the country, I swell with gratitude and (dare I say) HOPE, that we’ll continue to receive the great gifts of your brilliance, sterling character and honor, far-ranging knowledge and eagerness to teach, incomprehensible bravery, practical spirituality in the real world, ravenous curiosity, bottomless depth of heart, absolute trustworthiness, and humanity.
I dream that you’ll be willing to again claim the power we gave you seven years ago when you carried Florida and the country. I dream you’ll want to help us heal from this nightmare of America held hostage by enemies from within. They are the red, white, and brutal, arrogant Neanderthal punks ripping across the world on nuclear-tipped Harleys, who have dismantled and poisoned everything wonderful about America! Who knew how much we would pine for democracy? Who knew that it could be taken from us so easily? You give us hope and a vision of what could be best in us, and we yearn for your leadership.
You get it! You recognize that looting and pillaging the earth for diminishing resources is the cause of our spinning near the edge of self-destruction, and the impetus for wars of plunder and domination. You realize that the way out is through a whole different relationship to the earth, to nature, to one another. You understand that we could mindfully choose to use reason, science, technology, and faith in our common interests to put us back in balance with nature.
Head of State. Worth the Wait:
President Gore in 2008!
Metaphors and mythical images come to mind when I think of your journey in the world. Maybe it’s because we are living in a Greek tragedy, the biblical story of Exodus, or a Grimm’s fairy tale. We need a hero - yet the hero always has to find his own way first. Some people can’t see you clearly, because you’re just too fast for them, like Superman, traveling at the speed of light, into our future. You who were Roger Ravell’s best pupil are now our best teacher, and we are your pupils. Teach us to see - from the great classroom of the Oval Office. Our president-to-be or not-to-be, that is the question; our once and future next president ... What shall we call you? The world is passing her cup of tears to you, to grok, to drink, to collect more of our tears, and to wipe our tears away.
Would Prometheus have stolen fire from the gods, if he had foreseen being chained to a rock, an eagle eating his liver, while Fox News made up lies and trashed him every night? Maybe not. When it comes down to it, no one really wants to live as an avatar; it’s a dirty, thankless job with all that heavy lifting - yet someone’s got to do it. Ask Prometheus, Atlas, and Moses. I imagine it’s hard to have special gifts; being the messenger of new ideas automatically makes you misunderstood and even feared, until the tipping point is reached. It’s just that the Zeitgeist is moving with you now, Al. This is becoming your time. Consciousness is changing - because of you! You have singlehandedly moved us to the cusp of the tipping point! The mountain is finally coming to Mohammed! Surfing the wave into the future is going to be one of the great adventures the world has embarked upon. You are the author and author-ity of how we get to the future safely. Please! - don’t leave yourself out of the story, now that you’ve made the story possible!
You were in the desert some of these past years. Maybe it first felt cold and disempowering, to be in exile, to be silenced by mass mediocrity, and mass mendacity. But maybe the desert also embraced you and lent you the gift of silence around you, so you could finally hear your own truest voice, in harmony with the voice of All That Is. What we do know is that you came back into the agora more yourself, stronger, clearer, more confident and more resilient than ever, with vision and the gift of truth to share. While you were in the wilderness, we too were in exile from our own nation. And we are still in the wilderness, looking for a pillar of fire, and for clear and courageous leadership.
Imagine! - a president who can see the whole complex picture and who’ll use science, technology, the gifts of democracy and the interactive democratic process to repair the country and the world! The fantastic thing is that you don't have to be anyone else but yourself! Your leadership will never again be about politics; you are challenged morally and spiritually to lead the nation and all of humanity, beyond our differences to solutions you understand better than anyone.
As you’ve said, Al: we face the greatest crisis but also the greatest opportunity. Being proven right about everything that has come to pass, and winning the Nobel and every other accolade, gives you the opportunity of a lifetime, the force of the Zeitgeist, truth force, wind at your back, confidence and faith on your side; the presidency is yours to make your own. You will have a Democratic Congress! You will get great things done! You can run your campaign as a national conversation on the true gift of democracy and the Idea of America, and you can make the conversation about the things you want to teach us: that we must heal America spiritually (in terms of what we do in the world, to the world, or for the world) if we are to heal the world itself.
Your focus is not politics, but POLICY. You can show people, institutions, and the press that you are all about something other than toxic and divisive politics. It’s your inclination and talent to create good government. It’s your dream to oil the machinery of democracy, to repair the process of democracy. We’re counting on you! We want our democracy back! So do it your way - completely! Don’t campaign - teach! Don’t debate - converse! Be an example of action, whether you promote curly light bulbs or civil disobedience! Hold public dialogue with those who understand you, support you, want your messages to flourish - Bill Moyers, Charlie Rose, Bobby Kennedy Jr., Keith Olbermann, Randi Rhodes, your homies at Current TV - people who won’t distort your message or your intentions, people who can allow you to blossom before the public. Go Current! Go YouTube! Go viral! You control the message and the means! You can own the conversation and you can become president without having to be a politician.
It would be so exciting and refreshing to hear you explain that you are not an especially good "candidate". That you find politics, the sound bite, the dog and pony show, the constant solicitation of funds, the never-ending campaigning, the ubiquitous P.R. spin, exhausting and at cross-purposes with your goals. And then, remind us what you’re great at, which is synthesizing expansive tracts of knowledge, envisioning and creating our future, innovation, inclusion, support of the Constitution, dedication to democratic principles, commitment to reality and reason, bold and courageous leadership. As president, you can not only save the habitability of the planet; you can also restore our understanding and respect for the democratic process, and reinvigorate what government is and should be!
THE PRESIDENCY IS A MOLDABLE CONSTRUCT. Come as you are; you don’t have to be anyone else. It’s Al Gore that we want! We don’t want a politician - we want a truth force warrior! There are millions of people who love you, Al, all around the world, and they want you to be true to yourself. Be a wonk! king of all media! tree-hugger! Tipper’s fella! man of great faith! midwife to our future! Beatle fan! number-cruncher! comedy star on SNL! lockbox king! deep thinker! planet saver! all you can be! Be President Gore - YOUR way! YOU DO NOT HAVE TO LOSE YOURSELF.
We are filled with longing to have a president and world leader we can look up to with great pride, confidence, and hope. We trust your mind, your heart, your intentions, your understanding, and your process. Oh, to have faith in a leader again! We want to be proud of America!
But how are we to enjoy any confidence that this or the next Congress will have the wherewithal to catalyze a change in consciousness and direction without you at the helm? What other leader has the knowledge, competence, forward vision, and sense of urgency to nudge us into the necessary paradigm shift, to move us forward? Wouldn’t you tell us if you knew who that leader was? Compared to you, every candidate for the presidency is oh so last millennium! And we don’t have the luxury of waiting for you to lead the country in some hypothetical future election cycle.
The fact is that no one can steer us better than you to ride the wave, beyond the internal combustion engine, beyond our fossil fuelishness, to the gift that keeps on giving - a sustainable and creative future! Please don’t step back, and allow someone inferior to you to take your job! And for your own sake, I doubt that you could have the kind of stage, megaphone, or influence in the world as a private citizen that you could have as our next president. The Nobel Peace Prize will have become your highest moment in life. After that, the next president - if it is not you - will take possession of the microphone and the blueprints for the next 4 to 8 years. It’s just in the nature of power. Will you be dropped from the front page, and from the national conversation? A President Gore is a terrible thing to waste!
When your presidency was then stolen from you/us, it was your deepest regret that you would not get to serve us in your highest capacity. And we are all the worse for it since that happened. You won, but America lost. We wuz robbed! With a single vote, the Supreme Court tipped our democracy into the trash! Fifty million of us are waiting for our votes to be counted, our dreams to matter, our planet to be healed, our children to come home from war, our alliances re-engaged, our futures protected, our Constitution defended. This is the moment!
Those of us who have long respected, admired, and loved you, see you clearly even through the distorted filter of the right-wing press. We have been on board with you a long time, awestruck by the brilliance of your ideas, your prescience, delighting in your fabulous sense of humor, moved by your devotion to the original principles of America. But now, others who only saw the false media concoction, are seeing you more clearly, through your works, your mission, your passion. The veil is lifting; world leaders are already there; now the rest of America is recognizing how much you can offer as leader of the free world.
NOW, YOU AND WE HAVE JUST ABOUT REACHED A TIPPING POINT. America is at last ready for your truth force. We who believe in your vision, your intentions, your goodness, we say to ourselves: "If we build it, he will run". We have been saying it to ourselves and one another for years now.
If we build it, will you run?
We ARE building it. But if you allow someone else to take the reins of power, who will lead this new "Marshall Plan" of the environment? What if that other president is mediocre, uncommitted, short-sighted, unprepared, or partisan? What if there is no interest at all, no Marshall Plan of the environment? What if that other president is indifferent to the loss of our civil liberties, the balance of powers, the separation of church and state?
It’s not sufficient for you to be a prophet, a prophet who has finally been heard, even a Nobel Peace Prize winning prophet. We need your leadership, at the top. We need you to steer this ship out of these dangerous waters, while action is still possible. Don’t abandon us to mediocrity and mendacity and mis-leadership! If we thought that there was someone who could lead as well as you in this time of reckoning and consequences, we’d leave you in peace!
Don’t let this cup pass from you, Al. It’s filled with the tears of the world.
As you call it a moral imperative to reverse global warming, we who love and admire you must remind you that it is your moral imperative to reach for the highest office again. You are the Gold Standard on this issue; everyone knows this, and you are our absolute best choice for leadership in this challenge/opportunity.
More than even for the climate crisis, we need you to help save our democracy, which is imperiled! Without our democracy, we have nothing! In your 2006 Martin Luther King day speech, you reminded us how many storms our nation has weathered without our giving up our freedoms to a fear-mongering authoritarianism. Fascism with an American face - it’s come so quickly! As you’ve said, there’s no room for each new outrage heaped upon our democracy, because there have been so many other outrages, one after another, too many to count. Wrapped in the flag, they shred the Constitution on a daily basis.
Each day that you do NOT close & triple-bolt the door of presidential possibility, I allow myself to believe you WILL be a candidate. You, Al Gore, brilliant, scholarly, passionate, a man of faith AND science, a long-view big picture visionary, global teacher, and activist, have toiled in the trenches of this fight (your life's work) for 30 years. No one is more knowledgeable, committed, or prepared to meet this challenge than you. Your greatest opportunity to write a global syllabus, raise consciousness, change national energy policy, protect earth's resources, heal our broken relationships, and insure our planetary future is as our President. Love of country compels you to become our nominee and then our President.
"Where there is no vision, the people perish". We want to be proud of our leaders again! Must we be resigned to presidential candidates who either cannot lead or who cannot win? Must we hold our noses to vote? Everyone else is inferior to you! Sure, I’d love to have a woman president one day: I’d be happy if Barbara Boxer took office after being your Vice President for the next eight years. But Hillary Clinton? Dear God, she is just one of the current crop of spineless Congressional weenies who has been altogether willing to give the sonofaBush - enemy of democracy - free rein to stage his Rodeo of Hell all around the world, and on our dime too! She and her cowardly colleagues, too many lame, damn, dumb Dems, need to sit in their naughty chairs for the crimes of indifference and enabling. And if you do not see the leadership elsewhere, you must ultimately come to the conclusion that yours is the vision and you are the visionary.
In a recent MSNBC poll, 59% of the respondents said that you should run for the presidency in 2008. And 54% of them said they would nominate you. You came in second in Democracy For America’s pulse poll - and that was as a write-in! A recent Zogby poll found you to be the first choice when respondents looked at your credentials, experience and values. Draftgore.com is registering hundreds of new supporters every day! The signature count on their petition approaches a quarter of a million. You’re a force for change, even if you don’t want to be its focus. A cyclonic force for great good.
To perhaps state the obvious, I’m one of the Draft Gore minions. I work with MASS4GORE, one of the 250+ national groups, and more specifically my local western Massachusetts group in Amherst. I’ve collected over 700 signatures in our nomination drive to get your name on the Democratic presidential primary ballot (and we already have the thousands of signatures that are required). Other states are doing the same. I ask folks the question: Would you like to have Al Gore on the ballot?
For the most part, there are two common and predictable kinds of responses: the first is the excited reaction - "Ohmigod, did he announce? Is he really running?", and I practically have to peel the eager person off me to stop them from grabbing my clipboard and pen, before I instruct them how to sign carefully.
The other response has an element of frustration dipped in annoyance: "Well, sure but ... come ON, he SAID he’s not running! Leave him alone - he's doing great work as it is! Why push him back into politics?"
Why indeed? These are the two reasons:
1) There is no one besides yourself who can offer the stunning breadth of qualities necessary to lead us out of the shambles of the dark neo-con nightmare of conquest and tyranny. We need every gift you have - a quicksilver, open, brilliant mind which sees the big picture, asks the necessary questions, and takes the long view, decades of leadership experience, commitment to democratic principles and the Rule of Law, love of learning & teaching, integrity, moral force, initiative, courage, wisdom, humility, tenacity, vision, faith, electability, orientation to the future, self-sacrifice, noble patriotism, humanitarian priorities, and worldwide respect - to usher us into a new era of American innovation and cooperation with others and with the planet itself.
2) Can a great citizen ever do more than a great President? The presidency alone can offer you the widest platform, megaphone, pulpit, and classroom that you will ever have, to use yourself for the highest possible purposes, those of restoring our Constitution and democracy, and of changing the consciousness and direction of America and the world at large, to reach for a future which is sane, liveable, creative, and full of promise. Without the presidency, your continued influence upon America and the world AFTER January 20, 2009 will be at risk; someone else would be creating the syllabus for the 21st century; someone else would have the microphone and the world stage.
So Draft Gore keeps on keepin' on - unless you insist we stop. Because it’s our democracy.
The Tipping Point is closer than ever,
The Tipping Place: the Oval Office,
And, we need at least one Tipper in the White House.
You are holding the treasured collective dreams and ideals of America and the world on your shoulders: Could America have the greatest leader, steward, protector, and champion if you were to decline your rightful role as President? Al, are you listening???!!!!!!! Your country is calling on you !!!!! I still hear the echoes of your battle cry near the end of the 2000 campaign, before this 7 year nightmare began. You cried out, "I’ll fight for you!". We voted you in. We chose you to lead us. And then our country was stolen right from under us. We still choose you - more ardently than ever before. What is this nation without your leadership? We are lost and led astray by stupid, evil, reckless troglodytes. You won before. Be our President again!
It’s a dirty job, but someone’s got to do it - lead us (kicking and screaming if necessary!) to save ourselves, the country, and the earth, that is. It’s clear that your life's work calls you to partake of the sacred and holy mission of HEALING THE WORLD that very few are so gifted to offer. It's in your karma, mission statement, and DNA. You ARE doing meaningful work. It's just that we DID elect you to be our President, and we're still waiting for you to bring your gifts to our country, our democracy, and our planet AS PRESIDENT. Being a superhero has got to be very hard work, but there you have it; you are the smartest, most decent guy in the room! You deserve to set the agenda for the next 4, hopefully 8 years. Without you as president, it’s hard to imagine that America can ever fully recover from the hemorrhage of principles, alliances, human treasure, material resources, ideas and ideals. You are the best president we never had ... yet! So we, who already honor the enormity of your contribution to the world, beg you - step up, Al: we’ve never needed your leadership more!
Back by popular demand! President Gore!
Back by popular demand! Democracy!
The country and the world are awakening to your wisdom!
Jeremiah is at your left, and Cassandra is at your right!
The shofar has sounded!
The hundreth monkey has come over to the light!
Mercury has gone Direct!
The tipping point is at hand!
Prometheus has been freed from angry and jealous gods by the people!
His liver is a renewable resource!
Our will is a renewable resource!
We will vault you to the height of power, if only you say yes to your destiny!
I answer the doubters with as much faith as I can muster:
"IF WE BUILD IT, HE WILL RUN".
We toil in the vineyards of a growing nationwide, even worldwide Draft Gore movement, and pray that you will.
Make the spirit of America Gore-geous again.
I wish you:
- the peace that only can come from following your soul's path.
- a toboggan for your mobius-strip life adventure.
- the sharpest ballpoint pen for your fiercest battles.
- deep, old, and abiding friendships 360 degrees around you.
- the softest cushions for the great unexpected.
- Tipper and your children around you, and the hokey, everydayness of family life.
- to be seen and known for whom you truly are.
- the ability to be alone, even ordinary, in your fame, when you need it.
- the knowledge that your great works can never be undone.
May God bless you, sir, as you rise to your full God-given greatness.
With great reverence for you, democracy's hero, the Constitution's hero, and the planet's hero,
Dinah Kudatsky
Amherst, MA.
A personal postscript:
My mother, Bella, has asked me to tell you about her. She is proud of being a naturalized citizen, and still remembers her first vote - for FDR. Bella is 94 years old, with many health problems. For some months recently, she was even on home hospice. Amazingly, she has improved, and is trying to use her limited time and energy meaningfully. Though she doesn’t expect to be around to welcome in your presidency next year, she is very much hoping to live long enough to see you announce your candidacy. On good days, she has even been out helping collect ballot signatures for you, and she got the mayor of her town to sign. She had me make her some "Re-elect Al Gore" bumper stickers for the backs of her manual and power wheelchairs. My mother is clearly the coolest senior on the block; but more importantly, she tells me that being a part of this "campaign" fills her heart with hope, and has given meaning to the last chapter in her life.
Bella asks that when you take the oath of office, help to heal the nation by placing your hand, not on the bible, but on the Constitution of the United States. She, like millions and millions of us, wants to be proud of her country once again. Now, you wouldn't want to disappoint a nice old lady, would you?
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