Gravel visit mentioned by my campus newspaper

Last night's visit was the best night of my life. Seeing Gravel in person really gave me hope.

The Diamondback actually mentioned Gravel's visit.

http://media.www.diamondbackonline.com/media/storage/paper873/news/2008/05/01/News/Politics.At.The.Perk-3359883.shtml

Gravel talked about healthcare, the media, the MIC, education, the neocon domination plan from 1997, the insanity of Hillary, Obama and McCain...

He also said that today, even though he feels like today's politicians lack spine, his 2 favorite politicians are Feingold and Webb, but he criticizes Feingold for not filibustering Lieberman I and Webb for not filibustering Lieberman II. He sees how peer pressure affects them.

Unfortunately, the 75 people I thought would come didn't come, but Gravel was willing to make a discussion in any case.

There are a few notes I want to mention that weren't mentioned by the article.

He told me that I worked very hard for his campaign, he told me that I have the stuff and the morality to run for office, even for president (whether he wins or not, in both cases, he said yes)  as partner with the people in making laws after the Ni4d passes.

He also said that Tunisia was a beautiful country, he mentioned that his 2 heroes were George Washington and Solon (the founder of democracy in Ancient Greece), he told me that I had a talent for languages, and he wonders if I do geology to let off steam by breaking rocks. ^^

He gave me a few additional positions.

He thinks that Sarkozy is a nutcase and rails against the lack of integration in France (especially when 78% of prisoners in France happen to be Muslims).

He said that he prefers visiting Germany, even though he has a French heritage (French Canadian). I mentioned to him how Germany is the one country that has dealt fairly well with its history (the German government has come to terms with the Holocaust, especially when Brandt kneeled in front of the Warsaw memorial in the 70s) in contrast to the rest of the world (the US hasn't recognized Native American genocide or officially apologized for slavery).

He thinks the Armenian genocide should be acknowledged. It would make Turkey a better country.

He also mentioned that when he  visited Hiroshima in 1972-1973, he was the 1st elected official of the United States to go to the Peace memorial.

After resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the Israeli and the Palestinian people (I discussed with him how I was trying to persuade a friend living in Israel to support Gravel and reject McCain because Gravel honestly has the Israeli people and the Palestinian people's best interests. He thinks that the Israelis and the Palestinians both have the right to that land, and like me, he is scared that in the event of a war in Iran, Pakistan may send a nuclear missile that could destroy Israel. So the supporters of AIPAC, McCain, Obama, Hillary...are anti-Israeli in my mind. Gravel thinks that the Israeli government's bunker mentality will destroy Israel if it continues this path.), he wants to use similar models to resolve conflicts in Cyprus, Kashmir...

He talked about how he felt like the Washington Post was good on some things but horrific on issues like this election. We were talking about an article that reported rising wheat prices due to ethanol.

He also talked about the irrelevance of NATO, and the stupidity over Ukraine considering being part of NATO.

(on a side-note, I think that Hillary considering using NATO against Iran is absolutely insane).

Concerning interventions, he is not for the US intervening as the policeman of the world because it's a mark of imperialism, but he is for an international body (the UN needs to be seriously reformed because its structure at its foundation doomed the UN), which is honestly great.

He told me that he and me were two feathers that have common goals.

He also gave me a few books to look at.

When I told him that I wanted the US to apologize for the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and for the US to acknowledge Native American genocide, he told me that I had the stuff to lead.

He told me to keep it up.

I am grateful to Gravel. He taught me so much, I feel like he is a wise grandfather in my life, and I'm glad I was able to get some people to see him in person to actually hear what he has to say and actually see him and leave a permanent mark instead of just having my voice blown away two months later by mainstream media.

Why do people want Obama, Hillary and McCain?

Gravel traveled around the world, is very open-minded (he knows about Solon, Cicero...) and knows about the world (Greece, Turkey, France, Germany, Japan...) whereas McCain can't even tell the difference between Sunnis and Shiites.

He also mentioned how candidates like Lieberman and Obama fool people: by mentioning "I'm a popular guy", "I get along" or "let's come together and hold hands" (false notion of unity).

The fact is that Gravel always had to be mean and tough in Congress to get anything done (in spite of peer pressure, his arguments with Ted Stevens... Ted Stevens is an ardent supporter of the military industrial complex), and in spite of his accomplishments, the issues of this country have gotten much worse.

He also said that if he doesn't win the libertarian nomination, he will be a writer and lecturer. So he'd better win the LP nomination.