Professional Documents
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Magazine - Gary Franchi Is The Editor. He Called Me From
Magazine - Gary Franchi Is The Editor. He Called Me From
Magazine – Gary Franchi is the editor. He called me from
Chicago and said they were running a special issue on all of
the alternative presidential candidates for November ’08
like Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney so I decided I would do
Cynthia.
I never did get a contributor copy though.
Cynthia McKinney, current 2008 presidential candidate for
the Green Party, is one chick chalked full of savvy grit.
As a native southerner myself and current Atlanta, Georgia
resident, it’s nearly impossible for the innate, hard
headed, straighttalking ideals hereditarily instilled
within my hot sauce, fried chicken, corn bread and collard
greenfed body not to bubble passionately outward in
overwhelming good humor when confronted with such a strong,
shootfromthehip southern black woman like Cynthia
McKinney. And, seeing as how she Represented Georgia’s
fourth district as a House Democrat from 1993 to 2003 and
again from 2005 to 2007, it seems as though the feeling is
mutual among other Georgia kin.
Slate Magazine writer Chris Sullentrop once wrote of Cynthia
McKinney, “All of us have voices in our heads, whispering
insanities. Rep. Cynthia McKinney’s problem is that she
let’s hers speak.” However, Sullentrop wisely concluded that,
“Votors don’t elect McKinney in spite of her mouth. They
elect her because of it.” That’s just the thing – that’s the
reason us silly southerners love her so much. It’s because
you just can’t distrust somebody that tells you like it is
despite how controversial the lingo may be.
Cynthia McKinney’s career is one marked with monumental
firsts. In fact, her career arguably began the moment she
was able to make sense of the world around her.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia to one of the city’s first black
law enforcement officers and former Georgia State
Representative Billy McKinney, the man that is most
definitely responsible for Cynthia’s “devil may care”
attitude and constant willingness to break social barriers,
Cynthia was literally marinated within the political
spectrum from the getgo.
She earned her B.A in International Relations from
University of Southern California and a Masters of Art in
Law and Diplomacy from Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.
Cynthia’s political career began in an incredibly strange
way and solely due to her father’s divine nudge (it was more
like a push).
In 1986 Cynthia’s father, a then active Georgia
Representative, went right ahead and submitted his
daughter’s name as a writein candidate for the Georgia
State house even though she was living in Jamaica with her
husband and newly born child at the time. Staggeringly
enough, Cynthia got 40% of the popular vote.
In 1988 she acted upon her own accord and ran for the same
position. This time she won and became the first woman to
serve with her father in the Georgia State house
simultaneously as a daughterfather team. This would not be
the first time Cynthia would make history in politics. In
fact, not only did Cynthia’s victory mark the first ever
fatherdaughter team in the House, it also marked the first
ever African American woman to represent Georgia in the
House.
Cynthia McKinney immediately began challenging House rules.
For example, even though the House required women to wear
dresses, this sultry southern black woman came in every day
clad in slacks and a big, hyperextended middle finger
directed towards anyone that would dare oppose the decision.
During those years she was one of the few to actively speak
out against the Persian Gulf War causing many fellow
legislators to walk out in protest due to her unwavering
outcries.
Throughout the next decade and a half, Cynthia McKinney’s
actions and voice would attract horrendous media scrutiny as
she continued to stir up controversy every single year by
solidly speaking out against some new, widely unquestioned
sacred social cow.
Enter 9/11. On a Berkley, California radio station in 2002,
Cynthia McKinney actively and without remorse insinuated
that President Bush and members of his administration knew
about the impending attacks on the World Trade Center on
September 11, 2001. There were a few other public servants
that made the same claims, yet none did so with such blatant
language as Cynthia and most retracted or downplayed their
comments in the weeks after.
However, Cynthia, ever the steadfast politician, not only
stood firm in her accusations during the following weeks,
she restated them by saying that, “a complete investigation
might reveal that President Bush or members of his
administration have personally profited from the attacks of
9/11.”
Roughly three years later on July 22, 2005 – the first
anniversary release of the 9/11 Commission Report – McKinney
went a step further. She held a wellattended congressional
briefing on Capitol Hill addressing a wealth of outstanding
issues regarding the infamous attacks.
The daylong briefings consisted of family members of
victims, scholars, former intelligence officers and others
who, because of McKinney, were able to publicly critique the
9/11 Commissions report and its recommendations. There were
four morning panels addressing flaws, omissions and lack of
historical and political analysis in the report. There were
three afternoon panels that criticized the Commission’s
recommendations in the areas of foreign and domestic policy
and intelligence reform. It’s safe to say that, without this
action, such widespread and crucial information now
available for the general public as well as organizations
like 9/11 Truth would not be so respected or nearly as
formidable as they are at present.
Cynthia’s outspoken stance concerning the 9/11 Commission’s
report is not the only example of her war on conspiracy and
constant push to reveal governmental secrets, although it is
her most well known.
Other examples include the following:
MLK Records Act: Two different versions exist, but are
extremely similar. The first bill was submitted in
2003 and the second in 2005. If signed into law, it
would force the government to release all currently
sealed files concerning the 1968 assassination of
Martin Luther King Jr., which are currently classified
until 2028.
Tupac Shakur Records Act: This is an attempt to
uncover documents relating to the death of rapper
Tupac Shakur by having them released in full. Cynthia
said of her decision, “The public has the right to
know because he was a wellknown figure. There is
intense public interest in the life and death of Tupac
Shakur.”
McKinney has also been a major advocate for Bush’s
impeachment. Towards the end of 2006 she issued articles of
impeachment against the President under the following three
charges:
1) Manipulating intelligence and lying to justify the war
in Iraq.
2) Failing to uphold accountability
3) Violating privacy laws with the domestic spying
program
Yet, many controversies surrounding Cynthia McKinney are not
entirely reserved strictly for her political stances. Much
of the media scrutiny centers on arbitrary comments and
actions many perceive to be nonsensical, the most recent of
which is the Capitol Police Incident back in March of 2006.
The story goes that on the morning of March 19, 2006,
McKinney entered the Longworth House Office Building’s
southeast entrance and whipped her way past the security
checkpoint, no doubt in a rush for time. She bypassed the
metal detector as members of Congress are allowed to do.
However, seeing as how, as long ago as 1993, Cynthia has
refused to wear the lapel pin identifying her as a member of
Congress (a somewhat widely known fact for most Capitol
Police Officers in “The Know”) the present security officer
on the scene, who must have been out of the loop, did not
recognize her.
As she whisked down the hallway, the officer suddenly
grabbed her. He states that he had been calling after her,
“ma’am! Ma’am!” In a police report the officer filed, he
states that McKinney struck “his chest with a closed fist.”
The exact details are unclear and because of that, it’s hard
to determine whether or not the officer scared the dickens
out of her and deserved a good slap in the chest or not.
Either way, it’s obvious a big, strong, well trained Capitol
Police Officer would not be significantly injured by such a
jab. But, as far as the media industry is concerned, the
action was quite enough to launch a feeding frenzy perfect
for a slow news week.
Because of the media hoedown, McKinney made a formal
apology, but to this day has neither confirmed nor denied
the details of the report. For good or ill, the scrutiny
died down and Cynthia emerged unscathed.
In the wake of the Capitol Police Incident, McKinney managed
to “slip” (if it could be phrased as such) again.
During a public meeting one female journalist decided to
ignore the issues at hand and instead spew out a barrage of
questions having to do with the March 29th shindig. After
McKinney had stepped down she, unaware that her mic was
still on, turned to a friend and said, “Oh, crap, now you
know what… they lied to Coz. Coz is a fool.” Oops.
Coz was Cynthia’s aid, and once again the media blew it out
of proportion. But, hey, when you’re a fool, you’re a fool –
thus sayith the southerner.
One of the most hilarious examples of controversial
McKinney, which has effectively earned her the unsolicited,
but otherwise highly esteemed title of “Gritty Savvy” (or
some other equally elaborately shabby variation thereof) by
yours truly, took place during Al Gore’s presidential
campaign back in 2000 (remember that campaign?).
She wrote that, “Al Gore’s negro tolerance level has never
been too high. I’ve never known him to have more than one
black person around him at a time.” The Gore campaign, of
course was outraged, and as any selfrespecting person faced
with a similar allegation would do to prove how much he/she
is down with the colored folks, Gore pointed out that – hey
– he has a black friend! His then current campaign manager,
Donna Brazilee, was black. Take that!
Yet, I don’t personally consider what Cynthia McKinney wrote
to be so much an attempt at pure fact something that one
could either believe or disbelieve entirely but something
more like a hilarious jab brought about by that true
southern grit she came up with. Selah.
The fact is that Cynthia McKinney, current 2008 Green Party
presidential candidate, for good or ill, is who she is. But,
at least people have no qualms about who she is; she’s
completely transparent and has been so from the start.
During a time when so many politicians cannot be trusted and
the people run around trying to guess candidates’ true
intentions or hidden agendas, Cynthia McKinney seems pretty
darn cut and dry. So, despite all the controversial lingo,
the longstanding, unarguable fact remains that you just
can’t chase somebody that isn’t running and you can’t
theorize as to what is on the other side of a door if the
door is wide open.