Presidential candidate focuses on peace

Congressman Dennis Kucinich came to town recently to talk about his bid for the 2004 presidential election. The Ohio Democrat thinks he can be president by promising to make the world a better place.

He stood in front of a podium at the San Jose Hilton, talking about peace, non-violence and better health care for Americans.

His words were met with a round of applause by the audience, people attending a conference sponsored by the Telugu Association of North America, an Indo-American group. They shared his quest for peace and welcomed this presidential candidate - and his message - with open arms.

People attending the convention, most of them with ties to southern India, told me that they want a president whose primary mission is to avoid war and to focus on making America a better place to live.

I'm all for peace. I think it's important that we work to solve international problems without killing other human beings. I'm glad to hear that there's a candidate out there who shares my sentiment.
But as a teenager in California, which is feeling the effects of a sluggish economy more than any other state in the union, I'm really concerned about what's happening to education in this country, as well.

Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich addresses an audience at a conference of the Telugu Association of North America at the San Jose Hilton in July. Photo by Bilaal Ahmed.

So I asked the question: "Congressman, what role do you feel the federal government should play in emphasizing creativity and individuality in an increasingly standardized one-size-fits-all educational system?"

He thanked me for including the words "creativity" and "government" in the same sentence. But he didn't really answer my question.

I really didn't expect to get a solid answer. Politicians rarely do that. But he did use my question as a springboard to talk about what was wrong with the educational system in America. He talked about standardized tests and how they are unfair. He said that children who can't pass standardized tests have fewer opportunities than children who are good at memorizing facts.

Just because they can't pass the test, he said, doesn't mean they're not qualified to graduate from high school or go to college.

"There are missile programs that fail tests and still get funding," he said.

That's a good point.

I was still waiting for the answer to my question when he took the next one. I already know what the problems are with standardized schooling. I didn't need an Ohio Congressman to tell me that. What I needed was a presidential candidate to tell me how he planned on solving those problems.

I thought about asking my question again, but Kucinich had already finished talking about education and was onto the subject of peace again.

There was another round of applause.

So I sat there and listened as he talked about how America wasn't a country on the defense when we attacked Iraq earlier this year. We went after them, he said. He talked about how too much money is being spent on this nation's defense - or offense, in this case. He even talked about the Department of Defense as if it should instead be called the Department of Peace.

More applause - this time, even by me.

I do agree with many of the things he said. I don't like war. I don't like to hear about any lives being lost. I don't like the fact that other nations around the globe think of my country as nothing more than Earth's big bully.

It's important to work on world peace. It's important for the United States to lead the way. It's important for the future leaders of this country to have the intelligence and resources to ensure peace and make the United States one of the greatest places to live.

Let's just hope that our future leaders don't get suffocated by the under-funded, standardized American educational system.