Ron Whitehead, poetry editor for Gonzo Today, is scheduled to speak at a rally for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders in Kentucky on July 12. The event is slated to include music, art, conversation, and education. and will also feature Tom Boone, Mathieu Blake, Dave Johnson, Steve-O Shephard, Khristina Smith, and Jeanette Martinez among others.
Sanders, the junior United States Senator from Vermont, is the longest-serving independent in U.S. congressional history. A self-described democratic socialist, he is running for the Democratic nomination in the 2016 presidential election.
A message from Ron Whitehead:
I’m an Abraham Lincoln Republican
he signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863
freeing the slaves
I’m a Franklin Delano Roosevelt Democrat
he signed the Social Security Act in 1935
giving most of the working class the only
retirement they’ll ever have
but more than anything
I’m a Benjamin Franklin Independent
the eccentric genius who more than anyone
birthed the United States of America
and the sacred documents on which
it still, barely, stands
I’ve never liked corrupt politics which is why I’ve always been
an avid student of politics and a political activist. 21 years ago
I wrote I Will Not Bow Down and Tapping My Own Phone and
Never Give Up (with His Holiness The Dalai Lama).
It never ceases to amaze me that the Confederate flag is still
allowed to fly over government buildings in the United States
of America. It never ceases to amaze me that Kentucky
folks voted, again and again and again, for Mitch McConnell
and that they also elected Rand Paul.
For some time now corrupt politicians have been selling the USA
to China and Saudi Arabia. McConnell has been central to that
betrayal of us, to those of us who still believe in, and practice
the principles inherent in, those sacred documents on which
the United States of America was founded: The Declaration of
Independence, The Constitution, The Bill of Rights.
I despise politics, but I believe in the ideals on which the
United States of America was birthed. I believe in freedom and
equality and justice for ALL people. Shootfire, I rewrote
The Declaration of Independence so it would include EVERYONE,
not just white male property owners. The United States of America
is going the way all other Empires have gone, downhill.
But we still have time, even while falling, to change the path
we’re on and live up to the ideals the principles inherent and
established in the documents on which we birthed ourselves.
Is it too late? Have we sold ourselves completely to China and
Saudi Arabia? Probably. But I know this: no matter what corrupt
politicians do I will continue to respect, honor and adhere to
the ideals the principles on which our country was born and
the possibility the hope of living up to those ideals those principles
on which we still, barely, stand.
Ron Whitehead, Kentucky Poet
