When Mike Gravel, former Senator from Alaska was on the stage in South Carolina this week, he said some amazing things. What he did, and what he said, was the truth. The truth as I see it and the truth in fact. When he answered the moderatorâ€™s question as to why he was on the stage in a debate for the Presidency, he said that it was because the others on the stage scared him. He said that saying nothing is off the table was a code word for nukes. That is true. Itâ€™s been true and as he says, true for the last 50 years. He said Joe Biden has a â€œcertain arroganceâ€... yes he does. He also said that the men in Vietnam died in vain. I had thought that they didnâ€™t die in vain. I had believed that their deaths would stand for needless war without thought and that by their dying we would never again be in a war like Vietnam. But as Mike Gravel said, their lives were lost in vain, and the soldiers in Iraq are also dying in vain.

What does it take for people to understand that Mike Gravel is telling the truth and that he is the ONLY one that is telling the truth! What does it take for the American public to learn to think for themselves and not let people on the television tell them how to think? When will people learn to stand up and say that they liked what Senator Gravel had to say and that he should not be trivialized and laughed at, because he is the only one telling the truth? Do people think heâ€™s funny by saying that the 58,000 soldiers that died in Vietnam died in vain? Do people find it hilarious when he said that the 3,200 men and women who died in Iraq died in vain?

Just what is it that people think is â€œfunnyâ€ about Senator Gravelâ€™s quest for the White House? Is it because he hasnâ€™t been â€œanointedâ€ by the popular press and the television talking heads that spout utter nonsense 75% of the time? Is it because he dares to tell the American public what nobody else has told them because they are afraid to speak the truth? Are you going to ignore this man because he hit the nail right on the head because he dared to talk back to the media and more than that, to talk back to this government? Is he â€œfunnyâ€ because he said that everything in this country is being run by the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell speech when he left office in 1954? Was President Eisenhower â€œfunnyâ€ too when he used his last speech as President of The United States of America to warn us about the powers that wanted to take control of our country? Well the fact is my fellow Americans, these powers have control of this country and Mike Gravel was not being â€œfunnyâ€, he was telling us the truth.

He told us the truth last week and it scared America so badly that they had to write it off as â€œfunnyâ€. The truth is that if you think about what he said, and actually look at what has happened to this once good and loving nation, it isnâ€™t funny at all. In fact, itâ€™s enough to make you cry. Itâ€™s enough to make you cry and fill you with rage at the same time. This man doesnâ€™t need to be out on the campaign trail in his later years giving speeches and riding on buses. He could be home playing with his grandchildren and taking it easy, but instead heâ€™s on a stage telling us the truth and these witless bastards on television think heâ€™s â€œfunnyâ€. I suppose that the estimates of 600,000 dead in Iraq and over 35,000 badly injured men and women from our armed forces is â€œfunnyâ€ too.

All I have to say is that Mike Gravel isnâ€™t â€œfunnyâ€ at all. If you listen, really listen to him, you will cry. If you donâ€™t, you donâ€™t realize what is happening to this country. If you think that heâ€™s just a â€œfunnyâ€ man, you had better look inside of your heart and take a really good inventory, because something is wrong with you, and thatâ€™s not funny.

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Timothy V. Gatto

