Abayomi Azikiwe, PANW editor, looks on while former Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney reads the latest issue of Workers World newspaper during a visit to Detroit on Aug. 30, 2008. McKinney was endorsed by Workers World newspaper in July.
Originally uploaded by Pan-African News Wire File Photos
Interview with former US Congresswoman of Atlanta, Cynthia McKinney
Mon Jan 10, 2011 5:39PM
The motivations behind the shooting of congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has not been uncovered, yet a tremendous focus has turned to the subject of violent political rhetoric in the US and whether or not this can motivate members of the public to act out violently against opponents of their political favorites.
Press TV joined former US Congresswoman of Atlanta Cynthia McKinney in an interview to discuss the effects of violent political rhetoric in the US and also the implications of other internal oppressions such as political bullying and hate crimes.
PressTV: When you have politicians like Sarah Palin and others using violent rhetoric against their political rivals… Do you think this type of verbiage actually encourages violence and could this be part of the factor, or do you see it as something a lot bigger?
Cynthia McKinney: This is very interesting and I will begin by expressing all the necessary condolences and the general outrage that I think many people feel about what happened yesterday (referring to the shopping center shooting). But certainly as a former member of congress who received many death threats and who received bomb threats - this is something that has gone to an extreme.
This act was certainly extremist and it was definitely considered as terrorism if you happened to have been there and the chilling effect it might have on others. But I do just want to also stress (as a parallel issue) as we continue to bury young black men, who are victims of state terrorism in the form of police officers who run roughshod and randomly throughout the black community, that this kind of violence is not anything new. It's just new when it comes to this particular community at this particular level.
PressTV: Perhaps as a result of the rhetoric of the times (from US politicians), I want to look at the possibility of this type of political bullying… Does it exist in the US? For example, with your voting record, which was very independent, do you think that it was encouraged for you to have a non-mainstream agenda? Or was there pressure that was put on you to conform and do you think that that type of status quo exists today?
Cynthia McKinney: In my particular case, there is a film that's just come out. It's called Cointelpro 101 and in that film I tell the story about a so-called journalist who called for me to be lynched on my way to go vote. And we did the necessary reporting to the authorities; we reported it to the FBI, and now this very same journalist - nothing of course was done with this journalist in my case - but when the journalist made some comments about some white judges, then the journalist got brought up on charges of making terroristic threats.
That journalist used as part of his defense the fact that during the time he made the comments about me, he was on the FBI payroll; he was actually paid to incite - to say the things that he was saying. I don't know who's orchestrating what in this country anymore, but as Allan Roland says, we have very real issues in this country that have to be expressed politically - have to be debated, and people are angry because the level of debate that we have had on various issues does not rise to the need to resolve the issues. And health care is only one of them - I call it health scare because that piece of legislation as Carol Gould points out was not really trying to implement NHS (National Health Service). It was something else - a health insurance mandate.
And so when we try to get to the real issues and the real solutions to the problems facing our country, we're steered away from that toward just rhetoric and there are people who are very angry with the rhetoric and their failure to address the real issues.
PressTV: Speaking about solutions, you and I were talking earlier, do you think that part of it is a product of the overall environment that is existing especially for, for example, people like yourself - Activists who are trying to get things out there; to get the word out as far as the world as you're seeing it. You had mentioned some of the different forms of intimidation that you are experiencing - can you share some of that with our viewers?
Cynthia McKinney: Yes, in fact people are being intimidated; people are being threatened; people are being subpoenaed. Peace activists including catholic nuns being subpoenaed before grand juries… My home has been broken into; people in my circle have had their homes and private spaces violated in very many ways. Things are happening in this country and it's not the first time and I have to say that. We need to go back to our counter-intelligence program manuals and understand what the tightening of the police state inside this country and the quashing of the Senate is… how it was done in the past, because I believe that now it is being revisited upon the American people.
PressTV: Where do you think the political climate is going in the US?
Cynthia McKinney: Well, we hope it doesn't get worse, but the fact is that people want to be heard and they're not being heard. The political system is so far divorced from solving the problems of average ordinary Americans that something is going to have to give somewhere. Something is going to have to change.
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