Granny's Pledge for Candidates
January 1, 2000, Clarksburg, West Virginia
Thank you for this wonderful welcome to Clarksburg. The road has been snowy, and I'm glad to be in such a warm and beautiful place.
I began my walking journey in California exactly one year ago today. Clarksburg marks my 2,895-mile mark. I expect to get to Cumberland, which is my 3,000 mile mark, on January 24th, my 90th birthday, snow and ice permitting. I will reach my goal of Washington, D.C. on Leap Day, February 29th, and I will indeed leap for joy to again be able to sit down in my own living room in New Hampshire--for a few minutes, anyway. This is an important election year and I don't think any of us should spend too much time in our easy chairs. What's the point of having a democracy, what's the point of all the blood sacrifices that have been made for it, if we sit and just watch other people muck it up on our television sets? If anyone's going to muck it up, it's supposed to be us.
Some people do wonder if I have taken my activism a little too far. They ask me what on earth I am doing, walking across the country at my age. I can tell you I am not doing it for my health--though it has done me no harm. A brisk walk across the country is something every American should do. I am sorry I waited so long for my first crossing, as there is no better way to fall in love with this land and its people--they are so kind and bright and interesting, and so dedicated to the ideals of America.
In my long walk I have indeed seen quite a bit. I have crossed the Mojave Desert that I thought would never end--its dust and sand swirling around me. I have landed in a hospital and a rodeo and more than a few parades. I have slept in the modest homes of Native Americans in the Arizona deserts, and walked with children and senators, mayors and vagabonds. I have met elderly women who have pressed their precious food into my hands, though they themselves buy pet food to stretch their budgets. I have cried with them when we parted. I have watched Texas cowboys and cowgirls break horses in the cool dusk under Texas stars. I have cut my way through weeds and waded across the Pecos River. I have walked with the great leaders of the American civil rights movement through the South, and even found myself preaching from a pulpit where Dr. King preached. I have stood and made speeches here and there, on the steps of Senator's offices and in the tiny meeting rooms of so many little communities along the way. I have met and spent wonderful walking time, with so many, many wonderful people of every race, every age, every income and political persuasion.
Through it all, I have yet to meet one person who believes we should hand over our democracy to those who would use their big dollars to take it from us. I have yet to talk with the one man or woman or child who wants their senator to be beholden to the special interest check writers who step in line in front of us all, stealing our representation. As a nation, I tell you we are of one mind on the matter of special interest-big money politics. We are through with it. Those politicians who do not understand this simple fact are now facing their last election. And goodbye indeed to the little darlings, whose egotism overpowers their patriotism, and who sell out the hundreds of thousands of people who have died for our freedoms and our equality.
I did not walk across the United States of America to tell anyone how to vote. I did not come here to promote Ken Hechler for Congress. But while I am here, let an old woman advise you to look closely at how your Congressmen have voted for or against corruption, for or against graft, for or against the stealing of our democracy by special interests.
It is usually a mistake to vote for or against someone on the basis of a single issue. But campaign finance reform is the master issue. If we do not get the poison of big money out of our system, we have no representatives, and no democracy. You may like your representative. He may have done you and West Virginia a lifetime of favors. But we are at a time in the history of our nation, and in the fate of our world, when a line must be drawn between those who will stand with the people and those who instead sell themselves to the high bidders.
I would like that line to be drawn clearly.
Today, on the occasion of my 365th day on America's roads, I propose that Congressional incumbents and challengers say yes or no to a simple, 25-word pledge. It reads as follows:
I pledge my vote and full procedural support to ban soft money --the unlimited contributions to state and federal political races that undermine our democracy.
If your incumbents will not take this simple pledge, vote against them no matter how much you love them. Our way of life as a free and equal people is at stake, and we have no room in this battle for those who will not do the thing we all know is right.
I am suggesting this pledge here for the first time. I will go to Washington to see who will take the pledge and who will not. Then we will be ready for the coming elections, and I will ask my old bones and my many new friends to visit the states where we might do some good in these elections, and to raise a ruckus in those elections on behalf of our democracy and our grandchildren's future as free men and women.
I am honored to be in this beautiful, 230 year-old community. I know Clarksburg is the home of Stonewall Jackson and many other great Americans. Our long history as a free people is in the balance now. I know you have it in your history and in your blood to fight this fight. An old woman can't do it alone.
Thank you.