TEXT OF CINDY'S ANNOUNCEMENT FOR EPIC GOVERNOR CAMPAIGN

I am here on the steps of the capitol building to announce that I am running for governor of California in 2014 with the Peace and Freedom Party. One of the goals of this campaign is to break the stranglehold on this state’s politics by the two parties of, by and for, the corporations and the 1% because I am devoted to improving the lives of the working and poor classes and protecting our precious and compromised environment.

Why am I running now?

First of all, I believe that politics are local and that change should come from the grassroots and a state executive should be more accessible and responsive to his/her employees than a federal official.

Secondly, and more importantly, I am exhausted with the struggle of living in a state that puts the bottom-line of corporations above the needs of its citizens; that puts prisons over education; that puts balancing the budget off the backs of senior citizens, students, and the physically and mentally ill over healthy job creation and bigger social safety nets.

The people of this state need education, jobs and healthcare, not more empty promises and pandering to the wealthy from Sacramento.

I don’t own a car and I rode my bike here from Davis because I know that it’s past time that the practice of ruining our environment by fracking and other disastrous forms of energy extraction be ended. The sitting Governor has received the maximum campaign contribution of over $27,000 from his buddies at Occidental Oil. I would rather have 27,000 individuals send me one dollar each because I will work for them, not big oil. 

As if we needed more proof, Fukushima has terrifyingly demonstrated to us that nuclear power has the potential of ending life on this planet, and the nuclear plants in our state are super-vulnerable to be destroyed by earthquake and/or fire.  They must be shut down!

This state is in urgent need of expanding the use of clean, renewable, and sustainable energy production and also to invest in protected bike and pedestrian lanes and better, cheaper, and more comprehensive public transportation. We have the resources to do it.

During the Great Depression, California Socialist, author and intellectual, Upton Sinclair, ran for state governor on the platform of END POVERTY IN CALIFORNIA (EPIC) and Cindy Sheehan for Governor will go forward with our EPIC campaign to do the same and to also ESTABLISH PEACE IN CALIFORNIA, END THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX and EMPOWER PEOPLE INSTEAD of CORPORATIONS.

Cindy Sheehan for Governor will also put the restoration of our indigenous cultures at the forefront of our administration. This state has an appalling record regarding our first people and, as descendants of the colonizers, we need to recognize this fact and empower our first peoples to take a leadership role in the recovery of our state.

The state that I was born in and love has never had a female governor and the time is here that we tried our EPIC recovery with woman-driven people power and I think the most challenging thing we face in this campaign is to convince the people of this state that I am not just another b.s.ing politician and that I mean it when I say I will strive, with the people, co-create peace, ecological health, and economic equality and vibrancy, in this state.

I have been doing peace and social justice activism almost non-stop since my son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004. I live here, I struggle with the people here, and I am dedicated to working for a better life for my surviving children and my beloved grandchildren.

I am not asking for the voters of California to support me; I am asking the voters to support themselves, their families, their communities and this state by voting for true change and putting our hopes in each other.

CAMPAIGN WEBSITE:

www.Cindy2014.org