Other Episodes:
Episode 1 voting and you: -chris
Episode 2 police and protests: -tony
Episode 3 Guest Preacher: -Alyssa Kopf
Episode 4 John Hickenlooper and the CCMEP: -tony
Episode 5 The Peace Candidate: Guest Preacher, Sunny Dawn Freeman Genz
Episode 6 Stomping on Haiti: Guest Preacher, Gary Swing
Episode 7 Advice to an 18 year old: -tony
Episode 8 Deep in the Heart of a Red State: -librarytroll
Episode 9 Statement on Ward Churchill: -Breakdown Book Collective
Episode 10 9/11: The Pearl Harbor of the 21st Century?: - Gary Swing
Episode 11 Don't Have a Cow, Man: - Gary Swing
Episode 12 When Clinton Lied, Yugoslavia Died: - Gary Swing
Episode 13 Why I support Ron Paul (and Hitler) - Tony Shawcross

Please note, the views of the Soapbox Preachers are their own, and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of denverevolution. Any facts presented have not been confirmed by denverevolution.
If you're interested in preaching from the soapbox, please send to c(at)denverevolution(dot)org

Episode 4: -John Hickenlooper and the CCMEP: -tony

I shouldn't have been surprised to read the "Mideast conflict lands in mayor's race" article in the Rocky Mountain News' May 20th Opinion Section. The article's clear attempts to scare the public away from the kind of dissenting, alternative opinions one can find through CCMEP are what I should have come to expect from the Rocky Mountain News by now.

As a person who has attended several CCMEP meetings, it was painfully obvious that no one from the Hickenlooper Camp to the Rocky Mountain News staff had ever attended a CCMEP event. I am not going to defend CCMEP's stance on any issue. The fact that they are a great organization with which both I and denverevolution are proud to be aligned is not important. The true value they hold here, whether you agree with their stances or not, is that they represent a valuable voice in the community, promoting opinions and perspectives that readers will rarely see in sterile, corporate-owned-and-guided media outlets like the Rocky Mountain News.

Take a close look at exactly what CCMEP is being attacked for here. Without getting into all the specifics, each and every statement is criticising CCMEP for offering OPINIONS and PERSPECTIVES on world news and world affairs. They aren't being called "dangerous" because of their involvement in any action; Hickenlooper isn't "horrified" of them because of any kind of threats they've made. No, the article encourages us all to "fear" this group because of IDEAS! Because they provide access to ideas that go against what we hear every day in these newspapers, they are marginalized and labeled "extreme".

How have we gotten to this place where ANY of us accept this kind of censorship in our community? I encourage everyone to head down to the Mercury Café on most any Thursday night and see just how "frightening" and "horrifying" this group is in person.

Tony Shawcross
denverevolutionary
5-20-2003

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