Mike Gravel is NOT one of the speakers at RevolutionMarch

[Clarkstmusic]

Hello,
Im Michael Vonasten
Production Manager for the March.
Im writing this because of the thread about Gravel speaking at the rally.
This is not true. He was invited to speak by bullhorn at the gathering location for the march itself but not for the rally on the west lawn of the Capitol Building.
Please. If you hear something regarding the march and rally, check the website. RevolutionMarch.com. If it isnt on the site. Then it isnt happening.
Any info you need regarding the speakers, march routes and so forth can all be found there.

Thank you.

Michael Vonasten

 

[Oyate]

How exactly is it that we have become a rumor-driven movement?

I think it's particularly ironic when it comes to Mike Gravel because I personally like the guy. I think he's a hoot. But I'm not sure we've ever had any official contact with the dude whatsoever. It's not a slight or an insult, we're not trying to be exclusive, we want everybody to have a good time. But all these rumors are just getting ridiculous.

But I suppose if it's all in good fun, I can invent some pretty decent rumors.

Did you hear that the headline band will be a bunch of reptilians from the Plieades system?

Did you hear that the climax of the event will be to resurrect Colonel Sanders and we all get free fried chiken?

Did you hear that we're going to cover the Capitol Mall with used televisions and guitars and we'll have over 200 monster trucks driving over them while Metallica plays to the accompaniment of a gazillion screaming Japanese groupies?

I mean, what exactly WON'T you people believe?

Believe this: Vonasten is the stage manager and he's in total charge as far as the public is concerned. What he says goes.

But if you like the idea of covering the Capitol mall with used televisions and guitars and having 200 monster trucks drive over them while Metallica plays to the sound of a gazillion Japanese groupies, PM me. We might have just enough time to arrange that. It won't make much sense but ya gotta admit it would be original.

 

[Deborah K]

Here is the real scoop. Way back in February, when we were researching who to have at the march, we scoured blogs, forums, and chat rooms to find out what the grassroots wanted. Since we are a grassroots movement, and this is a march and rally organized by the grassroots, we wanted to be sure we were inviting speakers who were not only experts on the subject matter on which they would be speaking, but also who the grassroots wanted.

As we were putting our team together, and our organizational chart - found here: http://www.revolutionmarch.com/boardbios.aspx , we wanted someone with some experience, besides myself, to handle the booking of the speakers and talent. We thought we picked the right person for the job. This person's political ideology was way left of center, (which didn't matter to us at first), but before we knew it, he was inviting people to speak at the march that were not on the list we compiled from our research. He unilaterally began to turn the rally into his vision of what it should be. By the time he left RMF, the damage had been done. We had to UNinvite speakers, Mike Gravel being one of them. Senator Gravel's office was called immediately after he was invited. We were all under the impression that this was put to rest months ago.

If you look at the list of speakers and their topics, and you know anything about Mike Gravel, and you are intellectually honest, you will admit that his message would have to be narrowed and watered way down to fit the agenda of topics. Gravel, while a champion of fighting against the draft and unnecessary wars, is pushing an agenda that many in this movement feel is unconstitutional. The National Initiative calls for a 100% pure democracy which violates the Constitution with regard to an established republic. It requires an amendment because it is so blatantly non-constitutional. Many people believe that a pure democracy is mob rule.

Compare Gravel's record with that of Ron Paul. Aside from the war issues, there is very little they have in common. Gravel's agenda simply does not harmonize with the speaking agenda put forth at this rally. Aside from all of the above, we are overbooked on speakers as it is. And, as you can imagine, we have been absolutely inundated with speakers and talent that would like to be a part of this event.

Having stated all of the above, Mike Gravel is welcomed to attend and so are his supporters. We are all Americans. We are uniting on this day because on one thing we all agree: Our beloved Constitution and what it represents with regard to Peace, Prosperity, and Freedom. It is the subversion of it that brings us all together.

Deborah Robinet
RMF Director/Treasurer
Event Organizer
[email protected]

 

[rossl]

http://www.gravel2008.us/node/3714

 

[rossl]

Oyate - calm down. Mike Gravel was lead to believe that he would be speaking there, apparently. Calm down.

 

[G-Wohl]

The Ron Paul movement is begining to fill it's ranks with "elitists" who think they have the right to determine who gets to be a freedom fighter and who doesn't.

There is a lot of truth to this post.

I don't agree with much of what Mr. Gravel has to say, but he should be allowed to speak if he wants to! He wholeheartedly believes that he is fighting for freedom, and that his way is the best way to achieve that goal. Ron Paul feels exactly the same way. Just because we have different methods of wanting to achieve these goals, doesn't mean that we should be entirely unsympathetic to their points of view, and so much as kick them out of a speaking position at the rally.

Some of the Ron Paul people like ourselves have to realize that we're only one sect of a much larger movement. We are NOT the be-all-end-all of organizations fighting for liberty and freedom. We have a lot more in common with people like Mike Gravel and Steve Kubby and their respective followings than we do differences.

 

[Clarkstmusic]

Gravel

We at RevolutionMarch.com would not dare say that we are against Mr. Gravel.
All we are going to say on the subject is this.
We have a very full and very good line up of speakers. Yes we would love to have him speak at the event if there was enough time. But, Alas, we dont have it.
There are many prominent people in the movement that have contacted us requesting time to speak, but, we ran out of hours in the day to do so. However, this is just the first of many events to come from Revolution March. So even after the march, stay tuned to see what we work on next.

Michael Vonasten

 

[rossl]

Michael - first, thank you for your reply. I appreciate your time, I really do.

You said that Gravel was going to be a speaker on a bullhorn at the march. Would this still be possible?

 

[muh_roads]

Letting people like Kucinich and Gravel speak would only strengthen the movement. They should be welcomed with open arms.

Who cares if they are on the liberal side and you disagree with some of what they've said. They are by far the most constitutional democrats on that side of the aisle.

 

[Grimnir Wotansvolk]

We had to UNinvite speakers, Mike Gravel being one of them.

 

[Deborah K]

Grimner, oh how easy it is to take a person's words out of context and twist them up like pretzels.

For the record: RMF did NOT invite Mike Gravel for the reasons already mentioned. A volunteer did so without approval. We had to do the right thing and let his office know that! Harping on a word changes nothing.

 

[liam]

I watched all your debates on both sides and RP won hands down, however Denis and Mike were a close 2nd and 3rd. I am am still debating whther to fly over as now there is the St Paul rally which I would very much like to join.

compared to the rest of your politicians these guys are of the same family. The rest are ..... (obviously I do not know all your congress man/women or senators but of those I have seen .... this holds true from my view)

.. choose any profanity that spring to mind!

We still need that miracle!!!