I first really heard of Cynthia McKinney when I moved to Georgia years ago. She was already in elected office as a member of the House of Representatives from Georgia's 4th district, and even though I didn't live in the 4th district and could never vote for her, she seemed to often be a subject of the local Atlanta news. As time passed and I watched the way she was portrayed on television, and learned more about her, I became impressed at the way she handled herself despite her obvious political enemies. But I never really understood why she seemed to be so despised by about half of Atlanta. To me she was a refreshingly outspoken politician. A black woman who was very candid and, to me at least, brave enough to confront divisive Southern issues like the need to change the old Georgia State flag (from the old confederate battle flag with a blue bar on the side...that was a big news story/issue when I moved to Atlanta), and the men who supported stuff like that.
So when I found this video of Cynthia McKinney speaking about how she got into politics, and some of the issues that made her such a political target in Atlanta, I thought that I'd share it with you. She was finally defeated for her seat in the U.S. House in 2002 by Denise Majette, then after she won her seat back in 2004 she was again defeated in 2006 by Hank Johnson. That's where Cynthia McKinney's political story ends. But I still admire her fight and candor. If you want to find out more as to how Cynthia met her political fate, I recommend you watch the GNN documentary "American Blackout" (that I'll feature in a later episode of the podcast). I think that you'd find it intriguing, especially in this election year. Peace.
P.S. Supposedly, the podcast is being upgraded to a better hosting plan, and the episodes will be able to be downloaded much faster. Sorry for the slow downloads, but I'm doing what I can to get it up to speed.
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