Rising Tide Dinner

2007 Greater Portland Rising Tide Dinner

Held on May 19th, this year's Rising Tide Dinner celebrated MPA's 25th Anniversary! We were joined by Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich, who delivered a rousing keynote address rallying attendees to make Maine a leader in passing universal single-payer health care.

View Dinner Slide Show

Get recipes from dinner

Rising Tide Award Winners

Deb Felder of Maine Initiatives
Rachel Talbot Ross of the NAACP Portland Branch
Rep. Mark Bryant of Windham
MPA member Nikki McLean of Portland

Congressman Dennis Kucinich

Dennis Kucinich was born in Cleveland, Ohio on October 8, 1946. He is the eldest of 7 children of Frank and Virginia Kucinich. He and his family lived in twenty-one places, including a couple of cars, by the time Kucinich was 17 years old. "I live each day with a grateful heart and a desire to be of service to humanity," he says.

Kucinich first came to national prominence in 1977 when he was elected mayor of Cleveland at age 31; the youngest person ever elected to lead a major American city. In 1978, Cleveland's banks demanded that he sell the city's 70 year-old municipally-owned electric system to its private competitor (in which the banks had a financial interest) as a precondition of extending credit to city government. Kucinich refused to sell Muny Light. In an incident unprecedented in modern American politics, the Cleveland banks plunged the city into default for a mere $15 million. Kucinich lost his re-election bid in 1979. Fifteen years later, Kucinich made his first step toward a political comeback, winning election to the Ohio Senate on the strength of the expansion of the city's light system which provides low-cost power to almost half the residents of Cleveland. In 1998 the Cleveland City Council honored him for, "having the courage and foresight to refuse to sell the city's municipal electric system."

Kucinich has promoted a national health care system, preservation of Social Security, increased Unemployment Insurance benefits, and the establishment of wholesales cost-based rates for electricity, natural gas and home heating oil. When the Supreme Court ruled that mandatory arbitration could be a condition of employment, Kucinich introduced a bill to reverse the Court's decision.

Congressman Kucinich acts upon his belief that protection of the global environment is fundamental to preserving the life of all species. He has been honored by Public Citizen, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth and the League of Conservation Voters as a champion of clean air, clean water and an unspoiled earth. He was an early critic of nuclear power as being risky economically, and environmentally, raising questions about nuclear waste byproducts. As a state senator he raised so many questions about a planned siting of a nuclear waste dump in Ohio that the idea was eventually scrapped. Early in his first term in Congress he thwarted an effort to repeal a provision of the Clean Air Act. As a congressional representative to the global climate treaty talks, Congressman Kucinich encouraged America to lead the way toward a sustainable, shared stewardship of the planet through carbon reduction, and investment in alternative energy technologies.

He not only believes in sustainability, he practices it. Congressman Kucinich is one of the few vegans in Congress, a dietary decision he credits not only with improving his health, but in deepening his belief in the sacredness of all species. In the 106th Congress, his call for labeling and safety testing of all genetically engineered foods provoked a $50 million advertising campaign by the biotech industry. Kucinich hosted an international parliamentary session, attended by officials of 18 countries, on the social, economic, political and health impact of genetic food technologies. More recently he was one of the principal speakers at an international conference on water rights, where he called for governments to reserve public ownership of water resources. Kucinich is a dynamic, visionary leader who combines a powerful activism with a spiritual sense of the essential interconnectedness of all living things. His holistic worldview carries with it a passionate commitment to public service, peace, human rights, workers rights, and the environment. His advocacy of a Department of Peace seeks not only to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society, but to make war archaic. His is a powerful, ethical voice for nuclear disarmament, preservation of the ABM treaty, banning weapons in outer space, and a halt to the development of a 'Star Wars' - type missile defense technology.

He has been recognized for his advocacy of human rights in Burma, Nigeria and East Timor. Together with the late Rep. Joe Moakley (D-Mass), he has led a concerted effort to close the School of the Americas, which has been an incubator of human rights violations in Central America. On the eve of the World Trade Organization's Seattle conference, Rep. Kucinich organized 114 Democrats to help convince President Clinton to seek human rights, workers rights and environmental quality principles as preconditions in all US trade agreements. Kucinich marched with workers through the streets of Seattle protesting the WTO's policies and with students through the streets of Washington, DC, challenging the structural readjustment policies of the IMF.

Kucinich has advocated the creation of a cabinet-level Department of Peace, to make non-violence an organizing principle within our society. He believes that peace, not war, is inevitable, if we are willing to work for peace. He sees the world as being interconnected and interdependent. This vision always strives to find the commonalities, the points where unity can be formed. He believes the United States can best lead the way through full support of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty, the Kyoto Climate Change Treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Biological Weapons Convention; joining the International Criminal Court, signing the Landmine Treaty and the Small Arms Treaty. As we rejoin the world in full support of principles of international law, we help build the cause of human unity, he believes. In his fifth term in the United States House, Kucinich has been a leader for Universal Health Care, a full employment economy, fully-paid tuition at public colleges and universities, repeal of the Patriot Act, the development of bio-fuels as alternative energy and restoration of America's basic manufacturing and infrastructure.

Dinner Recipes

Stewed Vegetables

Cutting the Vegetables
Be sure there’s no dirt on the vegetables.

• 1 large yellow onion: cut into 1/2 inch wedges and halve.
• 2 smalkl turnips: peel and cut into 1/2 inch wedges.
• 6 or so carrots: Cut lengthwise, then into 3-inch pieces.
• 3 parsnips: Peel and cut lengthwise, then into 2-inch pieces.
• 1 squash: Peel and cut into chuncks about 1 1/2 in long.
• Bunch of cilantro: Wash and chop fine
• Bunch of parsley: Wash and chop fine
• 2 jalapenos: Wash, remove seeds and dice finely. Wear gloves.

1. Open 2 cans of chickpeas, drain chickpeas and rinse.

2. Lightly cover bottom of stewing pan with olive oil and warm it, add onion, and cook over medium heat for 1 or 2 minutes.

3. Add 1/2 tsp tumeric,1/4 tsp cayenne pepper, 2 cinnamon sticks, 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, 1/2 tsp pepper, 1 tsp salt and cook about 3 minutes until onions soften.

4. Add turnips, carrots, parsnips, squash, chickpeas, jalapenos, cilantro and parsley. Give a good stir. Let the vegetables warm up, then add water to cover vegetables. Bring water to a boil, lower heat to simmer, cover, cook for 25 minutes or until the vegetables are nearly tender. Keep an eye on water-vegetable ratio to be sure vegetables don’t burn. Add a box or bag of frozen peas and cook until everything is done, another 5 minutes or so. Taste for salt and add more if needed.

Couscous

Instant is okay. Follow directions on package. Use pan large enough, for it will swell.

Cilantro sauce

• 2 cups cilantro leaves and some stems
• 1 or 2 jalapeno peppers, seeds and veins removed
• juice of 2 limes
• 2 garlic cloves
• 5 tablespoons olive oil
• salt
• additional lime juice if needed.
  

1. Wash, dry and chop fine cilantro leaves and some stems

2. Roughly chop the jalapenos. Beware: the seeds are very hot.

3. Blend cilantro, jalapenos, lime juice and garlic

4. Gradually add olive oil as blender is running. Season with salt and add more lime juice if needed.

Serve stew spooned over the couscous. Let everyone serve themselves sauce.

Roasted Potatoes and Baby Beets

1. Scrub smallish Yukon gold potatoes (4 per person) and cut in quarters

2. Do the same with same amount of baby beets. Let the beets be similar in size to the potato quarters.

3. Pour olive oil over the two (in a bowl) just enough to make everything glisten. Add salt. Stir to be sure everything is coated with oil and salt

4. Spread on a cookie sheet or cake pan. Roast at 375 until soft and a bit crusty.

A good addition would be rosemary leaves.

Apple Crisp

1. Turn on oven to 350

2. Slice 2 good cooking apples for each person. Wash and core them, but don’t peel them.

3. If there’s any lime juice from the salsa left (above), pour a small amount over the apples and give the apples a stir.

4. Oil a large, oblong cake pan and spread the apple slices in it.

5. Mix brown sugar, flour, oatmeal, and canola oil in a large bowl. Start with about 1 1/2 cup of oatmeal, add sugar to your liking. and oil and unbleached flour until it’s crumbly, dry not wet. Mix this with your CLEAN hands until it’s evenly crumbly. Spread it over the apples. Bake at 350 until the apples are done, and the topping is crisp. the apples.

6. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Maine People’s Alliance—Organizing for a Better Maine!

565 Congress St., Suite 200, Portland, Maine 04101; (207) 797-0967; mpa@mainepeoplesalliance.org
27 State Street, Suite 44, Bangor, Maine 04401; (207) 990-0672; jesse@mainepeoples alliance.org
145 Lisbon Street, Suite 200, Lewiston, Maine 04240; (207) 782-7876; kate@mainepeoplesalliance.org