August 12, 7:30pm
Down 17 lbs.
Ended: Aug 22, 2010
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HUNGER STRIKE STARTED August 12, 7:30pm Down 17 lbs. Ended: Aug 22, 2010 |
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Breaking News!Although Ray Lutz has ended his hunger strike, with Duncan D. Hunter still insisting that he will only attend one debate on October 15th; long after absentee ballots have gone out, we are still continuing to fight for our democratic process. In 2008, over 60% of ballots cast in San Diego County were mail in ballots. This means by the time Hunter gets around to debating his opponents, potentially over half of the voters may have already cast their ballots. Ray has founded Debate for Democracy, at www.debatefordemocracy.org, a non-partisan effort to get debates up and going for candidates of all parties around the country. Please visit us there and take the pledge!Ray Lutz on CNN with Kyra PhillipsHere is the first face to face confrontation Ray has had with Duncan D. Hunter, as reported by Channel 10 News at 11, on Friday, August 20th.Hot Events!
HUNGER STRIKE!We say we have a democracy, but at the same time, we know it is severely broken. One of the most obvious ways it is broken is the fact that incumbents tend to stay in office, no matter how incompetent or unqualified they are. This 52nd district is an obvious example of that, coupled with handing the seat from father to son simply by using nearly the same name. This trend continues, supported by the fact that incumbents tend not to want to debate at all, or minimize debates as much as possible. With no face-to-face debates, voters have to rely on 30-second negative TV ads, who has the biggest signs, and listening to political pundits and talk show hosts, who rarely try to get the candidates to speak for themselves. This case is even more pronounced because the incumbent would rather the voters be confused and think they are still voting for his father. In this case, we attempted to set up a series of eight debates throughout the district, and we scheduled them during the legislative holiday, so we know that Hunter could not object with the excuse that he had to be in Washington. Unfortunately, Hunter has not responded at all, at least 12 days after our first request. Just to make sure they could not deny the fact that we invited them to these debates, we videorecorded our second attempt to get a response:On Monday, August 16, we had a press conference outside our offices: The following are some comments I had about my experience. (If you try this at home, please consult your physician). On Thursday, August 12, I started my hunger strike at sundown. My wife and I enjoyed a "Last Supper" at the Greek Style Chicken restaurant in El Cajon, one of our favorites. The feeling of satisfaction after the meal, I have to admit, is one thing I am definitely going to miss. I just finished my first day, and I have to admit, it was pretty difficult from noon to about 2pm. We had a great event at the new Promenade Park, with two film crews coming by, both Univision and News 8. I'll do more writing about my experience on this first day and subsequent days as the days unfold. The second and third days were relatively easy in comparison to the first day. I think this is because you still have some built-in reserves in your digestive tract. On the third day, I gave myself an enema so my body would not try to reclaim nutrition from any remaining waste. The fourth day was very difficult, and that night I spent a great deal of time awake with strong feelings of hunger. On the beginning of the fifth day, I weighed in 14 pounds lighter. I went to visit a doctor who is an expert in fasting, covered by the Union Tribune photographer. The doc recommended that I do a salt-water purge to completely clean out my digestive system and eliminate any toxins built up from my 52 years of life. As of this writing, I haven't tried that yet. Most of the fifth day, I felt remarkably well. I visited the Crest Community Association in the evening. That is a great group and it is an example of the kind of neighborhood association we should see more of. Now, on the sixth day, I am remarkably only 12 pounds lighter than when I started. This up and down in weight probably has to do with how much water I am retaining. One thing that is sure about this "diet" is that if you follow it, you will definitely lose weight, at least while you are on it. I am finding it possible to work a full day in the campaign office but I have to admit walking the dog in the morning was slower than I usually walk. I felt well on the seventh day, but it was a long one, starting at 5:15am to get ready for my interview with CNN. The driver they sent to pick me up had the wrong day, so I had to drive down and only barely made it in time. The interview went pretty well. There are always things that can be said better, but overall, the tone was good. It's a bit difficult to do these because you are in a room with no visual of the other person, Kyra Phillips, and the only thing you see is the camera. Worked all day and then went to the ECDC meeting -- a bit late so I would not have to sit there watching people eat. The Eighth day was much harder. I could not seem to get started in the morning -- head was fuzzy. Finally went to the office at about noon -- it was an extremely hot day. Took a nap in the afternoon but did not feel chipper in the evening. The event at the Water Conservation Garden was a great success thanks to the dozens of protesters outside with great signs -- Thank you! 10News was there to do interviews and they put a microphone on me so I could "confront" Hunter inside the event. Michael Benoit and his group was also there. After entering the Garden and waiting for about ten minutes, I walked up to Hunter, close enough so he could not ignore me, and introduced myself. He tried to act as if he had never seen me before, but I told him I had a letter I wanted to give to him, requesting three more debates prior to the distribution of vote-by-mail ballots. He mentioned that we had "debated" before, in 2008. It was actually sitting in front of a special interest group, an association of insurance agents. And then to Benoit, he said he had already debated him several times in the past. He acts like we want to do this for our own benefit, like something we can put in our scrap book as something we've accomplished in life, a debate with glorious Duncan Duane Hunter, rather than an event to allow the voters to understand who they are voting for. He flatly declined to accept the idea of more debates, but I still requested a response to the letter and he said he would respond (unlike the other two letters which got no response at all). To why he did not accept the series of eight debates, he said those dates had been scheduled for months and that is why they could not agree. Unfortunately, they never did tell us about that. The Hunger Strike worked well. Without it, I doubt we would have scored the single debate, and it publicized the campaign like no other trick we could have used. It also allowed us to realize the sad situation in our democracy where so many races -- even at the congressional level -- do not have adequate timely debates that the public can attend for free. We are going to put this momentum into a new nonpartisan initiative called DebateForDemocracy.org to encourage debates in every congressional race. --Ray Lutz Read prior letters from Ray |