We share the experience of losing family to senseless wars of aggression. You made the supreme sacrifice, losing your son in Iraq. I lost two older cousins in Vietnam and then faced being drafted to join them.

After learning three-plus decades ago that people fiercely resist invasion and occupation of their country, enough of our fellow citizens and far too many of our elected officials have forgotten this lesson to permit the undertaking of another tragic adventure to occur. And although the people have come around, our officials, including the leading Democratic ones, still remain wedded to the same tired, bloody policy.

The 2004 election showed that the top brass of the Democratic Party have both the desire, and the power, to block the expression of its anti-war grassroots in even a symbolic way (e.g., the prohibition of scarves on the DNC floor). With pro-war Hillary Clinton the present front-runner for 2008, this policy still dominates the party apparatus.

There is a solution:

The material power centers of the party lie in the following: corporate money, party machinery and the work of the grassroots.

The corporate money allows the purchase of ad time, to give the candidates exposure and to get the word out.

The party machinery conducts the activities of the campaigns.

The grassroots get out the vote.

Given a candidate who is well-known and identified with the position of the grassroots on seminal issue of the day, with the support of the grassroots already organized as a movement, even the most powerful corporate-sponsored machine candidate can be taken down.

The consequence of directing such a campaign against the party's front-runner would be a realignment of forces within the party towards the grassroots which would rovide a roadmap for the ultimate democratization of the Democratic Party.

You are in a position to lead the process by coming to New York and issuing a primary challenge to Hillary Clinton. I discussed this on national TV in November - see video at http://www.regionalroundup.org/video/MSNBC110206don.wmv - and am glad to discuss it in greater depth at your leisure.

Like millions of others, I appreciate greatly both the sacrifice you have made and the fantastic work you have done for peace. I strongly hope that you will see the opportunity here to make a quantum leap forward for our cause by going to the source of our frustrated desire and giving the peace majority someone they know, and trust, to vote for.

Your candidacy would, indeed, be a true referendum on war and democracy, both sorely needed at this crucial historical moment.