To the Editor:

For months the media has marginalized the historic campaign of Mike Gravel, the first moderately insane Alaskan ever to run for president, and the third Democratic candidate still in the race.

Some will say that Gravel has been ignored because he is not a “serious” candidate; but ,in writing him off, the press has allowed the Democratic candidates to escape discussion of some of the most pressing issues for which he has been a voice.

It was Gravel, in the early presidential debates, who was most outspoken about the need for the Senate to get serious about ending the Iraq War and avoiding another war with Iran while Obama was busy skipping votes to campaign and Clinton was trying to appear moderate (apparently defined by supporting a massively unpopular and costly war).

Gravel has a history of true service to his country, filibustering extension of the draft during the Vietnam War, and allowing the release of the Pentagon Papers by reading them into the Senate Record, standing up against the Nixon administration.

In his campaign, Gravel has taken strong stances against the War on Drugs, in favor of a fair immigration policy, against the failed No Child Left Behind policy, in support of equal marriage rights for gays, and in favor of real universal health care, not the weak measures supported by Clinton and Obama.

To bring it closer to our own lives, he supports lowering the drinking age to 18 and is the only candidate who feels it worth his time to make a public appearance at Yale, as he will be doing next Wednesday.

David Porter

Feb. 7

The writer is a sophomore in Saybrook College. He is a member of the Yale Political Union’s Liberal Party.