By Ronald K. Mc Kinley

Roseanne Barr, Presidential candidate for the Peace and Freedom party,  spoke on September 22 at the Church in Ocean Park. Sponsored by the Venice chapter of the Peace and Freedom Party, the event drew a full hose of about 400 attendees.

Born Roseanne Cherrie Barr on November 3, 1952 to Jewish parents in Salt Lake City, Utah, she could only have been a comedienne. Barr’s parents kept their Jewish heritage a secret from their neighbors. Barr’s paternal grandfather changed his surname from Borisofsky to Barr upon entering the U.S. from Russia.

In 1970, when Barr was 18, she moved out by telling her parents she was going to visit a friend in Colorado for two weeks; she never returned. She did stand-up while in Colorado, doing gigs in Denver and other Colorado clubs.

She appeared on The Tonight Show in 1985. In 1987 her HBO special, The Roseanne Barr Show, earned her an American Comedy Award. She was offered the role of Peggy Bundy in Married with Children, but she turned it down.

The Cosby Show executive producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner hired Cosby writer Matt Williams to write a script about factory workers, and Roseanne Carter was born. The show premiered October 18, 1988. Barr won an Emmy, a Golden Globe, a Kids Choice Award, and three American Comedy Awards.

During the final two seasons in ’96 and ’97, Barr earned $40 million; the only woman in show business earning more money was Oprah Winfrey.

Barr is the 2012 presidential nominee for the California-based Peace and Freedom Party.

She won the nomination the same day she was roasted by Comedy Central August 4. Her running mate is Cindy Lee Miller Sheehan, born July 10, 1957 in Inglewood, CA.

Barr announced her candidacy for presidential nomination of the Green Party earlier this year, but she lost to Jill Stein, a physician. Stein was a candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and 2010 gubernatorial elections. Mitt Romney was elected Governor in 2002.

When I walked up the carpeted stairs to enter the church proper, a black woman greeted me. She was the only woman of color there. She placed a Barr for President sticker on my chest. She wore corn rolls and one afro puff, centered on the back of her head, and a tie-dyed caftan. I found out later that this was Cynthia Mc Kinney, former Georgia Congresswoman and first African-American woman to represent Georgia in the House, former Green Party presidential candidate.

The event began with the Venice songbird Suzy Williams. What a way to begin!

Williams wowed the audience. The third song she sang, Roseanne Barr None, was             written by Williams, Brian Woodbury, and Brad Kay and is Barr’s official 2012 campaign song.

The lyrics were printed and passed out to the audience before-hand for a sing-a-long. Williams’s performance drew praise from Barr herself. Too bad if you missed this one. She is our treasure. She rocked.

Barr spoke about the need to remove the clowns from politics; she said she was the only true comedienne. She voiced what the people wanted to hear, but with humor.

Barr spoke of the fixed vote, the pentagon, and health care vs. health insurance, prison, and media military industrial complex. She spoke of how socialism is a bad word except when it’s for Wall Street.

She rallied against war, saying how the less privileged have to choose between war and prison. She also said that politics is the entertainment arm of the pentagon. She vowed to end the war on drugs, citing prohibition, the Volstead Act, and the lives and money wasted on enforcement.

She wants a vote not owned by the bankers, but change from the bottom up.

Barr sounds a lot like most third party candidates, and that is what America really needs.  That is why she will not win. America badly needs a woman’s touch and a Ms. President. And I don’t mean for housework, unless you mean the House of Representatives.

It was a fun evening thanks to Barr and Williams. But the joke is on us. The state America is in, is not funny. November will tell if we are still the land of the free and the home of the brave.