Throughout his 12-year stint in Congress, and for more than two decades of public service before that, Dennis Kucinich has focused on a variety of issues revolving around peace, justice and equality.

From the environment to unemployment to nuclear disarmament, the congressman from Cleveland has tackled each issue.

The battle for him -- to extend universal health care to all Americans -- was front and center last night as he accepted the Thomas Merton Center's annual award for social justice at the Churchill Valley Country Club.

"The plan Congress is looking for this week is not enough," Mr. Kucinich said.

He referred to the "incredible, shrinking public option," and said he is hopeful that his amendment, which protects the rights of states to have single-payer plans, comes back into the fold.

Otherwise, the former Cleveland mayor said that insurance companies will continue their stranglehold on health care in the United States.

"The insurance companies will end up with more money, more control and more customers," he said.

Mr. Kucinich urged the more than 500 people in attendance to contact their congressional representatives to urge them to reinsert his amendment into the national health care bill.

In his introduction of the Ohio Democrat, state Sen. Jim Ferlo, D-Highland Park, said that no one has been more out front on issues of peace and social justice than the guest of honor.

"I think politicians have a very distinct opportunity to work for peace and justice," said Melissa Minnich, the communications director with the Merton Center. "What he chooses to speak out on goes very well with the movement of the center."

During his speech, Mr. Kucinich's comments ranged across the spectrum of social causes he's worked for.

As he took the stage, he praised the Merton Center and its members for protesting against the G-20 and in favor of economic justice.

"The greatest issue facing this world is that all of the engines of the economy are being used to accelerate the wealth of the world upward," he said.

The American middle class has disappeared, he continued, and wealth has continued to accumulate for only a few.

Sounding at times as if he were shouting to throngs gathered at a campaign rally, Mr. Kucinich praised the labor movement and talked about unacceptable levels of unemployment today.

"Unemployment is a disease that threatens the body politic," he said. "It strips people of human dignity."

He then told the audience that it is time for a new New Deal, and that it is the government's responsibility to provide jobs where the private sector will not.

He then segued into America's long-standing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, of which he has been highly critical.

"We have a right to security, but what could make us more secure than having bread on our tables, jobs and education?"

Mr. Kucinich said that America has become comfortable with war.

"We're seeding the principles of war into everything we do in our society," he said. "War should not be inevitable. Peace should be inevitable."

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