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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 2000)
009798 “...flowetSLapvi a language of their own... they express your emotions. ” ►Hand-tied bouquets •Quality cut flowers •Single Flowers •Beautiful Arrangements •Balloons & Gifts ivery M 485-3655 v Delivery worldwide FTIj\ Since 1922 -'•s'- 24 hr order service Eugene’s "lower Home The University Florist From one rose... to a dozen... ” 610 E. 13th & Patterson V www.ftd.com/eugenesflowerhome J 004066 • Close to Campus • Clean * Handicap Accessible Machines • Serving the Area for 23 years MR. CLEAN JEAN'S COIN-OP LAUNDRY 240 E. 17th (between High & Pearl) h Black & white * and READ all over campus. Suite 300 EMU *346-5511 www.dailyemerald.CQm (Message boards: Your forum for dialogue on topics from student government to entertainment. WWW«dailycm€rald«COm Azle Malinao-Alvarez Emerald Bradley Porterfield, left, a University graduate student, is Lane County’s Green Party campaign chairman. He spoke with support ers of Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader at a Eugene rally in mid-August. Green Party supporters rally interest in Nader alternative ■ Voters weary of the two-party system organize efforts for presidential hopeful Ralph Nader By Jack Clifford Oregon Daily Emerald Supporters of Green Party presi dential candidate Ralph Nader may not be a very big bunch, but they are generating a lot of noise and expressing in <Jear terms their disappointment with the current political conditions. “The two-party system feels like one body with two heads.” Nader backer T.K. McDonald said during a mid-August rally at Alton Baker Park in Eugene. “There’s no real alternative ... Both of them piss me off!” (( We can’t have a democracy if we don’t participate, so participate. Get out and do something. Don’t just eat your M&M’s and watch action films. Bradley Porterfield Lane County Green Party campaign Chairman McDonald joined about 150 oth ers who were out in force to help kick off the Lane County Nader campaign season. August was the month for planning, said Ken Grimsley, chairperson for the Lane Victory 2000 Political Action Committee Supporting Ralph Nader for President, while Sep tember and October is the time for the group’s big push. Nader spoke in Portland on Aug. 25 and he outlined his per spective on the differences be tween himself and the two major party candidates, Democratic Vice President A1 Gore and Republican Texas Gov. George W. Bush. “Every vote [Green Party vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke and 1] get is a vote of re buke of corrupt politics of the two party system, and a positive vote for public financing of [political] campaigns, a strong environment, universal health care insurance, an end to corporate welfare, a crackdown on corporate crime, fraud and abuse, and the facilita tion of unionizing by low-income workers ... and I think those all resonate all over the country,” Nader told the crowd of approxi mately 10,000 people in Memori al Coliseum, as reported in an Aug. 26 article in The Register Guard. The Eugene rally was the kick off event for the Lane County cam paign for Nader. Grimsley said that the organization is thriving thanks to a grassroots effort led by a cadre of volunteers. “This year, more people, all the way from [Sen. John] McCain-style Republicans clear to far-left pro gressives are learning about Nader, his deep democracy, his civic democracy, his stance to end cor porate control, and they are com ing on-board,” Grimsley said. “So, I think that Lane County is going to be an amazing turnout... and we’d like to deliver it to Nader.” In 1996, a mostly invisible Nad er won 4 percent of the vote in Oregon, his best showing in the nation. Now that the longtime consumer advocate is running a more serious campaign, Nader is attracting dedicated followers. “He’s very capable, he’s shown us that, his record shows us that,” said Bradley Porterfield, a Univer sity graduate student in communi ty and regional planning. “He’s worked his entire life in the pub lic interest, protecting consumers and holding corporations and gov ernment agencies accountable.” Porterfield is Lane County’s Green Party campaign chairman and he, similar to other attendees at the Alton Baker rally, said that the two major parties aren’t offer ing him a future he desires. He also said that students shouldn’t just watch the November election come and go. “From my point of view, stu dents should look at the world as a huge opportunity, not to step on people, but to help people, to make the world a better place,” he said. “That’s what Nader offers — it’s a mobilized citizenry. We can’t have a democracy if we don’t partici pate, so participate. Get out and do something. Don’t just eat your M&Ms and watch action films.” A lot of debate has arisen over Nader’s run for the presidency, mostly stemming from Democrats who say that a vote for the 66 year-old Princeton and Harvard Law School graduate with no fore seeable chance of winning the 2000 race is in essence a vote for Bush. But at least two registered Democrats at the rally said that Nader is the only “hope for the fu ture” and their vote will go to him. “I’m here because Bush and Gore make me want to Ralph,” Eugene resident Craig Miller said. Miller stood with McDonald, who also ex pressed her irritation with Bush and Gore in regards to race issues. “Neither one of them are repre senting me,” McDonald, an African-American, said. “They give lip service to [race issues], but they’re not on my side.” Nader also does a better job of addressing feminist issues, said Heather Jones, another University graduate student in community and regional planning. She said that as a volunteer worker she sens es a lot of enthusiasm for Nader. “Working in this campaign ... the energy I feel is much stronger, much closer to the heart — it’s about people’s ethics and morals and what they feel deep down,” Jones said. “It’s not just this grandiose political party, it’s about people’s true intimate feelings for what they want for this planet and its future. “I [also] feel that Nader really understands eco-feminism and what that’s all about. It’s not about demanding equal rights so much ... it’s more that there is equality amongst all people.” Grimsley said that even if Nad er doesn’t win this time around, the groundwork is being laid for a stronger attack in 2004 on the powerful two-party system. “In four years, Bush would make a very easy target for Nader and the Green Party; in four years, Gore will be a good target, but a slippery one because he puts on a clever face to try to pull in the moderates and Democrats,” he said. “Either way, in four years, when Nader’s Green Party qualifies for $15 mil lion in public funding, the White House will be severely challenged by this third party.” Get results with Oregon Dally Emerald Classifieds! 346-4343
