The North Coast times-eagle., June 20, 2000, Page 4, Image 4

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THE GREEN PARTY
are the most silent to have a voice, the right for all of us to be
able to participate in political discourse and dialogue. The multi­
party system is about that process." (Winona LaDuke)
This is not only a right, of course, but a duty; both right
and duty have been taken from us over the years, with the two-
party system, which has stripped us of hope for honesty and
change. This platform asks us all to participate again, and
promises to work toward the changes needed to let us do that.
2. Social Justice & Equal Opportunity
The gains made by minority groups, v®men and workers
in the 19th and 20th centuries need to be solidified, and class
oppression, ageism, disability and homophobia need more work
to overcome them. This platform declares that the Green Party
will undertake that work.
3. Ecological Wisdom
Human societies must operate wth the understanding
that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. Wendell
Berry furthers this understanding when he writes, 'The answers
to the human problems of ecology are to be found in economy.
And the answers to the problems of economy are to be found
in culture and charactar.. Our understandable wish to preserve
the planet must somehow be reduced to the scale of our compe­
tence — that is, to the wish to preserve all of its humble house­
holds and neighborhoods." (Harper's Magazine. 9/1989)
AL MITCHELL
BY CAROLYN DUNN
A CHOICE AT LAST
7 always voted at my party's call, and I never
thought of thinking for myself at all."
-GILBERT & SULLIVAN, 'HMS PINAFORE'
"In the end we defend only what we love"
-THE NATURE CONSERVANCY
A CURSES AN APPEAL
Let's start with a curse (which is. let us admit it. the way
most change begins):
"A curse on monocultural industrial civilization and its
almost deified economic and political systems that compete,
exploit, and then give vast wealth and power to a tiny few while
draining and scattering the cultural and natural wealth of our
planet. I say"
-Gary Snyder
from 'He Who Hunted Birds
in His Father's Village' (1979)
Let's continue with an admonition and appeal
*.. when you have done what you can in your own zone,
in your own field, then you can call a halt and despair as much
as you like. Understand this: we can despair of the meaning of
life in general, but not of the particular forms that it takes: we
can despair of existence, for we have no power over it, but not
of history, where the individual can do everything "
-Albert Camus
in 'Letter to a Man in Despair (1939)
TIRED OF 'ZINGING'
Half a year into the 21st Century these tv® 20th Century
statements — the first a poet's fist raised in despair and anger,
the second an existentialist's appeal to action — define our con­
dition as individuals mired in our own daily needs and problems,
and as groups and communities desperate to solve a mind
bending array of social and environmental ills We're all of us
weary of this zinging between idealism and nihilism, between
what could be done and what isn't done, between voting election
after election for the candidates of one political party or the
other and realizing, time after time, that it was all for nothing
Politics and elections are upon us again, and though
politics neither causes nor corrects all of our problems, in a
functional democracy it is one place in which we should be able
to participate and to hope for both repair and progress. This time
around, we have a choice: The Green Party It has been around
in the U.S. since the 1996 elections, and has grown in both
strength and sophistication since then. 76 Greens hold elected
office in 19 states and Washington, D C., as of April 2000 At
least 75 Greens are running in the 2000 elections in 14 states
and D C. The only political party of grassroots democracy, the
Green Party's nominating convention was in Denver the week­
end of June 24. They give us a party so completely separate
from either of the entrenched Republican/Democratic Parties
that we will, finally, have a reason to vote.
The announcement of the national nominating conven­
tion says it this way: This convention — held during the lull
between the bunched up primaries in March and the major-party
conventions in the late summer, will be the kickoff point for what
may be the most significant national progressive campaign in
many years
RALPH NADER & WINONA LaDUKE
Green Ticket Candidates
Ralph Nader is the Green Party candidate for President
of the United States 2000 and Native American activist Winona
LaDuke is his running mate for Vice President They are both
expenenced campaigners, having run on the Green Party ticket
in 1996
THE GREEN PARTY PLATFORM 2000
Like seals, otters, whales and dolphins, we, too — the
electorate — need to come up for air The tv® entrenched parties
have not given us air for several decades They are like bottom
sediment, which we are rightfully leery of, full of the toxic resi­
dues of broken promises and soft campaign millions which we
should leave alone This November we can do exactly that
If you decide to push on up for air and vote the Green
Party ticket this November, here's what you will be breathing:
1. Grassroots Democracy
This is about accountability of our public representatives
to the people who elect them, and about the "right for those vtfio
4. Non-violence
Quoting from the platform, "It is essential that we
develop effective alternatives to society's current patterns of
violence We recognize the need for self-defense and the
defense of others who are in helpless situations. We promote
non-violent methods to oppose practices and policies with which
we disagree, and will guide our actions toward lasting personal,
community and global peace."
Petra Kelly, who with others, started the politically
successful German Greens in the 1980s, was more radical
than that: "When we speak of a new type of power, the power
of nonviolence, it is rather about abolishing power as we know
it... We must stop believing in deterrence, stop believing in the
lie that more refined and accurate weapons of all types can give
us more security...'Power over1 is to be replaced by 'shared
power*, by the discovery of our own strength as opposed to
a passive reception of power exercised by others, often in our
name."
Kelly's ideological mentor, Gandhi, worked also for
this purer form of nonviolence. Both knew that few individuals
or nations are capable of it, which does not lessen the need
for striving toward it. This Green value attempts to recognize
both the real and the ideal in regard to nonviolence in a world
permeated with power struggles.
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5. Decentralization
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The wording of this platform states, among other things,
that "Decision making should, as much as possible, remain at
the individual local level, while assuring that civil rights are pro­
tected for all citizens"
Ralph Nader reminds us (in a speech 2/21 announcing
his candidacy) that, 'The unconstrained behavior of big business
is subordinating our democracy to the control of a corporate
plutocracy that, (moves) on all fronts to advance narrow profit
motives at the expense of civic values... They flood public
elections with cash, and they use their media conglomerates
to exclude, divert or propagandize By their control of Congress,
they keep the federal cops off the corporate crime, fraud and
abuse beats. They imperiously demand and get a wide array
of privileges and immunities...They weaken the common law of
torts in order to avoid their responsibility for injurious wrongdoing
to innocent children, women and men."
This Green platform seeks to stop the centralization
of wealth and power, with its inherent social, environment and
violence promoting abuses
6 Community-based Economics & Economic Justice
"At the least, says Ralph Nader, "our government can
facilitate the voluntary binding together of interested citizens into
democratic civic institutions" that can "create more level playing
fields" and the "flowering of a deep-rooted democratic society."
7. Feminism & Gender Equity
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he Alliance for Democracy is a new movement
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our government, our culture, our media and the
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8. Respect for Diversity
The emphases here are on the development of respect
across cultural, ethnic, racial, sexual, religious and spiritual lines
and on the inclusion of these differences and groups into our
public discourse, leadership and institutions.
This platform includes respect for "other life forms other
than our own and the preservation of biodiversity ."
9, Personal & Global Responsibility
Though Wendell Berry sees "global responsibility" as
only practicable for most of us on a personal/community level,
this platform encourages us to "join with people and organiza­
tions around the world to foster peace, economic justice and the
health of the planet"
Piecemeal reform has been rendered ineffective. We seek
deep systemic alterations to establish economic and politi­
cal democracy.
68 I Moiri Street, Waltham, MA 02451 • Tele: (781 ) 894-1 1 79 • Fax:(781)894-0279
E-mail: peoplesall@aol.com • Web site: www.afd-online.org
The platform states: "We have inherited a social system
based on male domination of politics and economics. . . We call
for the replacement of the cultural ethics of domination and
control with more cooperative ways of interacting that respect
differences of opinion and gender."
Again, Petra Kelly (speech, India, 1988) sheds light on
this topic by indicating that women are not the only victims of
patriarchy's imbalance of power
"Patriarchy is a system of male domination, prevalent
in both capitalist and socialist countries, which is suppressive
of women and restrictive to men. Patriarchy is a hierarchical
system in which men have more value and more social and
economic power To put it bluntly, men are at the center of
a patriarchal world whether they want to be or not."
Gender equity places more responsibility and power on
women, while freeing men of some of both. This has the effect
of leveling, and doubling, not so much the playing field as the
working field — in business, home, and the life of the engaged
citizen
ASTORIA MINI MART
10, Future Focus & Sustainability
The platform states. "Our actions and policies should
be motivated by long-term goals developing a sustainable