Being seen being Green
Lord how I wish I were in Chicago. Reading Ron and Deanna’s dispatches is exciting enough, I can only imagine actually being there! I don’t want to push down Ron’s excellent reporting, so to read the rest, just hit the “Read more” link.
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If I couldn’t be in Chicago, I would love to be at the Plaza-Midwood library. in Charlotte. The Charlotte Area Green Party is meeting today.
But instead I decided that my most important mission today was to dress up as a clown and give away helium filled balloons to neighborhood kids at an annual event called “Fun Day in the Park”. Sponsored by the Fort Mill Community Optimist club, the event is free to all, and we serve a hot dog, chips, cookies and bug juice drink. This year we also had inflatable castles etc for the kids to play on and a DJ from a local gospel radio station. At the end we gave all the children there a pretty complete set of tools that should take them to Christmas. Pencils, spiral bound notebooks, rulers and presentation folders, tablets and erasers, pens and anything else we are told they need, they get, for free from the Optimist Club.
I know a hot dog dinner and an Optimist Club may not seem much like being seen being Green, but look below the surface and you’ll find that the radio station, WGIV, has a long history of service to the Black community One of their morning talk show hosts, Donna Jenkins Dawson, had Ken Davies and yours truly on to talk about the Green Party and Ken’s plan to run for County Council last year. Members of the Optimist club, in large part because they know me better than most of my neighbors, have supported both me and Nancy when we have run, and give anyone we support consideration because they know that I care, just as I know they do.
So, can a hot dog, chips and a tour of firetrucks, police cars and balloons from an Optimist dressed up as a clown be a Green event? It is, if a Green is there, just as a garden is a Green garden or a school is a Green school or a community is a Green community…if there are Greens there, and we are seen being Green. With so many politicians and corporations trying to Greenwash themselves, isn’t it time for us to stand tall and show what it means to be Green?
Hi Gregg:
While our fellow Greens are in Chicago and participating and witnessing a very exciting historic event in the Green Party history, in addition to contributing to that history with a lot of hard work, there are many more Greens who for whatever reason could not attend but continue “being Green” at home. The work , the issues, the passion doesn’t stop. Here is Utah, we are fighting a giant property manager who wants to close a local coffee shop that has been home to the progressive community for many years. We are addressing water issues, nuclear power plant construction, health care….the list goes on. It’s important to know that even during a convention, our work isn’t suspended. So keep on being Green in whatever capacaity you can.
And thanks!