Green Party Watch

By Jennifer Sullivan, “Area coordinator for the Florida State Green Party, Spring Hill” in the Dec. 3 St. Petersburg Times:

Bring in change that helps people

Nationally we look to be changing for the better, politically. But locally and statewide? We look to be in a red county after all. In a frenzy for change we left in what many say is a puppet-like, do-nothing District 44 state representative, Robert Schenck; U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite flip-flopped once again after getting re-elected. Before Election Day she fiercely opposed the bailout, but now (safely back in D.C. for two more years) she’s thinking some bail-outs may be okay.

Will this county continue to favor the building industry and be anti-people? In goes yet another approval of a Wal-Mart, including the huge space-wasting parking lot. Where are the sidewalks for children and families to safely walk on to get healthful fresh air and exercise? What’s up with so few plans for bike lanes and better mass transit? Will dumb road project boondoggles continue to dominate? (Elgin Boulevard comes to mind.)
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While the corporate media may not do much to cover the Green Party and our vision for the future, they often times will publish letters to the editor written by Greens. Sometimes these letters are straight forward appeals for support for our party and it’s goals, but sometimes they are focused entirely on the issues of the day.

Either way, they now have a relatively new home on the web at Greens in the News. Check out the site, and heck, send ‘em your letters, and who knows…maybe someone will steal your words and send them to their local paper!

The Media may not “have the resources” to cover the Green Party, but the Letters to the Editor section of most newspapers, which is often the most read section of any newspaper, is a great way to get the word out, or just spout off.

Here’s some recent ones:

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (scroll down):

Presidential choices disappoint

Why do we have more options for buying peanut butter than we have for electing the next U.S. president? Two individuals, a Republican and a Democrat, in a country of 300 million, cannot possibly cover the scope of every American’s values or needs.
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We LOVE to see Letters to the Editor around the nation! Please consider submitting a letter to the editor in your local paper. Most smaller newspapers print everything submitted.

John Swift in Fresno, CA wrote:

‘Catastrophic policies’

For nearly 30 years of American political discourse, anyone who argued against the wisdom of Reaganomics’ supply-side sleight-of-hand was marginalized with the accusation of engaging in “class war,” being socialist, or worse, guilty of “class envy.”
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Letter to the Editor in the Capital Times (Madison, WI):

Dear Editor: This is an open letter to Sen. Obama.

I heard your announcement on NBC Nightly News concerning your support for more funding for faith-based programs. Unless you back off from this faith-based funding and programs proposal, you will have lost my vote and I will be forced to endorse someone else for president. It won’t be McCain or Barr.

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Another Green Letter to the Editor, this one June 26 in the ironically named Arkansas Democrat-Gazette:

Give newcomers a try

Do you think gas and food are too high? Want to fix things? Well, signing your name on a banner is not going to do a thing. Not buying gas on Tuesday or wearing a purple shirt on Saturday won’t get it done, either.
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I love the “Letters to the Editor” section of any newspaper. I seem to recall there being a campaign to get Green “Letters” out there in the media in full force this summer since the media doesn’t have the funds to cover third parties.

This one comes from a Green candidate for Congress in the Las Vegas Review-Journal (May 30, 2008):

To the editor:

In his ludicrous Sunday Viewpoints commentary, “The Church of Green,” Jonah Goldberg attempts to qualify environmentalists as religious zealots. I am familiar with scientific protocol, and when the great majority of the world scientific community agrees that global warming is being aided by our production of CO2, we should take heed. There is no guilt or moral bullying in this statement, just the scientific truth. A fear should be aroused, but that is a consequence of the truth.

Here on Earth, we are dealing with a finite amount of resources, and we must try to ration the remaining resources for the good of all living things.

The question on paper vs. plastic bags at food markets excludes the sensible solution: reusable canvas or cloth bags.

I don’t know of any environmentalist who subscribes to our government’s ethanol farce. We know that this process uses one gallon of petroleum to produce one gallon of ethanol, takes away food from the marketplace, etc., and that the bill was passed to subsidize agribusiness.

Mr. Goldberg’s most ridiculous statement, that our country is “ecologically healthy,” shows his lack of knowledge regarding our ecological health. Does he know of the mountaintop removal for coal mining in the Appalachians, the increase of cancer and asthma surrounding refineries and chemical plants, the influx of polluting heavy metals into our rivers and streams, the hundreds of Superfund sites that have not been addressed?

The environmental movement is based on scientific knowledge, what we visually see and measure around the world, and logic. It is secular, not religious zeal.

Bob Giaquinta

Las Vegas

The writer is treasurer of the Nevada Green Party and a candidate for Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District.