Will Nader and the Greens Ride Again?

The short answer is, it really does seem probable ... even likely. I just got back from Reading, PA where I attended the Green Party's Annual Convention, "Green For a Change". It was a great recharging of the batteries. It was wonderful to see so many of my fellow national delegates. We email each other and debate and discuss and argue all types of things endlessly all year long and the convention is a great opportunity to actually talk face to face, mend some fences, set some limits or just plain wrassle.

I know that my posts in our various email battles usually become more pointed and more civil after attending such gatherings.

A short rundown is easy. I arrived on Thursday. Many others who had come from as far away as Hawaii, were already attending workshops on Dismantling Racism, Running For Office, Peace Actions, Green Strategy, Fundraising and many other various and sundry topics.

Friday morning, I attended a workshop given by NY state's own Mike Seller (Cobleskill's 23 yr. old Green Mayor) and Rebecca Rotzler, New Paltz's outgoing Green Deputy Mayor. They had lots of insight about the nuts and bolts of governance and were very direct in speaking to the issues of limited resource within the party for aiding officeholders with campaigns and problem resolution.

Plenary sessions began Friday afternoon and, finding that we had, in fact, achieved a quorum, we watched several presentations on next year's possible convention sites (Chicago, Detroit, Minneapolis and Oakland/Berkeley). We spent some time that evening listening to a number of presidential candidates, Green and otherwise, who had come seeking our nomination. I especially liked Jared ball, a young man from the DC Statehood Greens who was extremely poised and articulate and strong in his presentation.

On Saturday, we voted for our secretary and new steering committee and spent some time speaking (a minute each) about what we thought should happen with electoral/presidential politics in 2008. Four people, myself being one of them, got up to speak in support of a Ralph Nader/Green candidacy. Three of us were applauded enthusiastically, one massively. Only one of the other 50 or so Greens who spoke mentioned David Cobb and Pat LaMarche and how proud they were of them both. There was massive silence. Only two Maine Greens twinkled. One speaker advocated for a Cynthia McKinney Green candidacy. A few people clapped and some people twinkled.

That same night, Ralph came to speak. There were a little over 300 people there (mostly national delegates). There was a standing ovation and the crowd chanted loudly, "Run, Ralph. Run!" for about two minutes. Ralph was very inspirational and there was a feeling in the air of such great possibility.

I should explain that there are "paper state" Greens in our party. Basically, these are Greens
from states without ballot status or any real mechanism for measuring party support in their state who have somehow been assessed delegates anyway (we like to call them Democrats and
obstructionists). These people are often suspiciously anti-Nader but they are also a very small minority within the party. The other group of anti-Nader or anti-presidential run Greens are those concerned about ballot access for their state parties in places like Texas or Illinois or Pennsylvania itself. These people want to make sure that they get an unknown to run who will spend a lot of time working on party building in their states, unlike Ralph, who always makes an honest effort to go to every state at least once and only hits the bigger states multiple times.

My sense of things is that 2004 is clearly over. ABB is dead and a vast majority of us are just champing at the bit to run a presidential candidate. If the respective Green reaction to Nader and then McKinney on Sunday was any indication, we all really want Ralph to run but if he won't do it, we want to keep the McKinney "door" open a crack.

I organized a private discussion with Ralph and a hadnful of other Greens after his appearance and it certainly was my feeling that, collectively, we are all just dying to finish off what we all so happily undertook in 2000.

McKinney, appearing Sunday afternoon, looked great in her movie, American Blackout, that was screened before she spoke. I was somewhat dissappointed with her ability to inspire. She seems so capable and fearless and articulate and direct on C-Span and in her film but not so much when she is at the podium live. She is someone we all should respect and appreciate but it was also obvious from the smaller, slightly less enthusiastic crowd that she is not going to be our candidate. Many of her own advocates amongst us were talking (rudely) throughout her allotted time.

McKinney dropped a lot of hints about 2008 that left no room for guessing but it is my prediction that Ralph is going to run and he's going to run with us again and that this action will help make the Green Party whole so we can start building again.

The Michael Moore Film Few Will See

I recently returned from Ontario where my mother had a Cochlear implant done compliments of the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). The latest figures from the National Association of the Deaf state that these implants cost from $40,000 to $60,000 dollars in a U.S. hospital including follow up and diagnostic (Wikipedia says $45,000 to $75,000).

How much did my mother's implant cost her ...... ?

If you've seen the new Michael Moore film, "Sicko", you already know the answer. Not a single dime. In fact, my mother was going to complain about the $30 she had to pay for two prescriptions as she left the hospital but I stopped her.

The movie along with the surgery showed me was what the sad truth really is. My Canadian mother's taxes cover her health benefits, almost entirely, as there is very little that is not covered by the provincial health plan in any Canadian province. My mother lost all her hearing in her right ear in December of last year and, six months later, she has been diagnosed, treated, given surgery and is expected to be fully recovered in a few weeks. Thats about par with the waiting period in the U.S. for those who can afford the operation.

She paid a smaller percentage of her pay last year federally and provincially than I ever have since returning to the U.S. almost 20 years ago. I pay about 30% of my salary in taxes and she pays about the same.

I know how this is possible and its the one thing that I wish Moore's film would have focused on, why can't WE have great health care, too? How can we PAY for it?

We need to start by voting for people who will cut Pentagon spending by small amounts. Ben Cohen has pointed out that if we just stripped the FAT (15%) from the Pentagon budget, we could fully fund education, give health care to all uninsured children and repair social security. If taking that 7.5 cents per tax dollar collected away from the military industrial complex would result in so much good, what would happen if we took away 15 cents or 30 cents???

Free health care for all, no starvation or homelessness, alternative energy research and production, free college for all, a living wage for all .......

Moore's film is great! Its shows the average American how flawed and corrupt our system is (I have a feeling we all already know that). But then, it gets truly powerful as it shows Joe Moviegoer the Utopian (by comparison) systems in France and Britain and Canada and Cuba. When put side by side with our immoral, greedy, evil, murderous system of health "care", eyes are opened that hopefully will stay that way. Go see it. The fact that "Sicko" is not getting the kind of press that "F911" got should show us that Moore is hitting a home run and TV's "silent" partners don't like it one bit.