The Dalai Lama was making a presentation at the University of Michigan, and was asked by a graduate student studying sustainability "What is your advice to help us maintain hope given the magnitude of the challenge?"

After explaining that the people all across the world have become more aware of environmental concerns in recent decades, and have organized around environmental concerns into Green Parties across the globe, he asks if there is a Green Party here. The audience chuckles, and the Dalai Lama says "If you have a Green Party, I want to join." I know! Amazing, right?

If you care to watch, the video is posted at Green News and Opinion.

an original song for the Green Party!  actual recorded version of this coming soon!

My wife sez this ain’t in accord with the Laws of Attraction but I say if you can’t laugh at your troubles you’ll never get rid of ‘em…..

(IF YOU’RE A) GREEN PARTY FIGURE

Are you tired of the Republican

Tired of the Democrat?

Tired of old-boy leadership

Forget ideology. Forget the personalities of individual politicians. I think I could write a whole book arguing for the Green Party simply based on all the important issues that get short shrift simply because the damned Democrats and Republicans don't talk about them. And according to the two-party totalitarian culture of the United States, if "liberal" Democrats and "conservative" Republicans don't talk about a problem, then it's not a problem.

Jeffrey Henig has an interesting op-ed in the Boston Globe on why education is a missing issue in this year's political campaign. "Liberal" Democrats are now divided on the question of charter schools and "Conservative" Republicans are now divided on Bush's No Child Left Behind Act. And so, the gutless politician's are doing what gutless Demopublicans always do -- playing it safe.

In a New York Times Op-Ed published today, Mayor Michael Bloomberg declared that he is not a candidate for president.

Good!

Now Greens won't have to worry about this billionaire trying to buy the election as a phony "independent." Bloomberg goes on and on about how "as a businessman, I never believed that either party had all the answers," how "the message of an independent approach has resonated," the need "for a new urban agenda," and how "more of the same won't do." However, he has not one kind word about any actually independent individuals or organizations and his rap is nothing but a blend of Democratic and Republican Establishment clichés.

Each state faces ballot access issues. For us here in South Carolina those ballot access issues are small. All we need do to maintain ballot access is run at least one candidate for partisan office at least once every four years. How great is that?

Sadly, this is not the case everywhere. In Arizona for example, the state Green Party must conduct a fresh ballot access drive every few years.

I have a working hypothesis on why we continue to have so many conflicts within the Green Party. I think we spend a lot of time talking past each other, and it's my hope that we can get beyond that, and figure out what our real differences are, so we can address them honestly. First, however, I want to be clear about what I'm *not* saying.

I'm done.

As an ex-democrat I joined the Green Party with great expectations and felt I had finally found a party that I could believe in. The 10 Key Values of the Green Party and its platform convinced me to not only join, but reach out to other disaffected democrats to invite them to join as well.

But DAMN, Greens are every bit as loony as the democrats and run the party like children. How in the hell can anyone expect to take Greens seriously when they nominate candidates for president who haven't even said they want to be your presidential nominee? WTF is that about?

Detroit Greens are in solidarity with Elaine Brown. She is a prominent African-American political leader, author and thinker who joined the Green Party of Georgia, ran for office, and offered her candidacy to the Green Party for president in 2008. Now, she has renounced her membership and resigned from the presidential campaign. Her life-long devotion to ending racial oppression and commitment to revolutionary political struggle was not respected in the Green Party.

A PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE THAT MATTERS
SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 2008 AT 2:00 PM
HERBST THEATRE
VETERANS MEMORIAL BUILDING
401 VAN NESS (Opposite City Hall)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA

I wrote a while back about a book I had read called "How the right used new and alternative media to seize control" or something similar. In the book he describes the combination of self-published books, magazines and newsletters created and distributed by conservatives who couldn't get the time of day from the corporate media.

I believe we can and should follow their example. Blogs are one example of how we are doing this.

Thomas brought his concerns to us, and I hope more of you who visit here will share your opinions and ideas. Heck, the man asked for reasons, right?

I have asked myself at my own blog time and again, "Is this the best use of my time?" I decided that serving on national committees was not the best use of my time, so I quit all of them. I lost election to the state steering committee and took a year off from that responsibility, and was approached by one of the committee members who was still there to run this year. I did, and am serving there now.

I feel demoralized. I feel very much like throwing in the towel on the Green Party as an institution in this state (California) and nationally. I have given serious consideration to simply resigning and re-registering as a "Decline To State" voter. I have even given consideration to contacting the Secretary of State and finding out what the process of founding a new political party would be, a "Sane Green Party" of some sort...

Cynthia McKinney Announces Run for President

YouTube Link:

youtube.com/watch?v=03cOM9r51Nw

Cynthia McKinney's web sites, with Windows Media Video and MP3 Audio version of the video:

www.runcynthiarun.org

www.allthingscynthiamckinney.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: My op-ed below is the first of a series to be published in Green Focus on applying Green values for people of color. Breaking the Democrat-Republicans monopoly on American politics requires the destruction of big city Democratic Party Machines to which many of us have emotional attachments. It's important for Greens to free our minds from the tyranny of Democrat-Republican old politics about race and ethnicity. Thus, we need to consider if we need a "People of Color Caucus" at all.

I am posting this essay on www.greencommons.com. Many will disagree vigorously. Good. Accept this challenge: Post a comment with your thoughts; write an 800-word op-eds for Green Focus and send it to don.boring@gmail.com .

Alex Walker
Los Angeles Greens

 

A Debate:
Do Greens Need a "People of Color" Caucus?
No - Let's Be The Change We Want to See
by Alex Walker

"Be the change that you want to see in the world." -- Mohandas Gandhi

I have become increasingly convinced that there are limits to the effectiveness of protest as a tactic to achieve anything. When members of the EcoAction Committee (GP US) were given the chance to review a national press release on Global Warming, I objected to the fact that the only "acts" by Greens that were mentioned were participation in high profile protests. I could just see someone reacting with an upward roll of the eyeballs and a Reaganesque "There you go again."