Take heart, three counties in Idaho went Democratic this past election, not my own, I'm sorry to say. The previous election was a clean sweep for the Republicans. Of course, that didn't win any representation, but it surely did help my feelings.
We also have a Green Party, but it's green as in grassroots, with the environment just one aspect of a varied platform. The first really important thing we did was get 100+ people to come to a hearing that we got by inspiring a lot of people to ask for it. A Golf Course developer who also owned a resort on the lake nearby that rented jet skis and advertised a boat trip to the golf course had applied to build a dock on the Pack River near the delta. There was real good testimony asking such things as why the developer's name didn't appear on the public notice in the paper instead of some unknown person. We had a man who had a Blade Runner (a jet ski) testifying that the *~@# thing sat a foot deep in the water if it was going less than 30 mph. [The delta is very shallow so the developer must have planned to have it dredged.] A canoeist testified about being swamped by a jet skier on the narrow river. My husband testified that he met someone who had taken his father hunting near the delta where they saw an elk mother with twin calves in the water and they decided not to shoot. A woman actually went out in a kayak and measured the depth of the water at the dock site and pointed out that the planned dock was too large for the site. But really, it doesn't take a lot of people. It just takes dedicated people who are willing to stand up and be counted like Markess opposing the shooting of the deer to cure wasting disease. In a large urban area, this just wouldn't be possible. It's just too large, too sophisticated to get involved in party politics and the Democrats are up to their eyebrows in corporate money too. All you can do it write letters and send emails to legislators on issues. What are the Greens like in an urban area? Could you make a difference on any local issues? We need more Wellstones and Kuciniches! It takes courage to challenge the establishment. Moderates and Liberals aren't power-oriented and they don't shoot leaders they don't like. A better world must be possible somehow though. Maybe just the power of thought...like making rain. Best, Merla Merla Allan Balliett wrote: > This essay was written as though the polls themselves were not > already contaminated. As though intelligent and charismatic liberal > politicians in this country have not been culled through assasination > or media-fueled scandals in this country since the Kennedy > assasination. (I mean, folks, do we really think that Kennedy's death > served no purpose?) > > The controlling technique of the New World Order IS democracy, or the > illusion of the same. Generally, it's enough to just have the larger > funds for media control. We've seen in this country that it can go > further, even when the left offers mediocre candidates. Benign > dictators normally meet death through junta, eh? > > I agree. For the most part the tools for true populist control of > this country are still, for the most part, in place. If you chose to > run, don't fly a plane, of course, or call yourself the leader of the > World Peace Movement. Now IS the time to start working on real > democracy as though there will be no tomorrow otherwise. > > In the current form of democracy, they take the power and we, the > people, take the blame for everything. Votes never count for much as > long as the ruling powers pick your choices. > > -Allan
