Dr. Jill Stein and the Greening of America
On October 23rd, Harvard graduate, physician Dr. Jill Stein, head of the U.S. Green Party; Virginia Congressman, Virgil Goode, the leader of the Constitution Party; Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson (former Governor of New Mexico); and, 33rd Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party, held their first televised debate.
The moderator was the venerable Larry King. C-SPAN, Al Jazeera, Russia Today, FEEF, Ora.TV and other cyber-carriers streamed the civil, informed and spirited discussion across the Internet but it is unknown how many viewers tuned in, other than, possibly, Larry King’s million+ followers.
Commentator Susie Cagle for grist.org described how “Stein...championed her ‘Green New Deal’” to “jump-start the green economy.” Dr. Stein has also emphasized a transition from the “White House” to a “Green House,” a plan President Clinton (now a vegan) suggested thirteen years ago. Checkers, Socks and Bo all have something in common – having provided some of the loveliest photo ops in political history. The First Dogs have humanized the Presidents and reminded all of us that there are some 80 million dogs in America, many without homes, or abandoned. They need families. They need a political party that recognizes the rights of nature; that sees animals not as mere "biologies" but as "biographies," like that of Bo's.
Bo, in other words, is emblematic of animal rights; animal liberation; of an ecological sensibility that is not dismissed as too controversial to discuss at presidential debates; that, in fact, is core to the future of our own humanity. Bo - you are the top of my list of celebrities because you have the power and you don't even care. That's just pure outright perfect.
Similarly, at the White House, America’s First Lady, Michelle Obama has rekindled a grand tradition of American, and global non-violent, backyard ecology-in-action, organic agriculture - Spring planting. No, it's not the same thing as a mechanism for job's creations, but it might prompt enlightened farm legislation in the future. In fact, what the First Lady Gardener is doing is globally symbolic and potent. The First Lady is in tune with a deep appreciation for the soil, healthy nutrients, minerals, and urban crops (I call it vegetable spirituality) that comports with the practices of America’s most famous farmer, under the 26th President Theodore Roosevelt, Louis Bromfield. And many other, albeit anonymous, farmers during the last tens-of-thousands of years, or so. All of whom rejoiced in one common color: green.
Alternative Presidential Debates
Stein and Johnson will debate one another on Free and Equal Election’s Alternative Debates, October 30th at 9:00 PM EST.
There will be a third and final debate between these candidates on Sunday November 4th at 7:30PM EST, to be moderated by Ralph Nader. According to the October 25th Press Release from Nader, the debate “...will focus on subjects and issues that have largely been ignored or avoided, as they are too controversial, by the 2012 Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.” Adds Nader, “The event is open to media only. An RSVP is requested to Ralph Nader at info@nader.org or 202-387-8034.”
The Family Dog Will Be Watching
One hopes that the 90 million or so eligible voters who have indicated they are unlikely to vote November 6th, will tune in. The First Family Dog, Bo, has a bone to pick with anyone who hides behind lame excuses for complacency; people who continue to argue that in a post- “Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, 558 U.S. 310” world, in which the Supreme Court has granted supremacy to Big Money, what’s the point? Bo probably has a BIG bone to pick with that decision. Of course, nothing’s easy: if I were a dog, I would have asked those 587 voters in Florida whose voices probably did more – by beating Al Gore – to threaten the survival of polar bears and undermine a global green economy than anything, to have stayed home that day.
The bottom-line on voting is knowing what’s at stake, and who’s who. And that’s why the Green Party, since its very beginnings has been a crucial thread in the domestic and international political environment.
Bo, whatever you may read, do not be alarmed by that one study suggesting you are just being used strategically for political ends, muzzled during hard economic times, paraded on the White House lawn during good times. It’s simply not true. Moreover, your bark is heard ‘round the world. Your companion humans may be in various stages of denial, recession, or worse; but if they care about the three things every dog also cares about, namely, air, water and food, then the White House should, indeed, become a Green House. Some might claim it has, given President Obama’s strong recognition of climate change, and embrace of alternative energy technologies.
The Green “Ten Key Values”
Only the Green Party has fully adopted the principles of ecology as an actual political platform, running for election on the very attitudes and scientific orientation that solidly informs our National Park Service, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Refuges, and laws pertaining to animal protection, endangered species, climate change and a host of other life-sustaining measures. Let me quote from Value #3 (“ecological wisdom”) at length, so as to convey the depth with which Dr. Stein and the Green Party embrace environmentalism:
“Ecological Wisdom:” "Human societies must operate with the understanding that we are part of nature, not separate from nature. We must maintain an ecological balance and live within the ecological and resource limits of our communities and our planet. We support a sustainable society which utilizes resources in such a way that future generations will benefit and not suffer from the practices of our generation. To this end we must practice agriculture which replenishes the soil; move to an energy efficient economy; and live in ways that respect the integrity of natural systems.”
In America, and 90 other nations, the Green Party is making tremendous strides. And even though all four independent party candidates are in the single digit voter support numbers, you will be able to vote for them at 85% of all ballot boxes on November 6th. Seven Green Party candidates are listed on US Senate ballots. From Texas to Tennessee to D.C., 27 Greens are running for everything from County Commissioner to State Congress. Bo, don’t worry: not one of them has ever mentioned aspiring to the position of “dog catcher.” You can rest easy.
Moreover, in California, the Green Proposition 37 is asking voters to mandate labels if food on your plate has been genetically engineered. A dog, each and every one of us, should know what’s in our food.
Green Party International Traction
In the U.K., (including Wales) whose Green Party is now headed by Natalie Bennett, there is one Green MP in the House of Commons (Caroline Lucas), two Green Members of the European Parliament and two members of the London Assembly in addition to 140 councilors from all over the UK. They are calling for an end to factory farming, animal experiments, genetic engineering, and the patenting of animals, among countless other measures. On Climate Change they have prudently proposed a twelve-point plan to comport with the Global Commons Institute “Contraction and Convergence” (C&C) [per capita/per country] reduction strategy – one far more innovative and equitable than that initiated in Kyoto.
In post-Fukushima Japan the Green Party (Midoro no To) has called for an anti-nuclear position in the government and is “preparing to field” ten candidates for the Upper House in 2013 elections.
In 2012, the Taiwanese Green Party managed to secure 1.7% of the composite party vote. Among other things, they are combating nuclear waste.
The newly-formed Green Party in India is likely to be welcomed by a huge and mostly impoverished constituency, many of whom - farmers beneath the poverty line, indebted to multi-nationals; or frustrated migrants to polluted and teeming megacities, have benefited from no trickle-down economic mumbo-jumbo. Groundwater and aquifers are vanishing; monsoon rains are diminishing, wildlife and its habitat are vanishing, while the income gap between the few hundred million middle-class, and well over 500 million poor is growing ever larger, as it is across much of China. Moreover, Indian family planning, once the most noble and innovative of such family care, population-stabilization programs in the world, is now languishing in quasi- disarray, depending upon the State or Union Territory in question, despite the best intentions by many.
The Russian Ecological Party gained some 240,000 votes in the most recent nation-wide elections. “Saving Forests is a Matter of Politics,” wrote Roland Oliphant in the Moscow Times ten days prior to Earth Day 2012.
Eight years ago in Latvia, the Parliament enshrined the world’s first Green Party Prime Minister, Indulis Emsis. If it can happen in Latvia, it can happen anywhere.
Even in the Middle East, the Green Party is using ecological resource constraints to help impress both sides to various conflicts with the greater reality of a finite world.
South Korea’s former Prime Minister Han Seung-so has just launched a Seoul-based Global Green Growth Institute in accordance with international Green Party standards. Just last week, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon applauded this effort as a "`Great Advance’ in Worldwide Sustainable solutions.”
The Founding Gardeners
In her 2011 book, Founding Gardeners -The Revolutionary Generation, Nature and the Shaping of the American Nation, Ms. Andrea Wulf brilliantly traces the founding of key American cultural paradigms by examining how individuals like Jefferson, Franklin, Adams and Madison were avid gardeners and environmentalists; animal protectionists and, in many cases, vegetarians. Indeed, as recently as the year 1900, nearly every member of Congress was either a farmer, or had parents or grandparents who were farmers.
"Our Constitution is supposed to protect us against manipulations of democracy,” says Green Party Presidential candidate Dr. Jill Stein. “...we will keep up the fight, and one of these days American elections and our debates will be reclaimed by the American people."
Copyright 2012 by Michael Charles Tobias/Jane Gray Morrison/Dancing Star Foundation
