[Sosfbay-discuss] Fwd: GAYLE McLAUGHLIN ELECTED RICHMOND MAYOR!

Fri Dec 1 07:55:17 PST 2006

Hey Alex, 

Thank you so much for this detailed report!  Great stuff.  I met her
when I set up an event in Berkeley this summer for her and Michael Berg
(the famous M. Berg who's son Nick supposedly had his head cut off by
Zarquawi and who when the MSM reporters came around after Zarquawi's
death to get his triumphal reaction were outraged that instead he said
he forgave Zarquawi and had more trouble with Bush!  And who was a
Green candidate for congress this year).  She was great!

 One note, and not to be a defender of the MSM, but I know that when
the media was trying like the dickens to contact Gayle for interviews
they were unable to because no one (including the GPCA media committee)
could reach her.  Hopefully we'll get more coordinated w/ her and
she'll get more set up to deal with the media.

Green solidarity!

Drew

--- alexcathy at aol.com wrote:

> To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 12:39:02 -0500
> From: alexcathy at aol.com
> Subject: [Sosfbay-discuss] GAYLE McLAUGHLIN ELECTED RICHMOND MAYOR!
> 
> Dear Green Friends, 
> 
> For those of you unfamiliar with the history, economics, and
> demographics of the north San Francisco Bay area, the election of
> GAYLE McLAUGHLIN as the Green Party mayor of Richmond, California is
> a really, really, big deal.  
> 
> I don't want to get carried away, so I'll try to be brief. 
> 
> Richmond, California is a classic working-class industrial city. 
> During World War II, many African-Americans migrated to Richmond to
> work at building "Liberty Ships" at the large shipyard.  Many of them
> were women, which is why this is the site for the "Rosie the Riveter"
> memorial today.  
> 
> In recent years, however, Richmond has fallen on hard times.  The
> shipyard has long since shut down.  The largest local employer is the
> Chevron Oil Company which has a large refinery in Richmond.  Chevron,
> now merged with Texaco, is notorious for pollution, health & safety
> violations, racial discrimination, sexual harassment, and general
> criminal wheeling 'n dealin' all around the world (which is why they
> picked Professor Condoleeza Rice to serve on their board of directors
> and why Dr. Rice, being the utterly immoral scum that she is,
> accepted).  
> 
> In recent years, Richmond has had a lot of trouble with gangs, guns,
> and crime.  And as always when you're talking about a large
> "minority" community, the Bay Area mainstream tabloid media never
> gets tired of talking about that.  
> 
> Poor schools in Contra Costa, like poor schools everywhere in
> California, have had a hard time, too.  At one point a group of kids,
> on their own, organized a march from Contra Costa to Sacramento to
> lobby Governor Arnold Schwarzeneggar for more funding for poor
> schools.  After the kids came all that way, Ah-nold (the one hailed
> by the upper-class, corporate media as a good "moderate" Republican),
> refused to see them (I guess the kids' parents were not Hollywood
> "liberal" Democrats).  
> 
> * * * 
> 
> GAYLE McLAUGHLIN is a Euro-American social worker and longtime
> activist from an old Chicago union family.  In 2004 she was elected
> to the Richmond City Council on a shoestring budget campaign.  At the
> time it was considered a big upset, but likely just a fluke.  I met
> her at the Green Party Plenary in 2005 and was very much impressed. 
> At a campaign and candidates workshop I asked her how she she had
> managed to get the endorsement of the Sierra Club and some of the
> unions.  She replied that she won those endorsements, first, by
> working with those groups in their causes, and then by, well, by
> asking for their support.  
> 
> * * * 
> 
> This November Ms. McLaughlin has scored a spectacular victory by
> ousting the incumbent mayor.  Richmond is now the largest city in the
> United States with a Green Party mayor. 
> 
> McLaughlin defeated a sitting Democratic Party incumbent seeking
> re-election.  Richmond mayor Irma Anderson brazenly accepted $110,000
> from the evil Chevron Oil, Pacific Gas and Electric and other
> corporate interests while Ms. McLaughlin refused corporate
> contributions during her campaign.
> 
> This is a spectacular Green victory.  Who says "minority" communities
> will not respond to an aggressive Green campaign?  
> 
> 
> THE GODDAMNED MAINSTREAM MEDIA
> 
> Remember how the Mainstream Media (MSM) made such a big deal about
> Oakland and Los Angeles electing "white" mayors?
> 
> Remember how the MSM hyped the Harvard-educated Cory Booker as a
> "Good Black" mayor for Newark, New Jersey even before he was elected?
>  
> 
> Remember how the MSM badmouthed Matt Gonzalez when he came within an
> eyelash of being elected mayor of San Francisco?  
> 
> So, why the hell isn't McLaughlin's spectacular victory a big
> national story? 
> 
> I've been surfin' the web this morning and this is how ther are
> "spinning' it: 
> 
> 
> San Francisco Chronicle, November 21st:
> 
>     "Assuming officials certify the results as expected, the election
> makes Richmond the biggest 
>     city in the country with a Green Party mayor -- and apparently
> the first with a predominantly 
>     minority population. 
> 
>     About three-fourths of the city's 103,000 residents are
> African-American and other minorities. 
>     The Green Party's traditional base has been amonth the mostly
> white, well-educated people 
>     concerned about environmental causes..."
> 
> 
> 
> Don't you just love the way these creeps casually refer to the
> MAJORITY of the people of California as "minorities?"  And in their
> litte minds, "well-educated people concerned about environmental
> causes" means "White."  
> 
> 
> Contra Costa Times, November 21st
> Also Printed in the San Jose Mercury News:
> 
>     "McLaughlin, a Green Party member who refused to accept corporate
> donations, 
>     has been on the council for two years.  She spent $28,000 on her
> campaign.  
>     Anderson, 75, who received major contributions from Chevron, the
> Council of 
>     Industries and the Chamber of Commerce, spent more than $110,000.
> 
>     McLaughlin, 54, benefited from a third mayoral candidate, Gary
> Bell, a former 
>     council member who, like Anderson, is black.  Bell received 4,800
> votes, which 
>     many believe would have gonemostly to Anderson had he not been in
> the race. 
> 
>     Anderson, a retired public nurse, has deep ties to Richmond's
> black community.  
>     She was married to the late Rev. Booker T. Anderson, who was a
> former mayor 
>     and councilman. 
> 
> ...
> 
>     Anderson was criticized for being the city's top political figure
> when Richmond 
>     suddenly discovered a $35 million budget deficit in 2004.  The
> crisis resulted in 
>     the cutting of hundreds of city jobs and reductions of city
> services.
> 
> ...
> 
>     McLaughlin's win may not have been a victory for Green principles
> as much as 
>     it was voter dissatisfaction with city government after the 2004
> budget crisis.  
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, fellow Americans, we do have a serious race problem in this
> country... and the goddamned mainstream media is part of the problem.
>  "She was married to the late Rev. Booker T..."   
> 
> Please!  
> 
> It is interesting to compare and contrast this "spin" to the kind of
> stuff they said when Richard Riordan or James Hahn was elected mayor
> of Los Angeles or Jerry Brown was elected mayor of Oakland or when
> Cory Booker was elected mayor of Newark, New Jersey on his second
> try.  Then it was like: 
> 
>     "Hurray!  Hurray!  THOSE PEOPLE have finally come to their senses
> 
>    and elected moderates and conservatives!"
> 
> Don't hold your breath waiting for them to say: 
> 
>    "Hurray! Hurray!  American voters in Richmond have finally come to
> their senses 
>    and thown out a corrupt, clueless Democrat 
>    and elected an honest, progresive Green!"  
> 
> 
> Dear friends, we should savor our sweet victories even if they don't.
>  If the MSM is unhappy then we must be doing something right.  
> 
> 
> Alex Walker 
>
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JamBoi
Jammy The Sacred Cow Slayer

"Live humbly, laugh often and love unconditionally" (anon)
http://dailyJam.blogspot.com

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