[Sosfbay-discuss] Lorna Salzman on Chris Hedges

[alexcathy at aol.com]

 Dear Green Friends, 
 
 I've been involved as an amateur in "Lefty" political causes off-and-on for thirty years and, I swear, I've spent at least 30% pleading for unity and politeness and sensitivity WITHIN the ranks of the folks I've worked with. One of the things I LIKE about the Green Party is that, thanks to our rules about "Vibe Watchers" I've seen fewer food-fights at Green Party meetings than almost any political group I can think of (don't get me started on all the civil rights meetings I've been to where somebody starts off with a nice, friendly "Brother..." before proceeding into a tirade that would make a Marine drill sergeant blush). 
 
 I agree with about 90% with Lorna's general political analysis. 
 
 I have a problem with the "vibes."
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
 From: wrolley at charter.net
 To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
 Sent: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 3:33 PM
 
 . . . 
 
 Not one person has yet, to any degree, rebutted the importance of Ralph Nader's accomplishments or commitment. NOT ONE. What they have done is reveal their own failures and, worse, their continuing refusal to address the issues that Nader has raised in the course of his forty-year career. In this respect they are representatives of the Democratic Party, the Democrats writ small. Their only defense has been to indulge in personal attacks, with preference given to the accusation that Nader has a big "ego". What does this mean? Absolutely nothing. It is the last refuge of scoundrels and civil society criminals. 
 
 . . . 
 
 We need to remind ourselves of the huge gap between those of us who distrust and disagree with the abominable electoral system and the character of American culture and politics, and those who have meekly accepted it as the "best of all possible worlds". No one has stepped into this gap unless you include the brainless witless extreme left, whose praxis and objectives eerily mirror those of the capitalist system they profess to hate. 
 
 . . . 
 
 ----End Original Message---- 
  
 
 So far, so good. 
 
 I am almost amazed (and somewhat amused) when commentators start off denouncing others for "personal attacks," ideological rigidity, and sectarianism just before describing people who disagree with them even sightly as not only wrong but a "scoundrel" as well! 
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
 From: wrolley at charter.net
 To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
 Sent: Wed, 28 Feb 2007 3:33 PM
 
 . . . 
 
 Horror of horrors! The Greens in Dem clothing, the centrists, the paleoliberals, the self-serving phony populists like Michael Moore, the infiltrators like Medea Benjamin, all stood to be ousted from their positions of power by....choke.....AMERICANS! 
 
 I don't blame the paleoliberals for hating Nader because I understand their fears. They have been revealed by Nader as chicken=hearted phonies, utter failures, and hypocrites. They have revealed themselves as the embodiment of failed liberalism, the faintly progressive wash painted over the cynical Democrats, and promoted by clever propaganda that distracted people from the fundamental problems by focusing on their symptoms instead of their causes. 
 
 . . . 
 
 ----End Original Message---- 
 
 
 Saying gratuitously mean things about Michael Moore and Medea Benjamin is EXACTLY equivalent to the gratuitously mean stuff that Gitlin and Alterman say about Nader. 
 
 Medea Benjamin is a WORLD-FAMOUS antiwar and anti-globalization activist. What "positions of power" in the Green Party is she so worried about losing. That's just ridiculous. 
 
 I loved "Roger and me." I loved "Bowling for Columbine." I loved "Fahrenheit 911." I loved "Stupid White Men" (though one can discern from this commentary why Lorna does not). 
 
 I love Michael Moore. Enough said. 
 
 Notice how about 200 years of African-American radical agitation over everything from the American Revolution to abolition to to women's rights to tax revolts to rural populism to trade unionism to pacifism to socialism is casually and flippantly dismissed as nothing more than the desire to get "a piece of the wealth." I know enough about Lorna to know this person is no racist. This is just an attempt to be flippant... to be "cool." But it's not helpful. Which is precisely my point. 
 
 By the way, while I have the floor. I have the same objection to this legalistic argument about whether or not we cannot nominate Ralph Nader and how we'll be s-o-o-o-o much better off as a "post-Nader" Green Party (I am sorry to say, I see absolutely no evidence to support this -- the pace of Green Party registrations is way down from what it was when Nader peaked in 2000 ). 
 
 Here again, even this subtle, teeny, tiny bit of gratuitous meaness is unecessary. Mr. Nader is 73 years old (I'm tired now and I'm only 57). I cannot believe the man will choose to put himself through another grueling national campaign but if he does then we'ill deal with it. In the meanwhile, I for one, am not about to countenance, of all things, any gratuitous Nader-bashing. 
 
 As far as I am concerned all those who have dared to take a high-profile stand on the Green Party line against the Democratic Party Machine are ALL heroines and heroes: Ralph Nader, Wynona LaDuke, Peter Camejo, Matt Gonzalez, Mike Feinstein, Donna Warren, Todd Chretien, Carol Brouillet, Pat Gray, Aimee Allison are ALL heroines and heroes for speaking truth to power. Every one. 
 
 Just this morning Cathy saw a little mention in the Los Angeles Times of San Jose Assemblyman Joe Coto. Ah! yes, "Teflon Joe" -- the man who ran the East Side Union High School District and then, like Condi Rice, was rewarded for his gross incompetence by a "promotion" to the California State Assembly. The whole world knows that San Jose's powerful Democratic Mayor Ron Gonzalez was a sleazebag and a crook (anybody remember Ron Gonzalez?). I, for one, will never forget how Warner Bloomberg, with no big endorsements, no money, almost no organization walked alone through the wilderness in opposition to those crooks. 
 
 Never forget it! 
 
 We do not need to throw mud at each other. 
 
 
 Alex Walker 
 
  

   
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