[GPSCC-chat] Minutes of November meeting Green Party of Santa Clara County
Spencer Graves
spencer.graves at prodsyse.com
Fri Nov 30 15:41:10 PST 2012
The essence of democracy, according to the research I've found
most persuasive, is not elections but civil society, with civil society
defined as the ability to find common ground with others, set aside your
differences, and work together for the common good. Any nation with a
sufficiently robust civil society will ultimately get electoral
democracy if they don't already have it. Conversely, formal elections
in nations without civil society have tended to become increasingly
farcical and are often suspended. (See the Wikipedia article on "Civil
Society.") The rise of shock jocks calling liberals "pin heads" and
equally virulent reactions from the left to me are disturbing trends
towards reducing the power of honest democratic politics in the US.
"Politics is the art of the possible," according to Otto von
Bismark, who convinced waring German noblemen to set aside their
differences and build a nation greater than themselves -- modern Germany
(Wikiquotes for Bismark, http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Otto_von_Bismarck).
Harvard law professor and constitutional scholar Lawrence Lessig
identified the corrosive influence of money in politics as the "gateway
problem" facing the US today in the sense that we must solve this
problem first before we can hope to make real substantive progress on
any of the other major problems facing the nation and the world today
(Wikipedia, "Republic, Lost"). Lessig observed that the Tea Party and
the Occupy movement have two things in common:
1. Both oppose crony capitalism.
2. Elements of each group accuse any in each group that
tries to talk with the other of treason.
Lessig says that if we can ignore our differences and collaborate on our
shared concern, crony capitalism, we can solve that problem. If we
don't, the ultra-wealthy will further enrich themselves at our expense
(Wikipedia, "One Way Forward").
I do not believe that people on the Left know the "truth" and
people on the Right do not. I continually look for defects in my
current knowledge, because I know that I too often do stupid things
based on things I know that ain't so. There are clearly people in the
Tea Party who are paid to do what they can to prevent the public from
obtaining information Tea Party members need to make better decisions.
But people on the Left have blind spots also.
I think it's possible to build a broad coalition including most
of the Tea Party and most of the Greens, Peace and Freedom Party,
Republicans and Democrats to fix our crony capitalism problem. For more
on Lessig's efforts to do this, see "rootstrikers.org" and
"http://interoccupy.net/blog/money-out-voters-in".
Best Wishes,
Spencer
On 11/29/2012 10:55 PM, John Thielking wrote:
> The Green Party of Santa Clara County consensed to co-sponsor the Dec
> 8th event with Sharat Lin being the only speaker.
> John Thielking, post meeting, has withdrawn Peacemovies.com as one of
> the co-sponsors of the event.
>
> --- On *Thu, 11/29/12, Spencer Graves /<spencer.graves at prodsyse.com>/*
> wrote:
>
>
> From: Spencer Graves <spencer.graves at prodsyse.com>
> Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Minutes of November meeting Green Party of
> Santa Clara County
> To:
> Cc: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
> Date: Thursday, November 29, 2012, 10:36 PM
>
> Please post any additions, corrections, clarifications, etc. to
> this list. Thanks. Spencer
>
>
> On- 11/29/2012 3:45 PM, John Thielking wrote:
>> Seeing no objections to the draft agenda, this is now the final
>> agenda for tonight's meeting. The only addition to the agenda is
>> that an Iranian named Tanyer Vakili (a friend of Leyla) has
>> confirmed that he will be speaking at the Dec 8th event on Iran,
>> Syria and Israel/Palestine. Thanks.
>> John Thielking
>>
>> --- On *Tue, 11/27/12, John Thielking /<pagesincolor at yahoo.com>
>> <http://us.mc1229.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=pagesincolor@yahoo.com>/*
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> From: John Thielking <pagesincolor at yahoo.com>
>> <http://us.mc1229.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=pagesincolor@yahoo.com>
>> Subject: [GPSCC-chat] Draft Agenda For GPSCC GA Meeting On
>> November 29, 2012 7:30PM San Jose Peace Center
>> To: sosfbay-discuss at cagreens.org
>> <http://us.mc1229.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=sosfbay-discuss@cagreens.org>
>> Date: Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 6:48 PM
>>
>> Final Agenda for November 29, 2012 Green Party of Santa
>> Clara County GA meeting
>>
>> 7:00-7:30
>>
>> So far as I know, we don't have a speaker lined up for this
>> time. possible speaker - a welfare recipient 5 min?
>>
>> 7:30
>>
>> Meeting begins. Identify facilitator, note taker, time
>> keeper, vibes watcher and agenda preparer for next meeting.
>>
>
>
> facilitator: Tian
>
>
> Note taker: Spencer
>
>
> time keeper: John t
>
>
> vibes: Dana & Gerry
>
>
> agenda preparer: John Thielking
>
>>
>> 7:35
>>
>> Introductions and announcements. Changes to agenda. Review
>> minutes from October's meeting and approve. Announcement:
>>
>
>
> Sat. Dec. 8, New Community of Faith, 6350 Rainbow Dr., San José,
> CA 95129, 2-4 PM: Dr. Sharat Lin speaking on "War and Peace with
> Iran, Syria, and Palestine / Israel"
>
>
>> AACSA fundraising fish fry December 8 African American
>> Community Services Agency -- What time? 11 - 6
>>
> 304 N. 6th St., San Jose, CA 408-292-3157
>
>
>
> Tian Harter
>
>
> Dana St. George
>
>
> Gerry Gras
>
>
> Caroline
>
>
> Drew Johnson
>
>
> Spencer Graves
>
>
> Pete O'Brien, Peace & Freedom Party
>
>
> John Thielking
>
>
> Fred Dupperault
>
>
> David Merritt
>
>
> Sandy Perry
>
>
>>
>> 7:50
>>
>> Treasurer's report and hat passing. Jim Doyle As a part of
>> the treasurer's report: 5 min
>>
>> paypal donation & $50 annual fee to SOS
>>
>
>
> collection: $30 cash + $25 check
>
>
>>
>> 7:55 Holiday Peace Fair.
>>
>> Who is tabling?
>>
>
>
> Dana & Gerry 11-noon
>
>
> Betsy 12-2
>
>
> John Thielking, all day
>
>
>> Who is doing our dessert?
>>
>
>
> Dana St. George
>
>
>> Any ideas for student helpers?
>>
>> John and Caroline.
>>
>
>> 8:05 Human Rights Day march. Caroline.
>>
>
>
> Dec. 2 (first Sunday in Dec.) Story & King organized by Volutarios
> de la Comunidad -- 3 mile march to City Hall.
>
>
> Dec. 7 - austerity crisis march -
>
>
> Dec. 10 similar march in Sacramento(?)
>
>>
>> 8:10 Demonstration to support Medicare, Social Security, etc.
>> before they get thrown off the fiscal cliff.
>>
>> Caroline
>>
>>
>
> (1) Flash Mob in San Francisco, Dec. 7, someplace; contact Sandy.
>
>
> (2) tentative: demonstration at Zoe Lofgren's office Monday, Dec.
> 10 organized by Single Payer Coalition + ??? ... contact Sandy.
>
>
>> 8:20 Sandy and Drew report on organizing at De Anza (10 min)
>>
>
> Need to make announcements in the proper classes early in
> each term to get students to volunteer to do project(s) with the
> Green Party
>
>
>>
>> 8:30 Caroline and Sandy report about Gavilan organizing. (5 min)
>>
>
>>
>> 8:35 Report back from Jr State.
>>
>
>
> Great event. Do It Yourself button machine sold like crazy.
>
>
>>
>> 8:40 Should we start a series of pizza parties and/or other
>> general interest events to build third party support? Should
>> regular monthly meetings continue in current format or should
>> the work be delegated to micro-committees who only have to
>> check in with County Council to get approval for spending
>> money? Contact Libertarians, Peace and Freedom, etc about
>> pizza parties. Find out if we can get a regular venue for a
>> GMO free potluck instead of a questionable GMO content pizza
>> place. And/or should we try to spice up the monthly meetings
>> by actually having speakers at 7PM-7:30PM?
>>
>
> Th. Dec. 27: Tian will see if he can get his clubhouse for a
> holiday. Tian will notify us tomorrow.
>
>
> ** What about webinars?
>
>
> ** What about having meetings in different places?
>
>>
>> 8:55 youth connections - 5 - 10 min
>>
>>
>> 9:00 4 year electoral plan 10 - 15 min
>>
>> infrastructure, candidate(s), fundraising, gotv, social
>> media, etc.
>>
>
> Next step: Get CiviCRM software working for us.
>
>
> Generate joint list of candidates with Peace & Freedom, etc.
>
>>
>> 9:10 Jazzing up our literature and translating it into
>> Vietnamese. Caroline
>>
>
> Jim Doyle has a volunteer who wants to do something. We want
> something more eye catching. Many places we go in San José, there
> are more Vietnamese than Hispanic.
>
>>
>> 9:15 Techie committee for web site(s) and discussion of
>> issues re:web sites and their accessibility. For example John
>> Thielking has put out a job on a tech web site that allows
>> people to hire web developers to hire someone to find a tech
>> solution to the Google mobile rendering problem (where Google
>> displays an inadequate “optimized” display of web pages on
>> cell phones.) I am requesting that anyone I hire for this job
>> will license the html code solution (if available) for
>> Peacemovies.com and for free distribution to the Green Party
>> and other interested parties. Caroline wants the web site to
>> be updated with the correct contact info and up to date
>> issues and events.
>>
>>
>
>
>> 9:25PM Last minute planning for Dec 8^th talk with Sharat Lin
>> and Pete O'Reilly and possibly one other speaker on the
>> subject of War and Peace with Iran, Syria and
>> Israel/Palestine. Does the Green Party want to co-sponsor
>> this event? Do we need to pay money for the venue? John is
>> covering gas money for any out of town speakers who want to
>> speak (Peace and Freedom party invitations have been sent out
>> to people in SF). No more than 3 speakers are recommended for
>> this event.
>>
>> An Iranian named Tanyer Vakili (a friend of Leyla) has
>> confirmed that he will be speaking at the Dec 8th event on
>> Iran, Syria and Israel/Palestine.
>>
>
>
> Drew knows a Tanyer.
>
>
> Drew will try to organize a meeting between Sharat and Pete.
>
>
> Spencer proposes the Green Party endorse a presentation by Sharat
> Lin at the New Community of Faith Dec. 8. We have a consensus.
>
>
> John is concerned that more than one point of view be presented.
> Drew has Tanyer in his class, and Tanyer talks all the time. John
>
>>
>> 9:35 Meeting ends
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> http://lists.cagreens.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/sosfbay-discuss
>>
>>
>>
--
Spencer Graves, PE, PhD
President and Chief Technology Officer
Structure Inspection and Monitoring, Inc.
751 Emerson Ct.
San José, CA 95126
ph: 408-655-4567
web:www.structuremonitoring.com
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