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Newsletter of the Ohio Green Party
August 13, 2008
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In this issue:
§ Editorial
§ Kettler Campaign needs help August 16
§ McKinney for President Campaign needs petitioners - Deadline approaching
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Editorial
The Choice is Yours
The Ohio Green Party is currently running candidates in three races; Tim Kettler is running for state senator in District 20, Dennis Spisak is a write-in candidate for Ohio's 6th Congressional District, and Cynthia McKinney is gathering signatures to get on the ballot as the Green Party Presidential Candidate along with her running mate, Rosa Clemente.
They are offering you a choice between the corporate dominated status quo and a new set of priorities that will begin to address the needs of you and your family. Their success is predicated on the use of a powerful weapon that Ohio has yet to wield: participatory democracy; a process that goes beyond the narrowly proscribed boundaries of the lesser of two evils; a process that actually gives you a voice in a winner take all system dominated by a powerful class of wealthy parasites.
But this process demands something from us. It demands that we take on the responsibilities of citizenship and stop acting like consumers deluded by slick packaging, market tested rhetoric, and brand loyalty. It demands that we look inside the Two Party wrappers and discover the same twisted policies of exploitation, military expansion, and corporate control. It demands that we commit some time and effort into making the changes we want.
For too long we have allowed the propaganda of elitist think tanks, party bosses, and corporate boardrooms to define the issues and parameters of our politics. It is imperative that ordinary people like you and I take control of the legislative process. The fundamental changes that we need are not going to happen from the top down. Those in charge have worked long and hard to consolidate their power and they are not going to simply give it back to us or cut into their profits to promote the common good.
Ohioans must become engaged citizens if we are to enact real reform that actually makes the changes that will establish health care as a basic human right, create a voting process with the integrity to honestly count our votes, formulate a trade policy that protects our jobs, build the infrastructure for a society based on clean, renewable energy, and make the mission of our military to defend America's borders and never again send our troops to other nations to plunder their resources or torture and oppress the population. The people of the world are not asking us to challenge the tanks in Tianamen Square or build barricades in the streets of Oxaca or stand before the Israeli bulldozers. But they do want us to control our leaders and change our policies.
Green Party structure is based on decentralized local control and cannot survive without participation from the grassroots. We do not have party bosses. Our decisions are made democratically from the bottom up. We need your help and involvement if we are to continue.
Below are the Ten Key Values of the Green Party
If some of these concepts light your fire then you can work to make them real - or
You can abandon them and trust that your favorite corporate funded messiah will do it for you.
The choice is yours - that is all we can offer.
Social Justice
Community-Based Economics
Nonviolence
Decentralization
Future Focus/Sustainability
Feminism
Personal and Global Responsibility
Respect for Diversity
Grassroots Democracy
Ecological Wisdom
Nick Teti - Ed
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Kettler Campaign needs help August 16
The festival in Nelsonville, Ohio will culminate in the main event, The Parade of the Hills. This event will draw a huge crowd and is an opportunity to spread our message in the Athens County area. We need volunteers to march and distribute campaign material and candy to those watching the parade. There are food booths and other activities that will make for a pleasant afternoon. For more information go to - http://www.paradeofthehills.org/
When : Saturday, August 16
Parade begins 6:00 pm
Lineup is from 3:30-5:30
Where: Lineup at the Kroger of Nelsonville (Turn North on SR78 - BP/Blackburns intersection), follow the parade lineup signs off of US33. Look for Tim's white truck with his banners.
Maps to Nelsonville, Ohio - http://maps.yahoo.com
To Volunteer email: hardrain@yahoo.com
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McKinney for President Campaign needs petitioners - Deadline approaching
by Anita Rios
Rustbelt Greens,
I am sending you this link again to a youtube video of Rosa Clemente.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM-VE-YWpjk
She talks about how even the progressive media is shutting out our candidates because over the weekend as we hosted our candidates at some great events it happened here in Ohio, too. We got no press coverage at our press conferences in Toledo or in Columbus.
In Toledo the so called "Sojourners Truth" newspaper stated they would do an interview with Cynthia and then didn't show up.
At our event in Columbus Cynthia ended her presentation with a "thanks to the Green Party for giving me life".
WE ARE FIGHTING FOR OUR POLITICAL LIFE RIGHT NOW! IF WE DO NOT STEP UP AND GET OUR CANDIDATES ON THE BALLOT THAT "WHITEOUT" WILL BE COMPLETE!
The petitions for Ohio can be downloaded at our website www.ohiogreens.org, and volunteers will gather them before the deadline which is next Thursday 8/21 but we will need to gather them by Tuesday 8/19. We have over a dozen volunteers collecting signatures but we need EVERY OHIOGREEN, and GREENS FROM THE MIDWEST to devote time to this effort in the next week. Folks can stay at my house in Toledo and we can reimburse a modest amount of travel expenses. Please feel free to call me if you need help getting started, directions to Ohio or to a good petitioning spots, or help with an overnight stay or expenses. Again, download the petition at: www.ohiogreens.org.
Contact - Anita Rios
419-243-8772
419-902-6618
rhannon@toast.net
Editors Note - Getting Cynthia McKinney on the ballot will give the Green Party legal standing to monitor the Presidential electoral process and take action if there is another swindle. Prospects are not good - most of the people who conducted the 2004 election are still in place. The two major parties have demonstrated in the past that they feel it is better to lose an election than to lose control of the process to a transparent independent recount by those who insist that all our votes be counted.
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Paid for by the Ohio Green Party, 8832 Nairn Ct., Dublin, OH 43017 Paul Dumouchelle, Treasurer
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