Green Convention

Over the past couple weeks, volunteers (including yours truly) have attempted to call every registered Green in the state of Louisiana, just to let people know that we’re organizing this convention on January 25. Our 2012 presidential candidate Jill Stein will be there.

Don’t let the slick graphics fool you: This is a grassroots, seat-of-the-pants effort. We value each and every person’s participation.

I should perhaps mention what the Green Party is about. A lot of people think it’s an environmental group. It’s not. It’s a political party which holds ecological wisdom as a core value. Social justice, grassroots democracy and nonviolence are the other pillars of the party. Obviously our efforts are focused on Louisiana, but the Green Party is an international movement.

Frankly the party needs an infusion of fresh blood. If you’re at all interested in these things, you should most certainly come and learn more. Please register at lagreens.org.

Faithful readers will know I’ve been involved with the effort to create a viable Green Party here in Louisiana for some years. I was there at the founding of the Greater New Orleans Green Party in 2000. I was in the thick of the aborted first effort to form a state party which took place thereafter. I worked the door at the founding convention of the Green Party of Louisiana in 2002. I was a delegate from Louisiana to the national convention in 2004.

In 2005, the Green Party of Louisiana became an officially recognized political party just a few weeks before Hurricane Katrina made landfall on the Gulf Coast. After that, we should have entered our most productive phase in terms of running candidates, but in fact the flooding of New Orleans left the party was in disarray. I was intensely preoccupied with personal matters for years, and then funneled all my civic energies into Friends of Lafitte Corridor, but there were a few valiant souls who kept the party alive during those times.

That’s the essence of a grassroots movement. People do what they can when they can. Continuity and stability are hard to come by. It ain’t easy, but it can be very rewarding. I’ve met a ton of great people through the Green Party, and I don’t regret the time and effort I’ve put into it.

However, it’s got to be recognized that there’s a huge amount of work to be done. The challenges are enormous.

Again I exhort you: Please register at lagreens.org.

Hope to see you there.