An Activist’s Life, by Thomas Leavitt

The following is written in the spirit of the Avocado Declaration and
the Missouri proposal. It is 760 words and can be used as letters to
editors. Every Green is welcome to post or use it with or without
attribution. For even more limited space, the whole paragraph on Los
Vaqueros Reservoir, very illustrative in our neck of the woods, can
be deleted, without altering the message.

I’ve been pondering a non-confrontational and non-accusational (or at least only indirectly so) means of re-introducing the plight of the unhoused into the political dialogue of this city, and of increasing public awareness of the human cost of current city policies. To this end, I have conceived of the following action, to take place during Oral Communications during the City Council meeting on January 13th (this coming Tuesday):

The tale of a daughter that cooks…

There is more to this argument about exporting jobs than the nominal value
of labor in various countries.

There is the cost of environmental compliance, and the ability of workers
elsewhere to organize for better working conditions, for starters.

American multinationals are escaping these responsibilities by going
overseas, because there are no environmental standards in many countries,
and there is no right to organize.

Colleen Fernandez was amongst the 1,000 people who
came to the capitol on January 6th to protest Arnold
Schwartzinegger’s proposed cuts in services to the elderly, poor, and
disabled. “I am a mother of six kids, two have severe autism that
requires 24-hour care. To take away from IHSS [In Home Support
Services] I don’t think is the way to take care of the budget
deficit, especially for people who are in need of these services for
their very survival. There are a lot of moms out here.”

In May of 2003, I announced to the statewide Green Council of the GPNM that
I was considering a Ofavorite daughter¹ run in the NM Presidential Primary.
I grew up in a state that often sent a favorite son to presidential
nominating conventions. Favorite son delegates were used to leverage the
selection of the President and Vice-President nominees, revisions to the
platform, and committee chairmanships. Since the money primary has become
the deciding factor of the duopoly, the practice of sending favorite sons
(and daughters) has died out.

Travel to @com for work. Arrival time: 12:45 p.m. Departure time: 5:30 p.m. Billed time: 4 hours. Tasks: finish preparing research/recommendations for console/remote power management, purchase said equipment; further research on firewall technologies and pricing; develop job descriptions and search for resumes for various positions; identify and recommend job position placement resources.

The Missouri Green Party (MOGP) urges all state Green Parties (1) to run
candidates for US president and vice-president in 2004; and (2) to include an
active campaign for president in their 2004 electoral efforts. Such participation
is important for building Green Parties as meaningful alternatives to the
corporate Democratic and Republican Parties. Presidential campaigns are
especially important in states that depend on state-wide results to gain or keep
ballot status.

I was sipping a white chocolate mocha outside Starbuck’s when my friend
Susan walked up. She was wearing a purple jogging suit and high heels -
she’s from L.A. - and her cheeks were an angry red. Throwing a copy of
the Daily Breeze onto my table, she growled, “I hate this guy!”

Irony: The state of California two years ago outsourced the
delivery of some welfare benefits to Citicorp Electronic Financial Services
Inc., which uses English-speaking workers in Bangalore and Pune to assist
the down-and-out in Bakersfield and Pacoima.

We have recently received an order from Judge Guzman granting the motion
of Talk Radio Network to dismiss the lawsuit that it brought against
Thomas and Gunilla Leavitt, among others, for their web sites denouncing
talk radio host Michael Savage and urging consumers to contact Savage’s
advertisers to express their outrage at his bigotry. The “voluntary”
dismissal was filed on the day that TRN was finally due to file its
response to our motion to dismiss.

Travel to Brentwood for @com. 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Research remote power management, Urchin webstats pricing models, Site Studio product, apache.

Travel to Brentwood for @com. 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Install RHEL 2.1 for Veritas project.

UPDATED VERSION:

The Green Party is at a crossroads. The 2004 elections place before
us a clear and unavoidable choice. On one side, we can continue on
the path of political independence, building a party of, by and for
the people by running our own campaign for President of the United
States. The other choice is the well-trodden path of lesser-evil
politics, sacrificing our own voice and independence to support
whoever the Democrats nominate in order, we are told, to defeat Bush.