Fwd: [OfficeStaff] More Local Press in Michigan

[Dean Myerson <greenstuff@deanmyerson.org>]

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>From: "Charlie Cray" <charlie@votenader.org>
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>Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2000 18:27:21 -0400
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>Subject: [OfficeStaff] More Local Press in Michigan
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>Here's what the Flint Journal and Ann Arbor News reported on those two 
>events of yesterday:
>
>
>Green machine: Nader, Moore and Donahue rock Whiting
>By Christofer Machniak
>JOURNAL STAFF WRITER
>Friday, September 22, 2000
>
>FLINT - Phil Donahue brought the energy, Michael Moore brought the humor, 
>and Ralph Nader brought the heavy-duty intellectual arguments.
>
>The Green Party's celebrity trio bombarded more than 850 at Whiting 
>Auditorium with their populist message on Thursday, hoping to court the 
>youth and union vote to back Nader, the party's presidential nominee.
>
>Their message: Reject corporate America and the two mainstream political 
>parties.
>
>"It rocked," Nicole McLaren, a 17-year-old Grand Blanc High School senior, 
>said after the event. "I thought it was going to be boring, but I thought 
>it was very interesting."
>
>Nader, a famed consumer advocate most noted for exposing unsafe cars in 
>the 1960s, focused his verbal salvos on the issues Vice President Al Gore 
>and Gov. George W. Bush agree on.
>
>According to Nader, these include: favoring capital punishment, spending 
>billions of dollars to train a military to fight an unknown enemy, and 
>exporting industrial jobs to countries like China where workers earn 32 
>cents an hour in the name of globalization.
>
>"So here is Flint, Mich.," Nader said. "People worked hard all their 
>lives. They fought the wars. They bled. They died. They paid the taxes. 
>They come back home. They work five, 10, 15 years. They make good 
>products. ?Then one morning they go to work and get the pink slip.
>
>"And nothing can be done about it, right? It's all inevitable. Corporate 
>globalization is inevitable. It's only inevitable if we'll make it 
>inevitable by not organizing a political party movement that can."
>
>Moore, a Flint-area native best known for his film "Roger & Me," said 
>Flint voters shouldn't vote for Gore because of the continued hemorrhaging 
>of jobs locally over the last eight years. He said voters should vote 
>based on their dreams, not what they fear.
>
>"If we go ahead and vote for (Gore), and he has this great showing in 
>Flint Nov. 7, what's the message?" Moore said. "Thanks for the last eight 
>years Al, Bill. Is that the message you want to send?
>
>"If the founding fathers and mothers of this country had operated on fear 
>instead of courage and their dreams, we never would have this country."
>
>Donahue, the former television talk show host and Nader's national 
>campaign committee chair, hit on many of the Green Party's base issues: 
>the environment, gay rights, and drug decriminalization. He, too, raised 
>the debate issue.
>
>"Let's get it on," Donahue said. "Let's have a real presidential election."
>
>The Flint campaign stop was the second of three Thursday, sandwiched 
>between events in Ann Arbor and East Lansing. The swing, dubbed the 
>"nonvoter tour," moves to Minneapolis today. Nader is fighting to move his 
>poll numbers out of the single digits.
>
>The trio were joined in Flint by three other speakers: Sam Riddle, a Flint 
>political insider, E. Hill DeLoney, president of the Flint branch of the 
>NAACP, and Dean Braid, an executive board member of UAW Local 599.
>
>Riddle questioned Clinton's motives for holding an event the same day as 
>Nader. He also said the subject, disability issues, seemed manufactured 
>especially in light of a Journal reporter who was denied wheelchair access 
>to all events when Gore visited Flint earlier this month.
>
>DeLoney praised Nader's contribution, but said she only spoke to encourage 
>people to register and vote in November.
>
>Braid talked about the irony of the Buick City Assembly Center closing in 
>1999, even shortly after receiving a prestigious award for producing 
>quality vehicles.
>
>The event's message resonated with many in the crowd, a mix of young and 
>old who started to arrive an hour before the event and listened to 
>Mayjune, a roots rock band.
>
>McLaren attended as an assignment for government class. As she and three 
>classmates left the event carrying lawn signs, placards and other campaign 
>memorabilia, she said she would vote for Nader if she could.
>
>The students said they liked how the speakers made complex issues easy to 
>understand, although the only one old enough to vote remains undecided.
>
>"I want to support (Nader) more than Gore, but I'm new to voting," said 
>Geoff Ward, 18.
>
>Christofer Machniak covers Flint city government. He can be reached at 
>(810) 766-6304 or cmachniak@flintjournal.com.
>
>
>Green Party supporters fire up crowd
>By KARESSA E. WEIR
>NEWS STAFF REPORTER
>Friday, September 22, 2000
>
>Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader knew just what to say to 
>get a crazed reaction from more than 1,700 people seated in the heart of 
>the University of Michigan.
>
>Offer them a free education.
>
>"The business of giving a credit here, a gimmick there to make it more 
>affordable - forget it," Nader said. "It would cost $32 billion a year to 
>give every public college student a free education. We now spend $70 
>billion a year to keep troops in western Europe to protect affluent 
>countries."
>
>"All education, from elementary to secondary to higher education, should 
>be free."
>
>Speaking before a standing-room-only crowd at the Michigan Theater, Nader 
>was flanked by filmmaker Michael Moore and former talk show host Phil 
>Donahue on his three-city "Non Voter Tour" of Michigan.
>
>If Nader is elected president in November, tuition fees would disappear at 
>every community college, college and university in the nation, he said. 
>Nader also promised to end environmental racism and corporate welfare, 
>legalize the production of industrial hemp, provide universal health care 
>and end economic sanctions against Iraq. He supports gay and transgender 
>equality "across the board," he said.
>
>The consumer advocate pledged to withdraw the United States from the North 
>American Free Trade Agreement and the General Agreement on Tariffs and 
>Trade, both of which earn the ire of organized labor.
>
>His speech created an enthusiasm touched by wistfulness in many of the 
>young supporters. "I wish someone like him could get elected," said Ann 
>Arbor resident John Nolan.
>
>A rallying call for the crowd was Nader's exclusion from the series of 
>presidential debates which begin in two weeks. The Committee on 
>Presidential Debates, led by former heads of the Democratic and Republican 
>parties, will not allow third party candidates - including Nader and 
>Reform Party candidate Pat Buchanan - to participate.
>
>Nader also worked to dispel the fear that by voting for him, left-leaning 
>Democrats are ensuring the victory of Republican George W. Bush. Political 
>scholars have attributed the re-election defeat of Bush's father in 1992 
>to the role played by Ross Perot.
>
>"They are fossil parties with no grass-roots support," Nader said. "They 
>can't get more than half the people to vote. But we are going to bring out 
>the biggest college and university vote in American history."
>
>"Millions of progressive Democrats are told that the party must cater to 
>the right wing because they could lose them to the GOP and you've got no 
>place to go. They are wrong. We will be the green magnet and the green 
>hammer to bring our message home."
>
>Moore - a Flint native whose film "Roger & Me" took on corporate giant 
>General Motors - urged the audience to keep alive Ann Arbor's reputation 
>as innovative and ahead-of-the-pack by rejecting the two major political 
>parties.
>
>"Ann Arbor is the leader of all that is good in this country," Moore said. 
>"This is not the time for Ann Arbor to play the follower role. Show this 
>country the courage of your convictions."
>
>Donahue energized the crowd by slamming the policies of President Bill 
>Clinton and Vice President Al Gore on capital punishment, drug use and 
>military spending. "Ralph Nader and (running mate) Winona LaDuke are gonna 
>rock this nation," Donahue said.
>
>Call Karessa E. Weir at (734) 994-6818

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