Oklahoma Green Activity October 2002

Mark your calendars for November 16^th, 2002, 8:30-6:00PM, at the Cleveland County Fair Grounds 615 E. Robinson St. in Norman. After years of dedication, determination and work by many, we will come together from across the state to meet others, share ideas, and continue to build the Green Party of Oklahoma. On our path towards contributing to national third party status, we lay the foundation of the Green Party of Oklahoma by following the ten key values set forth by the Green Party of the United States. Together we will examine what being Green means to Oklahoma and explore our connection with progressive politics throughout the nation and the world. Join us for this historical event that will pave the way of Oklahoma’s grassroots progressive future.

Registration is scheduled to begin at 8:30 AM accompanied by a continental breakfast provided by the committee. The actual program will start at 9:30 AM with group introductions followed by a day of interactive discussion, committee elections, and guest speaker Mary Jo Guthrie Edgmon, sister of Woody Guthrie. A vegetarian buffet will be served from La Baguette and a slide show emphasizing positive views of the land, the people and the Greens in Oklahoma will be available for viewing. The convention is scheduled to end at 6:00 PM with members gathering at another location for evening entertainment. The location will be announced soon!

A pre -registration form is located at the end of this newsletter. Pre-registration will help the Convention Planning Committee insure proper seating, refreshments, and convention material although it is not required to attend the convention.

For all of those wishing to take part, opportunities are available for: evening entertainment, photos & music for slide show and providing travelers with lodging. Please contact Danelle Patrick at 405-412-8902 or Mark Lewellen at 329-7070 with any questions or to share your organizing talents, together we can make our founding convention a success!

CLEVELAND COUNTY GREEN PARTY. The next meeting will be held on Saturday, October 12, at 3:00 PM, at the Unitarian Universalists Church on Boyd St., west of Berry. For more information, contact the CCGP at (405) 945-1962 or Adrianne Johnson at ilo@ou.edu.

OKLAHOMA COUNTY GREEN PARTY. The next meeting will be held on Monday, October 28, at 7:00 PM, downstairs at the Belle Isle Library (5501 N. Villa) in Oklahoma City. For more information, please contact Jonalu Johnstone at Jonaluj@cs.com or 521-9815.

GREEN COUNTRY GREENS. The next meeting will be held October 14, at 7:00 PM. Meetings are at the Tulsa City - County Library, 400 Civic Center (on Denver in Downtown Tulsa). For more information call Belinda Silverstar at 918-665-2412.

CLEVELAND COUNTY GREEN PARTY. Mark Lewellen facilitated the September meeting, which seven people attended. Yvonne Anderson, Clean Cities Program Manager, spoke to the group about alternative fuel. Clean Cities is a locally based, private industry and government partnership sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy. Its objective is to facilitate the use of alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs) by fleets and individuals and to support the installation of an alternative fuel-refueling infrastructure throughout the nation. There are currently 84 Clean Cities coalitions in metropolitan areas across the country. The United States consumes more than one-fourth of the world's total oil production, but produces only one-tenth of the oil. Our transportation sector currently accounts for approximately two-thirds of all U.S. petroleum use. To keep the country's cars and trucks moving, we spend approximately $60 billion per year to import 60 percent of our oil. As we continue to compromise our national security with increasing dependence on imported oil, we also compromise our air quality and our health with the by-products of petroleum-based fuel combustion. For more information about Clean Cities visit www.centraloklahomacleancities.org

OKLAHOMA COUNTY GREEN PARTY, Jonalu Johnstone facilitated the September meeting which nine people attended. Curtis Andrew Beckwith from Tulsa visited with the group about the Bioregionalism Congress next month, and the cooperative effort with the Greens in Arkansas on programs on water. A State Party Founding Convention update was given, the proposed bylaw were discussed and the group agreed to provide $150 of their treasury towards the convention. Ballot access and the possibilities of actions concerning access to the ballot were also discussed. Elections were held. The new Steering Committee includes

GREEN COUNTRY GREENS, Curtis Andrew Beckwith facilitated the September 16 meeting, which four people attended. Belinda Silverstar read the latest update on the Green Party State Convention. She then read an email by an absent member, Tod Sloan, expressing his opinion that our small group should not take on any new big projects at this time. He also suggested we try to build our membership by attending the meetings of other groups that share our values.
It was decided that a possible film screening on September 29, dealing with water quality issues could potentially attract some interest in the Arkansas-Oklahoma Water Quality Symposium.  Chris Bryant was appointed to look into obtaining a suitable film. There was also discussion about our website being out of date and the possibility of finding help creating a new site.

Intertribal Wordpath Society will be hosting its 5^th Annual Celebration of Oklahoma Indian Languages Friday, October 18, from 6:00-10:30 PM at the Cleveland County Fairgrounds, 615 E. Robinson St. in Norman. It is free, HC-accessible, and open to the public. Cultural presentations in several Indian languages will be featured, as well as Indian tacos, crafts, and art. Preceding the program, in the same place and also open to the public, is "The First Diversity: Religious Imperatives Concerning Native American Language, Culture, and Relations, a symposium sponsored by the US Conference of Religions for Peace with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. For more information please contact Alice Anderton at wordpath@yahoo.com.

The Washington County (Arkansas) Green Party, The Green Country Greens of Northeast Oklahoma and the OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology will host a citizen-based conference focusing on the 2002 Oklahoma Scenic River phosphorus regulations and their effect upon the environmental policies and practices of cities, beef, poultry and swine processing companies, farmers and city dwellers in the Illinois River watershed. The first of two symposiums will be held Sunday, October 20, 2002, 1-5 PM, in Fayetteville, AR, at the Washington County Extensive Service Building, 2536 N. McConnell, (off Garland near UA Farm). The second symposium will be held Saturday, November 2, 2002, 1-5 PM, in Tulsa, OK, at Martin East Regional Library, 2601 South Garnett Road.

Peter Belkin, a spokesperson for the Green Country Greens issued the following statement: "The water quality of the Arkansas River is a major element affecting the quality of life in this region. Our ability, as inhabitants of this region, to have a positive impact on this water quality is based on our collective understanding of the contributing factors. Issues such as present water use, water chemistry, population growth, and discharges into the river are examples of elements of which we all must be aware. With this knowledge and understanding we will be able to ensure that we, as well as our public officials, take the actions necessary to improve water quality and promote the wise use of the resource. We are pleased and excited to work with the Green Party of Northwest Arkansas on the Water Quality Symposium. This is an important first step."

For additional information, contact Belinda Silverstar (Tulsa), bsilverstar88@aol.com / 918-665-2412

Tuesday, September 24, 2002

Mass marches and rallies are set for October 26, 2002 in Washington DC, San Francisco and in many other countries. Anti-war, civil rights, labor, students and other forces are joining together to launch a massive international mobilization in opposition to a new war against the people of Iraq. Rachel Jackson of Seminole is organizing a trip from Oklahoma to Washington. To sign up contact her at 405-382-9274 or rconstance808@hotmail.com

The Green Party of the United States
http://www.greenpartyus.org 
National office: 1314 18th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20036

202-296-7755, 866-41GREEN
Stephen Zunes:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020930&s=zunes

2002 is shaping up to be a year of major growth for the Green Party of the United States. Following the formation of the party last July and recognition as a national committee by the Federal Election Commission in November, we hired a Political Coordinator as well as a Finance Director to oversee fundraising operations.

In February, we opened our national office in downtown Washington, DC. The office is on 18th St. near Dupont Circle and is staffed by the Political Coordinator and Office Manager. The office will work to increase the visibility of the Green Party in the national media, build coalitions with kindred progressives in Washington, and oversee field organizing efforts across the country. All of this growth will lead directly to our Midterm Convention in Philadelphia this July. The office is shared with the DC Statehood Green Party.

The foundation of this progress is the tremendous success of our grassroots campaigns. We have more members, more volunteers, more candidates and are winning more elections all of the time, as shown by the many articles in this issue of GreenPages. The volatility and uncertainty that the September 11th terrorist attacks brought to politics in the United States has not slowed our growth at all. The principled positions taken by the Green Party regarding the War on Terrorism and attacks on our constitutional rights, as well as the predictable Enron Scandal, have demonstrated how the Green Party stands independent and above the major parties on these issues. As the party has grown, our committees have become more active.

Here is a summary of what they are doing.

Long-time Chair Tony Affigne (RI) stepped down to focus on international matters and was replaced by Art Goodtimes (CO), the only Green officeholder to also chair a national committee. This committee has been hard at work implementing a new proportional representation voting formula for our Coordinating Committee while dealing with requests for affiliation.

This Committee will be working with every aspect of Green Party operations to continue our improvement in diversity. They will work with the Media Committee to highlight the electoral campaigns and victories of people of color in the Green Party, and will work with our field organizing efforts to ensure we reach out effectively to broaden the colors within the Green Party.

For an index of Green Party candidates in 2002 visit http://www.greens.org/elections

Active direct mail and phone solicitation efforts attracted the first 1,000 donors to the Green Party, and its first $100,000, in just a few months. We are now inaugurating our "1,000 For 1,000" fundraising campaign to raise our first million dollars

We are uniting small, medium and large donors in a common campaign whereby 1,000 people will donate $1,000 to the Green Party, either all at once, or via sustaining monthly donations)

This committee has improved our web page so that each committee has its own subpage, and is focusing on implementing a voting section on the web to better track and record our votes.

Many subcommittees have been formed to handle such issues as our representation on the Federation of the Green Parties of the Americas, international Green organizations, visits from Greens abroad and international issues. Persons with international experience and expertise should contact the committee to volunteer their help (write intcomm@gp-us.org).

Within the last week of February, we hosted or met guests from Morocco, Korea, Rwanda and Germany.

We now receive regular requests via the U.S. State Department from visitors who ask to meet with the Green Party during their visit. Anne Goeke, International Committee Co-Chair, will travel to Dakar, Senegal, in March to represent U.S. Greens at the meeting of the 2nd Congress of the African Federation of Green Parties and preparations are being made for sending a USGP delegation to attend the 3rd Congress of the European Federation of Green Parties in Berlin from May 17th -19th, 2002.

Following from our success at securing national mainstream media coverage on the formation of the party and FEC recognition last year (AP wire services, CNN Headline news, and others), our Media Committee is broadening its scope to include guest editorials, feature articles in magazines, response to attacks in the media as well as video production. We will be building relationships with the media so that we get coverage of our key campaigns this year. Watch for more Green Party articles in newspapers and TV in your area!

This committee has just reformed to start the exciting process leading up to the 2004 Presidential elections. And with all this activity going on, we will also be inaugurating our field organizing effort this Spring. Although Political Coordinator Dean Myerson did extensive field organizing last Fall, work at the office will limit his travel this year. We plan to gradually hire a team of field organizers to spread across the country training new Greens how to be effective and helping our state parties keep their existing ballot lines and gain new ones. After years of Greens working separately in their own communities and states, this effort will dramatically increase the impact that Green politics will have in the U.S. The success of the 1000 for 1000 fundraising program will be key to supporting our field operations.

The Green Party has existed in the United States for nearly 20 years. But its momentum has never been greater than it is today.

Ä More information about the Oklahoma Green Party efforts and those of the local chapters throughout the state can be found at our website, www.greens.org/oklahoma/home.html.

Ä Alice Anderton is keeping an archive of Green Party materials, including video- and audiotapes of Nader and LaDuke from the National Convention. Please contact (405) 447-6103 or towordpath@aol.com if you would like to contribute or borrow material.

Ä In order to keep up with significant state legislature activities that affect all Oklahomans, go to http://www.OkLegislature.com.

Ä If you are interested in staying in touch with other Oklahoma Greens and being informed of Green activity throughout the state, subscribe to the Oklahoma Greens’ listserv by sending a subscription request to okgreens-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. Messages are posted the listserv at okgreens@yahoogroups.com.

Ä A national green lavender network has been formed for activists who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and intersexual. To join the listserv, send and e-mail to LavendarGreenNetwork-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

Ä Any student organizations interested in developing a relationship with the national student Green Party organization, Campus Greens, please contact Students For Change-TUGP at tustudentsforchange@hotmail.com.