Back in 2016, former Vice President Al Gore came to Houston to deliver the two-day Climate Reality Project speaker training, and Kayleen signed up for it. She got to spend some time with one of her heroes: She had shown excerpts from An Inconvenient Truth to her World Geography students back in her teaching days.
Gore, a Democrat to his very marrow, became less of a hero in her eyes when he came out in favor of his old friend Hillary Clinton in her quest for the presidency. The whole movement lost its luster as Kayleen discovered that the overwhelming majority of those present for the training placed their faith in the Democratic Party and its candidates to solve the impending climate crisis. Cuz we know that President Barack Obama dedicated his entire eight years in the White House to reversing climate change, starting at the Copenhagen Climate Summit in 2009--NOT! So Kayleen, dejected, never did any Climate Reality speaking gigs. As consolation she did meet a new friend who came to the training from Zimbabwe, and who is now studying climate science in Paris. So we may have someone to visit if we ever make it to France. None of the text below, which mentions several Democrats by name, is meant to imply that I'm turning into a Democrat. Generally, I vote for Democrats in local races in which there is no Green running. I will promote candidates and elected office-holders whose views I find genuinely progressive—regardless of how the Democratic Party establishment may treat them, regardless of occasional votes that seem at odds with the progressive agenda. I will defend them from baseless smears propagated by any party or media outlet. (Your findings of progressivity may vary, and that's OK: even Greens don't agree on everything.) This longtime Green apparatchik, who has used some strong and unpleasant language in referring to the US Democratic Party, is strongly considering volunteering for a self-identified progressive Democrat's campaign in 2018. This afternoon I sat down at Brasil with Lina Hidalgo, candidate for Harris County Judge, for a chat & chew. As mentioned previously, I reached out to her campaign after seeing her give a remarkably coherent 90-second get-to-know-me speech at the Gulf Coast Our Revolution meeting two weeks ago. If the Green Party's ballot access drive doesn't pan out, I hope to be able to help kick Hidalgo's campaign into overdrive between June and early November. Hidalgo has no opponents at all, let alone an pro-establishment opponent in the primary race. As far as I'm concerned, that's a plus. Assuming she doesn't pull an Ahmad Hassan and bail out of the race (she assured me that she won't), she will be there and in need of support this summer and fall. Plus, when running against a moderate Republican as well liked as Judge Ed Emmett, you may as well cast yourself as a fire-spitting Progressive. This will be a short entry, I promise. After all, I avoided watching the SOTU Tuesday night and went to a special event at Brash Brewery (try their milk stout, Milk the Venom—it's vicious and delicious), so I'm not still seething with "OMG WTF is he even saying???"
It's time to resort to an Ordered List, which will help me keep this entry tidy and concise, because I need all the help I can get with that.
Normally I would wait until Monday to post reflections on a Sunday afternoon political outing. But I couldn't wait that long to give some online kudos to the crew at Our Revolution. Mainly thanks to Facilitator Ann Rosenwinkel, the two-hour Texas Gulf Coast regional quarterly meeting at the Havens Center was well attended, ended well ahead of schedule, and accomplished quite a bit.
Mostly, the meeting gave members a chance to chat with some candidates and choose their delegates to next weekend's state meeting in San Antonio. Sigh. Once upon a time, the Harris County Green Party could run a meeting that accomplished a lot and left attendees feeling energized afterward. Even when some members occasionally used meetings as soapboxes for their pet issues, we got stuff done. Now that I have signed into an Our Revolution meeting, apparently I'm a member of something. Do I feel sufficiently jazzed by the experience to want to pour my blood, sweat, and tears into OR? Nah. But even if I have lingering suspicions about it being just another way to keep wayward progressives voting for Democrats, I must respect the way they ran this meeting and the group's sense of purpose. |
Blogging Sporadically since 2014Here you will find political campaign-related entries, as well as some about my literature, Houston underground arts, peace & justice, urban cycling, soccer, alt-religion, and other topics. Categories
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