Saturday afternoon, by sheer serendipity, I had the privilege of addressing this year's Rising Stars class from the League of Women Voters, Houston. Rising Stars is LWV's program to connect with politically engaged youth and helping them build their knowledge of political mechanics, especially on the local level. Janis Richards, a current member of the Harris County Green Party's Steering Committee, accompanied me and delivered a portion of the 45-minute talk. The best information I could find on the web via Duck Duck Go was this Houston Media Source video from 2014. LWV Houston has a regular live program on HMS, just as HCGP does (GreenwatchTV). The program's co-host Linda Cohn also served as one of the hosts for the September 2017 Rising Stars workshop, which took place Saturday at the Leonel Castillo Community Center on the Near Northside. It was originally scheduled for 26 August, but our area had a most unwelcome and very wet guest named Harvey that weekend. Apart from the Greens, representatives from the three parties that Texas currently recognizes delivered their spiels. I was quite candid about how the Green Party needs to earn its way back onto the ballot next year.
The serendipity came about because an LWV volunteer sent a message about the workshop to the HCGP's Facebook page, asking for someone to give a 45-minute talk with Q&A about the Party. Neither of the county co-chairs replied. Because I have editing permissions on that page, I was able to reply when the volunteer made a second attempt. Risk of Misrepresentation Although I have been avoiding HCGP meetings recently, I presumed that my comrades would trust me not to diminish the Party's reputation in the eyes of the Rising Stars. So I didn't reach out to the co-chairs to inform them that I was undertaking this mission. Although I have made my displeasure known regarding recent events, and despite some disagreements on procedures, I have big-time love for the Green Vision and those who embody it. I did include Janis in correspondence with the facilitators of the workshop, so the Steering Committee was not kept entirely in the dark. After I zipped through my presentation, she spoke for 10 minutes to address an unconventional view of the failures of conventional economic theory and how the Greens vision calls for a major overhaul of the way the US does business. Quite understandably, Greens are often chary about who speaks for them. That results from years of being far too trusting, and in some ways too democratic. This has been a problem with candidates on a few occasions. One need only look back to the time outsiders tried to get themselves nominated as Green candidates in Arizona, or the phantom gubernatorial candidacy of Brandon Parmer in 2014 right here in Texas. Beyond that, Party members have raised accusations that a Texas Green Party member, whom we shan't name here, has serially misrepresented the positions of GPTX and county affiliates in the DFW area. Johnathan Miller Redux I arrived an hour ahead of my time slot and was treated to Johnathan Miller's talk on behalf of the Harris County Democrats. Apart from the half-dozen times I caught him slipping on that "also...as well" redundancy, Miller is a smooth and solid presenter. Miller also spoke at the one meeting of Houston Area Progressives I have attended, upstairs at the Midtown Bar & Grill some months ago, encouraging attendees to look into becoming Democratic precinct chairs. That was a disappointing evening: I had hoped that the Progressives would be less inclined to view the Democratic Party as a vehicle for their hopes and dreams, but that's exactly how the conversation ran, trying to steer HCDP in a more progressive direction by taking over precincts. At the Rising Stars workshop, Miller also devoted a large chunk of his time to the importance of precinct chairs, including telling the story of how the dominoes fell after County Commissioner El Franco Lee passed away last year. Since HCDP has so many vacant chairs, it's possible that all one needs to do is contact their office and volunteer if one's precinct lacks a chairperson. But then, he added, it's important to get your name on the ballot and actually run for the job next time around. The deadline for filing to run in the 2018 Democratic Primary is less than three months from now. Dallas This Weekend This weekend I'll be continuing my non-involvement with the Green Party by participating in a candidate development workshop at the Dallas Public Library. This is something that co-chair Laura Palmer asked me to help with a couple of months ago. Originally we were looking to put on this event down here, but, post-Harvey, it seems very fortuitous that we decided on Dallas. Laura has ways of asking that make the word "No" difficult to say, even when Dallas is involved. While I strongly dislike Dallas and its suburbs, I quite like the Dallas-area Greens whom I have met. It should be a rollicking good time, even while we're discussing such burdensome aspects of campaigning as financial reporting. Next week I'll post a full report on the workshop here, or as full as I can make it. Comments are closed.
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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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