The Usual Big June Doings

These are presented in chronological order, not in order of importance. They are two of the biggest activities on my calendar in any typical year, although they don't always happen in June.

• H-Town World Naked Bike Ride, 19 June
• Green Party of Texas Annual State Meeting, 26-27 June

I apologize for not getting around to publicizing the GPTX ASM prior to the cutoff date for registration, which was Monday 1 June. For the last several months I've found it difficult to carve out sufficient time to hammer out blog entries.

WNBR 2021
Among other things, June is the beginning of World Naked Bike Ride season. What started as a Northern Hemisphere–wide, more-or-less simultaneous event on the second Saturday in June has now scattered into just about every Saturday between then and September. (The Southern Hemisphere rides typically happen in March.)

Here in Texas, we have two cities with a record of participation in WNBR, and neither of them is Dallas. Houston's ride this year is scheduled for Saturday night, 19 June, weather permitting. The start/finish is Mother Dog Studios, 720 Walnut Street in the Warehouse District. Austin has not yet gone public with its date or location. It looks as if the Austin crew is limiting access to information to people who join the Austin WNBR Meetup group.

Houston has a municipal ordinance that proscribes exposure of certain body parts in public outdoor spaces, so we have to tread (or pedal) cautiously. It's one of the reasons this ride takes place at night, apart from how bloody hot this city gets during the day between May and October.

The facilitators, understand that scheduling this ride on Juneteenth here in Houston is not ideal. Rest assured that this ride does not compete with any official festivities. Plus, the Stop the Monster! theme is in part a nod to the way transportation policy continues to exert its most adverse impacts on communities of color, as amply embodied in the North Houston Highway Improvement Project. TxDOT's own impact statements note that more than a thousand homes and hundreds of businesses will be wiped off the map if the project is allowed to proceed. For the moment, the project is on hold thanks to a lawsuit brought by Harris County.

Most WNBR's last year were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, although some just changed their formats. For example, Portland OR and New Orleans LA decided that it would happen in small groups rather than one mass gathering. They may stick to that format this year, given that Portland's ride typically draws close to 10,000 riders. NOLA is staying true to the standard date, riding this year on the afternoon of 12 June.

If you're interested in participating, in whatever fashion (or lack thereof), we encourage you to sign up via one of the Facebook events: The official WNBR and the Bare As You Dare ride (for those who can't wrap their minds around the whole "naked" thing).

GPTX ASM 2021
As I noted the other day, this year's Texas Legislature enacted, with the governor's signature, SB 2093. In addition to the usual odd-numbered-year business of modifying its platform and bylaws, as well as electing new State Executive Committee members and National Committee delegates, the Green Party of Texas must devise a strategy to adapt to this new reality—or decide whether such devising is worth the effort.

As with last year's state convention, the meeting will take place online via Zoom. Although registration is closed, you can still find links to the agenda and proposed bylaw and platform amendments here.

The meeting will spill over into Monday the 28th, with a workshop for prospective Green candidates. To know what is expected of a candidate, read this page carefully, perhaps two or three times to get all the nuances. If and only if you're a dyed-in-the-wool Greenie and you are certain that you can file the required county or state financial reports by the various deadlines, you might consider running for something next year.

My own hope is that GPTX will focus in the coming months primarily on the campaign of our one declared candidate for governor, Delilah Barrios, and that the meeting will be a springboard toward that end. Presenting to the public a candidate who can talk policy (especially Improved Medicare for All) with passion and depth can be a good way to raise the necessary funds either to pay the newly imposed filing fees or collect petition signatures in lieu thereof.

This is not the meeting at which Delilah, or anyone else, can be nominated; that doesn't happen until the GPTX convention, presumably in April 2022. Before that happens, her campaign will need to cough up $3,750 or 5,000 valid signatures from voters registered in Texas when she applies for the nomination this December. We can be grateful that the 87th Lege didn't increase the amounts of dollars or signatures required.

Following the ASM, I will provide as fully an accounting as possible here at dbcgreentx.net, including any occurrences not found on the agenda (because shit like that happens sometimes).