Why I vote Green 

Why I am voting Green and why you might want to too. Greg Gerritt 2/8/08

I hate watching candidate debates, and very rarely do it.  I find the candidates they put on TV spout platitudes like Change, and never really demonstrate an understanding of the intertwined problems we face here on planet Earth.  Other than Green Party candidates I have never seen a candidate explain in clear language why war and poverty are ecological disasters in addition to all the other tragedies they cause and how we must address ecological issues full on to keep all of society functional.

I have heard and read candidates discuss global warming, but other than Greens no one is willing to address consumerism, industrialism, growth mania, how they are at the root of what ails us, and what it is going to take to actually heal ecosystems so that life on earth can continue to thrive. 

Occasionally some member of the corporate parties is allowed to say we need to reduce carbon emissions by 90% in 40 years, but they still can not call for an end to the oil wars.  They may call for an end to mountain top removal in the Appalachians, but woe are those in the corporate parties who call for the best carbon sequestration program of all, leaving oil and coal in the ground. And woe to those who call for an end to the national security state that spies on us in the name of keeping up consumption.  Their own parties drop them like a hot potato

Occasionally my friends tell me to back off a bit, to stop calling killers killers.  The fact that we call them politicians, senators, presidents, troops, soldiers, or marines is simply a ruse to take our minds away from the fact that they hire killers, are paid to kill, trained to kill, and kill for oil, which takes us into the cycle of industrialism, deforestation, overconsumption, corruption, and the elimination of democracy and civil liberties that is cooking the planet. 

I get the word that we have to work with these folks, that we have to appease those with power rather than confront them because that is how we make progress.  Yes, the coal dust does not settle on the snow in my neighborhood overnight, but is the asthma epidemic diminished? We have a state land use plan, but we continue to see the landscape sprawled. We hear talk of Green jobs, but we subsidize oil and roads and the military machine that kills to keep it flowing. We get boutique foods and buy local networking sessions, but soybeans continue to be planted in what was rain forest last year so we can have phony Green bio diesel. We have economic development agencies that are happy when someone sets up a factory to produce new and better ways to kill as that creates high paying jobs. And we get the same thing from both corporate parties

I will only vote for candidates who really get it.  Candidates who understand what it takes to heal ecosystems, and how important that is to our future.  Who understand how damaged ecosystems damage lives, create poverty, and create a fertile climate for violence and war. Who will stand up and point out the ills of industrialism, how it is a fatal disease, and that we shall have to wind consumption down.  Candidates who understand and are willing to point out how the obsession with growth is the issue of our times, and who can describe a prosperous future with less stuff and no carbon emissions. 

I am not willing to settle for less.  I am not willing to settle for corporate candidates paying back their paymasters with military contracts, more autos, and ways for the rich to get richer at the expense of the poor and the planet. I am only voting for candidates who get it, and are not beholden to the corporations and the growth obsession.  I am voting for Green Party candidates, and if you want to live on Planet Earth, you should too.  For more information check out http://www.gp.org

Then get in touch.

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