By DON MCMILLAN

(The following views are those of the author. Neither CONNECTIONS nor the Modesto Peace/Life Center endorses political candidates or parties.)

Imagine a national political party's presidential nominating convention at which the former War Department didn't spend over $100,000 in tax funds to flaunt weapons of mass destruction. In fact, the Department of Defense was neither invited nor did it stage a protest vigil outside (ah, shucks!)

Many argue that a vote is wasted unless cast for someone whose campaign is underwritten by arms corporations, not to mention HMO's, purveyors of petroleum and nuclear electricity, suburban sprawl, genetic tampering or advocates of globalizing capital while incarcerating workers. Defying the obvious wisdom that corporations choose presidents, not voters, hundreds of Green Party delegates from 39 states converged this June in Denver, Colorado, paying their own way to nominate a presidential ticket to challenge the notion that Americans must support the least repugnant presidential candidate the corporations deem electable or face the election of the most repugnant. I was among these delegates.

But was it a real convention? If a departure from the script to consider last-minute concerns with platform wording makes a convention real, this was real. If tables in the lobby with videotapes of protests against the WTO in Seattle and the World Bank and IMF in Washington or tables with hemp-legalization literature make a convention real, this was real. If impassioned speeches eliciting fervent applause or booing and hissing make a convention real, this was real.

However, if a convention's rhetoric must be censored so as not to ruffle special interest campaign contributors in order to be real, this convention challenged reality. Speakers here from around the globe challenged complacency with a corporate status quo. Craig Palmer, the New Zealand Green Party's General Secretary held that Green Party candidates piqued new interest in New Zealand elections. In a recent election that brought seven Greens into parliament, 30 percent of those voting Green had never before voted. The parliament went on to pass an energy efficiency act drafted exclusively by Greens.

Alex Gonzalez, representing the Peruvian Green Alternative Party observed, "It is not easy to be an ecologist in an underdeveloped country. This is why Peruvian Greens have their eyes set on what you're doing." Gonzalez charged us to "counteract the corrupt mafias of corporations and government."

Co-founder of the Black Radical Congress and Founding Director of the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University Manning Marable teased apart "American democracy's crisis" in which the struggle between wealth and labor defines the economy. As an alternative, Marable proposed "construction of a civil society that protects human rights. … The Green Party can only facilitate this through having the courage of its convictions."

From down south came two vivid, plain-speaking voices. Texas' own Jim Hightower, populist humorist and radio commentator, pointed out that, in his run for the presidency, Ralph Nader had been accused of having no respect for the process. Hightower mused some other notables had had a similar contempt for the process, naming Thomas Jefferson, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, and the Wobblies among them. Of those who don't want their comfortable process challenged, Hightower quipped, "They got the idea they're a bunch of dogs and the rest of us are … fire hydrants." From a deeper, downunder south came the founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Helen Caldicott. She considered the circumstances of Americans who don't cast their ballots. "Why should they vote? Who represents them? Corporate prostitutes!" Urging that America change its direction, Caldicott observed, "Our country is following your country. We've got MacDonald's on every damn corner … our children are called consumers." Tolling the horrors of nuclear threats in the post-cold-war era ("You can pull an enemy out of a hat" whenever convenient), Caldicott expressed faith that the only presidential candidate who would challenge the nuclear madness was Ralph Nader. She challenges the U. S. electorate to end our country's nuclear misadventures: "You are the curators of life on this planet."

Two speakers called for painful reconciliations of abusive social patterns. Ann Northrup, who joined ACT UP shortly after quitting as a CBS News journalist, blasted the Clinton Administration's record with homosexual and lesbian Americans. "He had some nerve signing the Defense of Marriage Act," she said, adding to her grievance with the Democratic Administration that Al Gore sided with US pharmaceutical giants against South Africa's unlicensed manufacture of AIDS drugs for its people. Of people who discover, under heterosexism, very early in life their different sexual preference from the majority Northrup remarked, "How desperate life is." Such people "suffer a trauma … that can be lifelong." When such trauma is repeated millions of times around the world, Northrup said, "That is an ecological disaster." Other disasters haunted the address of Ralph Nader's running mate, Winona LaDuke, an Ojibwe organizer for indigenous tribal sovereignty credited with a pivotal role in stopping the massive James Bay hydropower projects. For LaDuke, the decimation of indigenous diversity in Mississippi watersheds is a disaster figured by the plight of Yellowstone bison. Much of this herd's former range is devoted to "one crop … owned by Monsanto." And over much of that former range, LaDuke observes, European-descended rural culture is dying out with depleted soil. She envisions restoring the ecosystem as a home for diverse human and ecological communities. "Cultural Diversity is at least as important as biological diversity," LaDuke said. Restoring the buffalo to its range while empowering indigenous peoples to harness wind power for their own communities and to sell to other communities is part of LaDuke's vision for "reconciliation with the earth and … peoples of the earth," repudiating present nuclear dependency whose waste requires we "take it down some dirt road and dump it on an Indian reservation." Such a reconciliation would require willingness to hear those abused by prevailing customs. "Denial is not a healing process," she observed, admiring the courage many South African citizens display in that country's post-apartheid reconciliation. "The difference between the U. S. and South Africa is political will."

The final session, including introduction of the nominees for Green Party Presidential candidate, Jello Biafra, Stephen Gaskin, and Ralph Nader, brought an almost oppressive reality to this convention. It was the first Green Party session in which I had to open my bag for a perfunctory search before entering. Netted under the ceiling inside were six huge clusters of blue, green, and white balloons and, to the left of the stage, a floor-to-ceiling video screen. I guessed which entrance the candidate planned to use. It was flanked by men in suits at parade rest and a uniformed police officer. The tension between the informal Green Party events I'd savored in the past and this evening's media-self-conscious Party flared up during candidate introductions or the state-by-state roll call. One of the balloon netting's fasteners came loose, spilling scores of balloons. Briefly, the buoyance of less-formal sessions erupted as we delegates tapped balloons back into the air. Shortly, awareness of the lenses beaming our deportment to millions of picture tubes across the nation found voice. "Hold the balloons!" An urgent whisper rippled among us. I'll remember Nader's acceptance speech partly for the white and green balloons my ankles hugged until their fellows plunged at their scripted moment.

What most appealed to my attention in that speech was Nader's sensitivity to what's happening to America's children. To his observation that in no culture in history have children spent less time with adults than contemporary America Nader added "corporations are taking exquisite … advantage" of children's separation from prospective mentors. He observed that "corporate hucksters" who in past generations would have approached parents to offer child-related products or services no longer respect parents' rights to decide purchases on children's behalf, marketing directly to the children. Often what they sell involves a message that "violence is a solution to life's problems."

I know this convention was real. All too soon, I was walking towards home up J Street from the Modesto bus station carrying my souvenir sign proclaiming in green letters the aspirations of another car-free bachelor towards the Presidency.

Elections 2000 Class Informs, Challenges Students

Confused about the November election? Then show up any Thursday night at Randy Siefkin’s class and join in a lively discussion. This is part of the American Cultures Forum, a series of activities and presentations that covers the gamut of issues relating to government at all levels. Siefkin is one of the most entertaining and knowledgeable people around when it comes to making government and its workings interesting.

The class is open to the public; you need not sign up for credit (since the class started August 24 it’s probably too late anyway). The class meets every Thursday from 6:10 pm to about 9:00 pm at MJC East Campus, Forum Room 110.

Here are upcoming subjects:

Thursday Sept. 28: Crime: gun control, the death penalty, mandatory sentencing, juvenile justice, drug policies.
Oct. 5: Women and Minorities: abortion, copyrights, affirmative action, sexual harassment, hate crimes.
Oct. 12: The Environment: air, water and land, transportation, "smart " growth.
Oct. 19: The Budget: Taxes and the Economy: the budget surplus, social security reform, deregulation, tax reform.
Oct. 26: Ballot Measures and Direct Democracy: assessing direct democracy; the November ballot measures.
Nov. 2: Predicting the Winners.
Nov. 9: What Happened, Why, and What Difference Will it Make?