Greens gathered in Sunnyside, Queens, to hold a forum with all five Green Party candidates for office in New York City this year. It was inspiring and energizing to hear and see such a strong and diverse group of candidates and their ideas for making our city a better place. If you have not gotten involved with a campaign (or three) yet, we hope you will do it as soon as possible. Just a few highlights... Carl Lundgren kicked off the event with his rousing song about the Green Party: "I'm voting Green this year, voting my hopes and not my fears."
* Lynne Serpe talked about "sustainability" in the context of her working class roots, and how when she was young, re-using and conserving stuff was an economic necessity, a matter of stretching your resources as far as you could. * David Pechefsky talked about how his mother in law said she emigrated from Uganda to escape the kind of corrupt politics on offer from our current elected officials.
* Walt Nestler talked about how he didn't even get a response when he wrote to the city about the fact that they gave millions in stimulus money for Bronx projects to non-local businesses.
* Evergreen Chou told us how he had to face members of his community urging him not to run because another Chinese person was already in the race, instead of considering who was the best candidate with the best program.
* Reverend Billy talked about "local rights" as the new theme for his campaign, and how the Britons he just visited envisioned him as a kind of Spider-Man or Batman battling corruption in Gotham City. Gloria Mattera introduced Reverend Billy by saying that though the local press have painted the mayoral race as "a yawn," Billy will cause jaws to drop - but not with yawns!
