While we Greens applaud some of the actions of our new President in moving us to a more intelligent approach toward many isues facing us now that the previous administration has left office, we cannot applaud all that he has done or appears to stand fornow that he has assumed office.

In Salon this week, Glenn Greenwald provides a view of Obama’s Presidency more in line with how progressives feel on some of the issues. Check it out here.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/05/13/photos/

Keep in mind that the election of Barack Obama, while quite an amazing event in US political history, merely presents us with an “opportunity” to change our democracy for the better. We must not fail in our efforts to push him to do what many believe he would like to do, but needs the support of the electorate to accomplish. So keep on writing to your representatives, keep on supporting him when he does well, but keep on speaking out and demonstrating when he does not do what the American people want him to do.

Greetings from Madison Wisconsin, (or as the powers that be call it, from “behind the enemy lines”.)

Had 2 days of really interesting and encouraging sessions at the Conference to celebrate the Progressive Magazine’s 100th anniversary. Look for ward to introducing more links and additional photos to the website when I get back.

All I can say right now is: What an amazing amount of accomplishment over the past 100 years!… Even though there is so much more work we have in front of us!

We’re out and about again after a brief winter respite.

Steve has been attending the Project Democracy presentations sponsored in the Bay County Schools and talking to young people about the Green Party.

It is a shame that we only have a few minutes at each school to talk a little about our platform and answer one or two questions from the audience. .. But we get equal time with the Democrats & Republicans, so I can’t complain too much.

Henry is busy coordinating EarthDay festivities. ( April 18th ) PLEASE NOTE THE NEW LOCATION!:

CARL GRAY PARK

Adjacent to FSU Panama City & Gulf Coast Community College

Check it out: www.earthdaybaycounty.com

The Friday Fests are again in full swing downtown Panama City on the first Friday of each month and we plan to have a booth set up so that people can stop by and chat or donate for bumperstickers.

We are still looking for that $BIG DONATION$ so that we can afford a projector and begin showing  documentary films again.

We are happy to see a person of color occupying the white house and are greatly relieved that the Bush Administration has finally come to an end. At the same time we are disappointed that many of Barack Obama’s cabinet appointments are simply more of the same. We are also disappointed that there has been little action on investigation into the crimes that may have been committed by senior officials under the Bush Administration, and that President Obama is apparently supporting the position of the Bush administration to conduct warrantless wiretapping of american citizens in the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation case.

We would also like to see more emphasis on point-of-use generation for renewable energy. Check out this article from Salon to find out more.

The media talks about the march toward socialism, without really defining the term…. shades of the Red Scare from the days of McCarthyism. And of course no one really seems to be asking the real Socialists what they would be doing given the recent crisis we’re in. (But then we didn’t really think they would!)

Please feel free to contact us with your ideas and support. We know there is a lot of support for the Green Platform out there, because the Democrats and Republicans are trying to adopt some of the planks whenever they think they can gain a bit of a political advantage.

It’s funny how the Democrats blame the Republicans for the mess we’re in and the Republicans blame the Democrats, when the corporately controlled two-party system is the real problem.

“If they can get you asking the wrong question, they don’t have to worry about the answers” — Thomas Pynchon

Bay County Green Party co-chair Henry Lawrence speaks to the crowd at McKenzie Park on Earth Day.

Thanks to Jeremy Bell for his help getting our website back up and running. Things have been pretty quiet now for a few months ever since the election.

Just a couple of things to update you on what’s been going on:

First off, I’m afraid I wasn’t very successful in getting on the ballot last spring. Starting with a bit of a late start, I was able to recruit a number of souls to help me get some petitions signed. Unfortunately, I did not realize that although the deadline for ballot access was in May, petitions need to be submitted a full month before the deadline to give the respective Supervisors the opportunity to validate each petition and get them to the Secretary of State. I had initially planned to use that month for petition gathering.

I personally collected close to 3,000 petitions, but just as I was trying to make a big push, I started to run into difficulty finding places to go to gather petitions. Corporate interests have prevailed in the State of Florida and Charlie Crist signed a measure into law making it illegal to collect petitions on privately owned commercial property without the permission of the owner.

What had previously been decided by the courts to be “public” property is now off limits to people gathering petitions. Despite some success locating several sympathetic property owners, obtaining permission was not generally forthcoming, and when it was, the locations very quickly became overcrowded with politicians scrambling to find people to sign their petitions.

To make a long story short: I came up short in my quest.

However, I AM NOT DISCOURAGED. Nor should you be. There is a thirst by the public to have more options on the ballot.

The vast majority of citizens, even citizens who do not share the Green Party opinions, are enthusiastic about having other choices. Most agree that the system is broken, and that only a viable third party will generate the real change we need.

So stay involved. Together we CAN make a difference.

We have plenty of ideas to share. We NEED your help. In whatever way you can.

Our latest goal is to collect enough money to purchase a projector so that we can start showing documentary films again.

Please contact me or Henry to get more information about how you can get involved.

In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you on the street at our booth during Friday fests and at local festivals.

Steve Wilkie, Co-Chair/Treasurer

For more information about my candidacy go to www.wewantwilkie.org