picking bad apples ...
...like humans do
"the tide is high and i'm holding on..." (blondie)
Tues 5 Nov 2002
5:55 p.m.
(a journal entry from boston)
i've heard it a dozen times in the past hour from the assorted local news programs: "will jill stein be the 'spoiler' for the democratic party?"
first, i want to say for the record, that i have been personally disgusted with the tunnel vision of the network media. this race had five runners. FIVE. why weren't they all given an equal chance? because you assume they don't have an equal chance? (whoever gets the most votes wins, don't they? or are they only allowed to win if they belong to one of the two major (corrupt) political parties? yes, i know voting in a third party candidate doesn't happen very often, but it's not impossible.
regardless of a predicted probability of a candidates success in a race, shouldn't we leave all of it up to the voters? why can't we offer fair coverage and allow the people to decide for themselves?
whether or not a third party candidate had a chance in this election, the assumptions made in the media at the onset became self-fulfilling prophecies. the viewers were left with a bunch of bad ads and a couple of bad apples. as my husband puts it, we were left to choose between the lessor of two evils, which ultimately measures up to be the "evil of two lessors."
all debates should include all of the candidates.
isn't that just fair play?
(I'm shaking my head. It's really astounding to me how unfair this "democratic" process really is. reminds me of the justice system. oh, and the health system. whoever has the most money...)
corruption everywhere.
we don't just need to "clean up the mess on beacon hill," we need to "clean up the mess in - on - under - around - behind - and within ... ________ ."
so many areas to cover.... where do we start? maybe we need to start with a common denominator... what do all these messes have in common?
back to the media.....
we cannot allow irresponsible coverage of elections.
a thought....maybe we should outlaw all the television ads too. don't they add up to be pricey propaganda that further divides all the candidates from a position of equality? the one with the most money for advertising wins.
on a broader scale...
we need to seriously consider the impact of having less than half a dozen companies owning virtually all the media outlets.
we need to remember that in times of fear and war, we can be more easily influenced by the media to hold certian beliefs. remember "wag the dog?" we can't afford to be ignorant and easily led.
the network media continued to report fears of stein's "spoiler" status, while withholding polls. (why has exit polling suddenly stopped, by the way?)
"Due to problems with exit poll feed from Voter News Service (VNS), exit poll results will not be available Tuesday Night. CNN.com will bring you full exit poll results when and if they become available."
i'm pausing....
we need to talk about this....
ok, back to my rant.
we need to be using all of our technology to gather information from reliable sources, not sources that are primarily concerned with ratings, and who are controlled by...hmm... now, who are they controlled by?
we need to use local free media outlets to organize around issues of importance (political, or otherwise.) the government is not always the answer for our community problems. we need to start tuning in to our communities, and making positive and progressive things happen.
wait....speaking of positive and progressive...
i was going to talk about jill stein....
so i'm watching the coverage of the election, and the newscasters keep calling stein the potential race "spoiler."
1) i believe that many of the voters would not have otherwise been motivated to register and vote were it not for dr. stein. i believe she inspired many new voices to chime in on this election.
2) the votes dr. stein receives are ones she has earned, not stolen. (stold? stole? that's a tough one.)
3) (this point is admitedly even more subjective in nature than the previous ones) o'brien and romney are "playing the game." i, for one, am sick of this "game." i want a real person to lead us. not someone with a fake persona. (plastic people...) not a bunch of bullshit. just a real person who we can trust to tell us the truth.*
we saw clearly in the few precious moments that were offered to her during the course of the race that dr. stein is a real, down to earth, person. she seems like a brainy, humanitarian, hippy-chick-lady who, in her heart of hearts, would just love to save the world. (don't worry, dr. stein. you're certianly playing your part, and we thank you.)
she likely won't win this race, but she's better off without the job anyway. (you would have hated it, probably.) she's doing fine, much needed, humanitarian work. we need her here in the grassroot trenches.
what she has won, however, are repeated opportunities to address the people of massachusetts about what the problems really are and what we can try to do to solve them.
more importantly, she's won an opportunity for all of us to reflect on this election and ask ourselves if we voted our conscience.
did you vote for the candidate that you believe (in your heart) would best lead us?
if you didn't vote your conscience, why not?
do you believe that the media influenced your vote?
if we all had voted our conscience, do you believe the outcome would have been different?
4) The outcome of this election is somewhat arbitrary for democrats anyway. The house still holds a democratic majority and can override any veto.
so, back to the original question,
"was jill stein this year's 'spoiler?'"
you tell me.
my answer?
in the big bad apple bag of politics, she is as unspoiled as they come.
if you didn't vote for her, maybe you're the spoiler.
*this reminds me of jimmy carter. he's a real guy. and he was a brilliant, paternalistic president (as opposed to our "big brother" president, george w.) he asked us to do things that were good for us. he said to keep our thermostats at 68 and our speed on our highways to 55. we really didn't like that. (we americans are really just rebellious teenagers, with a mean toddler streak.)
now he's won a nobel peace prize. we should be learning from him.
and we should have leaders like him.
we don't need a big brother in times like this.
we need a wise father.
thanks for showing us what a wise mother looks like, dr. stein.
(how about a big green apple for the teacher?)
happenstance links while searching for a picture of a green apple:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/06/26/opinion/meyer/main513512.shtml
http://www.virginiaapples.org/recipes/greencake.html
http://www.greenappleadventures.com/
http://www.focol.org/grapple/
http://www.greenmap.com/nyc/default.htm
http://www.foodtv.com/recipes/re-c1/0,6255,20979,00.html
love to all,
a
P.S. i am not a member of the green party. i'm an independent whose beliefs lie in the space where the greens meet the libertarians. (it comes around - full circle) ideally we would be free to choose (libertarian) and then would make sound, righteous, fair, just, choices. in reality, people (animals, and the earth) get hurt and need to be protected by laws (green) when others with money and power do not make the right choices. just thought i should clarify that.
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