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News :: Elections & Legislation |
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Green Party Candidates Talk |
Current rating: 0 |
by Zachary C. Miller
Email: zach (nospam) chambana.net (unverified!) |
03 Jun 2004
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Last night about 30 supporters gathered to hear 4 Green Party candidates speak at the Illini Union. Presidential hopeful David Cobb, Senate candidate Scott Summers, and local County Board candidates Zach Miller and Ken Urban spoke. |
Last night about 30 supporters gathered to hear 4 Green Party candidates speak at the Illini Union. Presidential hopeful David Cobb, Senate candidate Scott Summers, and local County Board candidates Zach Miller and Ken Urban spoke.
Channel 3 (WCIA), Channel 15 (WAND), and WILL reporter Tom Rogers as well as the IMC's video group were all there to cover the event.
Below is the text of the speech given by Zach Miller, candidate for County Board District 9:
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My name is Zach Miller and I'm running for Champaign County Board in District 9 because Champaign County needs an independent progressive voice that represents the interests of our community.
When Green Party members asked me to run for County Board several months ago, I wasn't quite sure what the county did. I've done plenty of political work with Congress, with the state legislature, and with city Council but all I knew about the county board is that it is a place where local Democrats and Republicans fight a lot. Now, I was sure that politicians don't fight unless there's some power, some money, or some resources to fight for. So I've been researching what the county can do and it's quite a bit. Rural zoning and development, county police, public transportation, marriage licenses, deeds, taxes, social services, and more. But who is controling the use of this power? Can the county operate in the interests of the people if the people don't know what it does?
When I decided to enter this race, a non-incumbent Democrat was running, uncontested in the primary, for this seat. No Republican was running. One seat. One candidate. How can voters express their opinion when they have no choice?
I've met too many people who don't know who their county board representatives are, what the county board does with their tax money, or how to get involved in county government. There is democratic power at the county level, power that local residents can use to affect the way their community is run. All the resources at the county level belong to us, the residents of the county. Big business and powerful interests have influence at the county level but all too often the rest of us are left in the dark. I want to change that.
I will work to establish an independent citizen's police review board for the Sheriff's office. I will work to expand the living wage at the county level to all county contractors. In my decisions, environmental concerns will take precendence over sprawling development. I will fight for full and equal rights for all the county's residents. I will work to broaden the county's outreach so that folks know what is happening and how they can be involved.
In order to do all of this, we need your help. The success of a campaign is directly proportional to the strength of it's volunteer base and we are now ready to ramp up our volunteer base. We have only about 3 weeks left to gather hundreds of petition signatures in the districts and thousands countywide so that we can get on the ballot. We are organizing several petition parties every week and we need you to join us. There's plenty of work to do and with enough people no one has to put in more than an hour or two every week for the next 3 weeks to get this campaign on the ballot. We petition at the Farmer's Market every Saturday morning and we go door to door in the evenings and on Sunday. If we can't get on the ballot, we can't campaign and grow the Green Party and win and serve you on the county board. Please fill out a volunteer card, pick up a petition and instructions, and talk to us.
There will be a Q&A session after all the candidates have spoken. I'll be happy to answer any questions about my campaign or about volunteer opportunities at that time. Thank you! |
See also:
http://www.prairienet.org/greens
http://www.uiuc.edu/ro/cobb
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This work is in the public domain. |
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Re: Green Party Candidates Talk |
by meghan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
04 Jun 2004
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Cobb's speech was actually very inspiring. I highly recommend looking into his candidacy before people assume they'd rather throw their vote away on one of the other candidates. |
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Re: Green Party Candidates Talk |
by Tru Green
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
04 Jun 2004
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Dear Meghan,
I could not agree more. The Green Party deserves the radical, revolutionary vote.
One must ask themselves in these difficult times, if the weathly should be able to keep their exhorbitant salaries. Do the Green's really want people who own their land to be able to do with it whatever they please? Should they be able to truly own the land that after all is nothing more than a gift?
Where are your principles people? If you really believe in the cause than should you not support the candidate. If we support them with our dollars and our votes, we may just win. It may not be today, I may not be tomorrow, but someday the uninformed will come to realize that a government which provides for us all is a government that we can trust.
Do not surrender to the those that say you are wasting your vote, rather vote your principle. We can win and we will have a country in which no one man can rule another simply by what he or she earns. We can have clean air, clean water, for the children that we choose to be born. We can defeat poverty by preventing those who were born into wealth and those who do nothing but attempt to accumulate it from amassing it. The money they steal from the masses can and will be redistributed to those among us that our less fortunate regardless of their abiltiy or their desire to conform to the masses.
Supporting any other so called party, supports the execution of more innocent Muslims all over the world. The current alternative to Bush will do nothing more than change the face of the murderer and you will have helped elect them. Kerry, after all, volunteered to kill in SouthEast Asia and from his own words participated in the slaughter. How could you support such a man?
It is time to rise up and support what you believe not what you believe to be the path of least resistence. We may never win through the ballot until we actually try. If not, we must seek to prevail by other means. Keep the faith and follow your heart. |
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Re: Green Party Candidates Talk |
by Anna Epelbaum
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Jun 2004
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I have had the encounter with Mr. Z. Miller in January of 2004. I got the impression that he had some prejudices (racial included), and also some inclinations , like "warriors" of cultural revolution in China, to destroy authorities in areas where he, personally, had no knowledge and no experience.
It was a short though meaningful encounter. I have no reasons to make solid conclusions. However, I want to emphasize that when someone wants to improve government, implementing there new, fresh and, practically, unknown people, it is very important to check out all possible information prior to their implementation, as these new people might cause the government 's work to become even worse than it was before. |
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Re: Green Party Candidates Talk |
by Zachary C. Miller
zach (nospam) chambana.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Jun 2004
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Anna's attack on me above does not tell the whole story of our very brief "encounter". I have no interest in airing issues of interpersonal conflict on a public newswire but if Anna chooses to attack my character, I think the whole story needs to be told rather than simply aluded to so that this attack stands in it's proper context.
I have been an occasional volunteer producer and coordinator for the IMC Radio Group for several years. Early this year Anna approached the group with a story idea. Her story (as reported here on the IMC newswire) is that her husband was the inventor of the modern microprocessor and that he was denied credit for his invention. She believes there was a racist motivation behind a conspiracy to leave her husband (who is Black) uncreditted for his contribution to society.
This story is intriguing. It bears some investigation. It deserves some attention. I don't know if it is true or not. I don't know if it can be proven or not. I do know that Anna is very passionate about getting the story told.
One of the IMC Radio Group's volunteers offered to record an interview with Anna's husband. The interview was lengthy and rambling and the volunteer decided that he did not have the time or energy to edit it into a piece that would be relevent and topical for our weekly 30 minute local radio program. He asked the group if anyone else was willing to work on the piece and no one else had the time, energy or interest to do so either. Anna became quite aggressive in her attempts to convince the group that her story should be aired and this non-cooperatve attitude sealed most members of the group's unwillingness to produce the piece.
The interview remains in our archives and can be produced into a piece by anyone interested in taking on the task. The IMC runs on volunteer power and volunteers have no responsibility to produce anything on demand.
My entire involvement in this incident was to simply attend a meeting and speak up in support of the rights of volunteers to refuse to produce on demand and the rights of volunteers to change their mind about whether or not they want to produce a piece. I also sent an email to Anna explaining much of the same. As I often do, I attempted to act as a mediator in this conflict, to help all sides understand what was happening. Anna refused to accept any side of the story but her own and left the group quite angry.
I encourage anyone who is concerned about the character problems that Anna alleges me to have to speak with any member of the IMC Radio Group about this concern. I believe that they will refute Anna's assertions. |
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Re: Green Party Candidates Talk |
by Ed Mandel
frozenthought (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
08 Jun 2004
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I will volunteer to be a witness to Zachary Miller's character. I have known him since 1998 thru our mutual involvement with WEFT--the local community radio station. He had a morning menu show & an evening political show--both shows he shared with Arun Bhalla. Both shows he helped program contained a great deal of world music--a euphemism for music that is produced outside of the U.S. He also had an elected administrative position on the WEFT associate executive commitee. Zachary Miller is a passionate intelligent fellow who has not shown any indication of racial prejudice in the 6 years I have known him.
While politically I am on a different path from him, I have to concede I agree with his willingness to oppose a candidate who is officially unopposed in the election. There does seem to be a collusion between the two major parties to quite frequently offer voters a single choice for election in a district & then claim that this is a product of a democratic process. A couple of years ago, Green part candidate Carl Estabrook challenged Republican congressman Tim Johnson for his unopposed seat which forced the Democratic party to scramble and offer a candidate in response. It is to Zachary Miller's credit that he has the courage of his convictions & to offer those convictions to the scrutiny of the general electorate. It is very easy to post a comment here on the IMC's site; it is a greater committment to offer those same comments in public debate where they will be challenged & where they will need to be defended. --ED |
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I'll Vouch for Zach, Too |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
08 Jun 2004
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I've known Zach for a number of years. He has always been a passionate spokesperson for the powerless against the powerful. While Anna is entitled to her opinion, I doubt if it is shared by anyone I know (or anyone else for that matter).
Zach did a well-balanced job of relating what likely prompted Anna's ire. The reality is that he was standing up for the underdog then, when he refused to allow IMC volunteers be browbeaten by her. Anna should examine a bit more closley her very subjective evaluation of her part in the dispute, rather than fabricate unfounded charges against Zach because of a personal disagreement. |
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Re: Green Party Candidates Talk |
by Jack Ryan
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
04 Jul 2004
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Hey ML,
Thanks for vouching for Zach, that means alot!!!
Jack |
