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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Why Green Horizon? Why Now? |
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by Dean Myerson
(No verified email address) |
12 Jul 2001
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Green Horizon is a new journal of Green politics and opinion. |
John Rensenbrink of Green Hroizon writes:
"We saw a critical need to elucidate, critique, and enliven the meaning and application of Green values of ecology, democracy, and justice, and in this way contribute to the growth of a Green culture. Values and a new cultural consciousness are at the source of, and constitute the basis for, the short and long term development of the Green movement and a new politics. The name Green Horizon fits our new project perfectly."
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Why Green Horizon? Why Now?
Two critical needs clamor for a journal like Green Horizon, both on the web and in hard copy. First, many people of progressive persuasion do not understand the Greens, know what makes us tick. They wonder why we should oppose Democrats if we are only just to the left of Gore. Electoral campaigns rarely permit in-depth discussion, so the deeper differences between Greens and Democrats do not get aired in campaigns. Green Horizon provides the opportunity to describe why when someone asks me what my politics are, I say "Green" instead of liberal or left or progressive, even though it includes elements of those.
Secondly, new opportunities create baffling challenges for Green organizing. Since we know that it usually takes three Greens to decide when, where, how, and why two light bulbs should be screwed in, we Greens need journal-space to grow, develop, and apply our basic values and critical judgment to the organizing challenges we face day by day. Other journals do some of this work, and that is welcome. But Green Horizon clearly roots itself in a philosophy and politics that is inherently ecological and that seeks to go beyond all the ideologies of the two previous centuries by focusing on Green politics and values. The statement of purpose of Green Horizon identifies the Ten Key Values as its leitmotief. This ensemble of values reveals the Green commitment to the entire spectrum of human needs in their natural ecological context. Furthermore, Green Horizon plans to recruit articles both from core Greens as well as from kindred spirits outside of the Green Party. The plan includes paying contributors of articles. One important and unnoticed step in the Nader 2000 campaign was the scores of Greens who earned a paycheck for their political activities for the first time. Green Horizon wants to continue that trend!
As I look down the road of the evolution of Green Horizon, I see it developing many different features, to which my early-morning imagination gives these names: Taproot will look at philosophical issues. Spreading Wings will report on case histories of Green organizing. Green Light will feature two Greens of opposing viewpoints making their arguments. Symbiosis looks at coalition-building. And Crucible examines issues surrounding an electoral campaign. And more!
I am joined by the editors and publishers of Green Horizon in believing that the arrival of the Green Party on the national scene in 2000 demands print space for the full, detailed, fractious, passionate debate and analysis of the Green agenda for the new century- for the new millenium!
Dean Myerson is ASGP Organizing Coordinator And former Secretary, Association of State Green Parties, Lead Coordinator, 2000 Green National Nominating Convention, Denver, CO; and Regional Campaign Coordinator, Nader 2000 campaign. |
See also:
http://www.green-horizon.org/
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