Article: One Man's "Green" is Another's Black Tea

What does "Being Green" mean to the mainstream media, to the Democratic and the Republican insiders?

The title of a CBS's Horserace blog entry last week was entitled "Not easy Being Green". The author used the phrase "Being Green" to discuss the challenges Barak Obama will feel in finding a running mate who vets well under public scrutiny, given all the ties to corporations and lobbyists.

Is there irony that the CBS article was "Presented by Exxon Mobil". Perhaps the title should have been "Not easy Finding Green When you Declare that You Will No Longer Take Corporate or lobbyist Money", as Obama declared early in the month.

While it's not easy "Being Green" it's really not easy being "Seriously Green." Ask a Green Party Presidential candidate, whose party allows no corporate funding whatsoever and whose party members are, by and large, working class people without spare dollars.

With little ground organization provided by the party, except in a few states like Illinois, Maryland, Maine, California, Minnesota, Texas and New York, all four of the Green Party Presidential candidates are working hard to collect enough to pay for trips to their potential constituents and to their Convention, let alone qualify for matching funds. None of them are close, at this point, to meeting the base requirements of raising $5000 from 22 different states, not even the lead candidate, former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney.

Early last week, the Green Party's national leadership sent out a donation plea to party members on behalf of all the candidates. Being a party that espouses democratic values and egalitarianism, the party leadership could not ask directly for donations to go to the presumptive candidate, McKinney. However, Richard Winger, of Ballot Access News, believes that the National Green Party leaders should have done just that so that at least one candidate could carry the Green flag with some kind of visibility into the final election period.

What will McKinney do if the funds are not raised? Will she raise or fold? If she folds, will one of the three remaining candidates, Jesse Johnson, Kent Mesplay or Kat Swift, claim the responsibility for finishing the campaign or does Ralph Nader ride into the rescue? These questions are circulating amongst Greens as they also watch some notable Greens, chief amongst them being California Green Party co-counder and San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, accept Obama as a choice they can abide.

Oh no, it really isn't easy "Being Green," when one man's "Green" is another's black tea.