It’s almost time for Christmas and a perfect time to clean up your computer email folders for the New Year. Here is how it works. You go to each and every email address that you have. And for each email message that you delete you add one cent to your Green Party donation. You can donate to either your state or local chapter of the GP or the National Chapter or all of them.

Example: In my case I have three primary email accounts.

Yahoo #1 I deleted 92 emails in my trash folder and 42 in my spam.

Yahoo #2 I deleted 121 in my trash folder and 20 in my spam.

Gmail account I deleted 175 emails in my trash folder, 4 in my spam folder, 306 in my updates folder and 938 in my promotions folder.

Added all together. I deleted a total of 1694 emails. OK I rounded that up to 1700.

I’m sending a check for $17.00 dollars to the Washington State chapter of the Green Party.

• A citizen of the United States, a legal resident of Washington state, AND at least 18 years old by election day
• Not disqualified from voting due to a court order OR incarcerated for a federal or out-of-state felony conviction.
• Not currently serving a sentence of total confinement under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections for a Washington felony conviction.

• The Mailing Address is printed on the back of each voter registration form.
• Form folds for easy mailing; No postage required if you use the official form. (YAYI)
• Forms are available in many languages.

I have a feeling that most people are like me when they consider buying a new electric car. They really want to do their part in removing fossil fuel and its multiple harmful pollutants from the atmosphere but running a battery dead is a bit different than running out of gas.

The reason of course is because charging stations in many parts of the country are still far and few between. Another big reason is because many people use their cars for vacation traveling and long weekends. On the vacation issue, electric car manufacturers and dealers could easily solve this problem.

Let’s face it electric cars are expensive, but I don’t see any reason why dealers and car companies can’t reasonably build the cost of a rental car, of say fourteen days a year for three or four years, into the cost of buying an electric vehicle. And let the car buyer use those rental days in any way that he or she likes. If I wanted to take a few long weekends over the course of a year, fine, or use all two weeks at one time for a longer vacation, also fine.

This would take a huge amount of stress out of people’s minds that would rather own an electric car than a gas-powered car. It would also give the country a few more years to start adding charging stations wherever they were most needed. And most importantly for people who go electric it would take their greenhouse polluting machines off the roads fifty weeks of the year. And it would also be a business boom for rental car companies to boot.

OK, car manufacturers and dealers, this is a pretty simple and fairly cheap fix, and our atmosphere desperately needs it. And remember, if you’re purchasing an electric car soon there is no reason why you can’t ask the dealer to make this a part of the purchase agreement. Even if they refuse to do this perhaps you can convince them to knock off five hundred or a thousand dollars from the price instead!

Imagine, the American electoral system of representative democracy. A fine system, democracy, yet there is a complication within the American version. Democracy is a pathway to a multitude of possibilities constrained only by the action and imagination of the electorate. The American version, is covered by a box, in order to restrain action and imagination. The electorate simply cannot think outside the box, even though they do have the ability. This is because the box has been insidiously designed to appear inescapable, to appear immutable and to appear institutional. The box is first past the post voting. The box is gerrymandering and other forms of voter suppression. The box is a media complex designed to stoke fear and apathy. As a result, the democratic process inside the box resembles less a healthy electorate and more a game of football where two teams work to score points against the other in a constant contest. This does not have to be so; all sides of the box can be challenged.

Challenging the box is no simple or easy task. First, in the past the post voting systems have long been ingrained in U.S politics as are various tactics of voter suppression. Still, there are both alternatives and long-standing opposition to these factors. There is hope, as ranked-choice voting spreads across the country and the state with the help of organizations like Fair Vote. Ranked Choice voting transforms elections from winner take all contents into referendums on the reception of the candidates. The change is simple and actionable. The change is already occurring and there is hope for vast systematic change with simple agitation and reform, longtime tools of Americans and all Democratic societies.

Ranked Choice voting is a needed electoral reform and will have a transformative effect on any area where it is adopted. Still, it is not a cure all. Standing against media and internet misinformation and a corrupt media establishment are goals that seem to lack a definitive end point. Twenty First Century mass communication has impacted the electorate in ways that are still being understood and undergone. One thing is certain, voters are demoralized. Voters are being told their opponents want to destroy them, with varying degrees of accuracy. Voters believe they cannot challenge a political class that has secured their power with billions of dollars and corrupt institutions. Indeed, the prognosis can feel bleak.

The bleakness is merely an illusion of the box. Outside of the box exists the possibility to engage in vibrant political action, to in-vision a dream and actualize it in reality with the help of others. Outside of the box are options that now merely conceptualizations. The possibilities outside of the box are endless. The box must merely be identified for what it is, an artificial construct that can be thrown in the garbage.

This is my first year as a member of the Green Party. I am excited to work towards environmental and electoral reform in Washington State and beyond. I write today because I need the help of anyone and everyone who reads. Recently, Washington State held primary elections for a plethora of positions. I was disappointed to find a lack of green and third-party candidates for the Washington State House. That is not to say that there were not any, but there were far from enough. That is the question I need help answering; why is this case? The times we find ourselves in are turbulent, but there is an opportunity to seize. There are Greens across Washington State who are ready and willing to challenge the big two-party structure. Where are they during the primary and how can the Green Party of Washington State better equip these individuals? State House elections are smaller than national contests and are less awash in endless swarms of donor dollars. They are prime targets to insert Green hopefuls into.

As a member of the coordinating council, it is my hope to look further into the best possible methods to make Democrats and Republicans sweat during state elections and start building Green Power in a way that will allow the massive systematic maintenance the country requires. I welcome and request all input to this end. I am curious to learn party members’ perspective on what can be done to provide and equip Green Candidates when the opportunity arrives again in two years’ time to win these contestable elections that are so often neglected in the minds of voters. It is my firm belief that the Green Party of Washington can in the course of two years, win such elections. It is only a question of research, development, and deployment. I look forward to sharpening my ideas against off your own.

The Evergreen – September 2022