How I discovered the Green Party
I'm from South Africa and have a background as a youth leader and activist in the anti-apartheid struggle. Before I moved here, my idea of politics in the U.S. equaled Democrats versus Republicans, plus the odd billionaire who could afford to have himself heard. Since neither of the two major parties ideologies and modus operandi were in line with my beliefs and principles, I reluctantly prepared myself for life as a political spectator.

Then one Friday night in August 2000, I stumbled across a C-Span television broadcast of a Green Party rally in Minnesota that featured Ralph Nader as the main speaker. I watched with childish delight as if I had discovered something that I was not supposed to be aware of. I discovered the Green Party that night, and I am still proud to be associated with the only genuine and unwavering political mouthpiece of the marginalized and disempowered populace of American society.

--Danzel van Zyl, D.C. Statehood Green Party

Feminist and Green
I became a Green, in 1992, because I was outraged to see a local Green candidate bumped off the ballot unjustly by the very official she was challenging, so I offered to become a Green just long enough to run a 17-day write-in protest campaign against him. The guy was re-elected, but four thousand people vindicated my effort by learning how to correctly spell my name in those two and a half weeks, and that was that. 

Except... except that when I sat down to do it, I really couldn't  think of why I would change my party affiliation back. The Green Party was the only party I had ever seen use the word Feminist, and mean it. Last year, I ran for office again-- this time over 23,000 voted yes. Still not enough, but I'm not done yet.  It was an accident of fate, a moment of honor, that brought me to be a Green. I've never looked back.

--Claudia Ellquist, Arizona

Make the Green Leap
There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come, and the time has come for people to make the Greenleap to a sustainable world. You don't have to vote for a Green President, but you can vote to elect scores of local Progressive and Green officials who will be able to help craft the policies that will create the kind of sustainable society we will need to survive in the coming century.

--Charles Shaw, June, 2004 Newtopia Magazine

Always Green
I was born Green. From the time I was about the age of 12, I have been radically opposed to industrialism. In 1970 I went off to college to study wildlife management so I could help endangered species. Very quickly I figured out the problems were not with the animals, but with the people, so I studied anthropology instead. I heard about the Green Party in Germany and said, as soon as it gets here, I am joining. In Maine the first meeting of the Green Party was in the winter of 1984 and I joined right up and have been at it continuously ever since, for more than 21 years.

-- Greg Gerritt, Rhode Island

Light One Candle
Cambridge, MA has used proportional representation for the past 64 years. The city has a Moody's AAA bond rating, with good municipal services. Their City Council electoral debates are full of city planning details and have little mudslinging.  Historically, certain varieties of proportional representation have always crushed electoral corruption. For example, Cincinnati went from a political disaster to an impeccably run town in the 1920s. PR's only problem is that the local crooks usually pay huge sums of money to get it repealed, so that they can plunder the town forever.  Anyone can curse a rotten local or national politician. I want to light one candle. I want electoral corruption to end. I'm with the Greens specifically because they support proportional representation.

-- Paul Klinkman, Rhode Island

Former Democrat
[As] a former Democrat, I became increasingly frustrated with the Democrats' continual shift to the right and what I saw as the abandonment of their traditional "base" (the working class), with their alliance with and allegiance to corporate America, with their refusal to address unsustainable policies that are killing our planet. In short, I could no longer rationalize voting for corporatist militarists simply because they were "not as bad" as the extreme right. But more important, I came to the realization that a party already existed that represented my thirst for social justice, ecological wisdom, and grassroots democracy. That party was the Green party. For the first time in my life, I felt like my bumper sticker, "Think globally, Act locally," had real meaning.

--Steve Geiger, Oregon Pacific Green Party

The Earth needs us
Back in the mid-'90s I realized that the two-party system did not represent my beliefs and values. I voted for Ralph Nader for the first time in 1996, my first third-party vote. In 2000 I worked on his campaign and knew that this was the party for me. The four pillars spoke to my beliefs and values, how I viewed the world should be. We formed the Greater Milwaukee Green Party and I was part of it. I am proud to be Green. I hope we continue to grow in these most difficult times. This country needs us, the earth needs us.Hopefully Green and Growing,

--Ruth Weill, Greater Milwaukee Green Party, Wisconsin

Building community
I registered Green in 1994, when I moved back to Alaska, where I had been born and raised, from Seattle, where I had lived for six years. Being away from home for so long made me aware of how important a sense of community was to me. When I came back north, I knew I wanted to live in a place where people cared about each other and the place they lived--and that I had a responsibility to help create that sense of community. The Green Party is the only party that specifically includes community-building in its political platform and underlying principles, and that includes all aspects of it: respect for diversity, community-based economics, local decision-making, participatory democracy, nonviolent problem-solving, personal responsibility, gender equity, responsibility to future generations,  and recognition and inclusion of the environment within human society. The Greens are about taking care of our home, together.

--Deirdre Helfferich, Tanana-Yukon Green Party, Alaska

Government of, by, and for the people
I was born and raised in a small town in Connecticut where I was taught that there were but two political parties--one for the rich and one for the poor. This left me little option but to register as a Democrat when I became eligible to vote. A short time later I moved to Providence, RI, to attend college. I found myself in a state dominated by Democrats, yet I was not witnessing the type of progressive politics that I expected from what I was taught was a left-leaning party. Instead I saw corruption and corporate favor. I discovered the Greens after speaking with a candidate for the state legislature, and agreeing whole-heartedly with his views. After volunteering on his campaign, I became aware that these were not the views of only a few individuals, but of a sizable party. I remember reading the Ten Key Values for the first time and being moved by the fact that my personal beliefs had been so articulately stated as the basis for a political movement. At a time when conservatism has experienced a rebirth and the Democrats have abdicated their role as the opposition party, these values have the potential to awaken a new generation of Americans to the idea that our government is truly of, by, and for the people.

--Ben Gworek, Green Party of Rhode Island