Friday, September 24, 2010

Sierra Club convention, Feingold for Senate

I'm wrapping 2 posts in one here - one per paragraph.

Today I spent the day at the Sierra Club national headquarters with 60 other chapter delegates from across the country at the meeting of the "Council of Club Leaders."  This is like a convention where people all gather to work out their differences and propose new "rules of the Sierra Club."  It is essentially an excercise in democracy, except of course, we are all pretty much united by our belief in the "John Muir and Redwoods" goals to "explore, enjoy and protect" the planet and nature.  I also got to meet new ED Michael Brune as well as most of the national board of directors.  They are really hard working.  Especially the board always amazes me.  They do all this work for nothing except to serve the movement!  You basically can't do this and have a regular job at the same time.

In other news, I was sad to hear, through the Wisconsin delegate who attended the convention, that Russ Feingold from my home state is trailing in the polls.  This is deeply disturbing.  First, because Russ is a true blue progressive voice, who has never - or let's say much more rarely than any other politician I know - compromised his beliefs.  He was the sole dissenting voice who voted against the Patriot Act in 2001.  Secondly, Russ is such a solid debater, speaker and campaigner, that it saddens me that so many citizens of Wisconsin are buying the claims of his opponent that Russ is wrong for the state.  I took the time to listen to a good analysis of what is happening there posted on the nation online.  The idea that the changing media landscape is allowing a well heeled challenger who allies himself with the Tea Party to "dictate the message" to ignorant voters (because they don't get any news about what their current Senator is really doing) is pretty scary.  Here is what I think: if the people of Wisconsin actually took the time to understand what is going on, instead of blaming the current administration for the economic mess we're in, I cannot imagine that Russ would be challenged to win in a serious way.  And, what happens in Wisconsin is no doubt happening in many other states.  Anger is trumping reason.