Inside:
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GPNJ Chair Earl Gray dead at age 76
Earl Gray, Chair of the Green Party of New Jersey,
died on Friday May 20, 2005, after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis. This is a grave loss for our party, for Earl's
family, and for his friends.
Earl was one of the earliest members of GPNJ, having attended the opening
convention in 1997 and attending all of the conventions afterward. He served
in many capacities: Coordinator of the Monmouth local, chair of the
GPNJ Policy Committee, GPNJ Secretary, Vice Chair, and Chair, and candidate
for the New Jersey State Senate.
The following eulogy was written and delivered on behalf of GPNJ at
Earl's funeral on May 24, 2005 by Steve Welzer of Mercer County:
We encountered Earl Gray and he encountered us at our very first Green
Party of New Jersey convention in 1997. He was skeptical at first. He didn't
come back for a couple of months. But gradually he got comfortable with our
type. We got comfortable with Earl, and then we came to love him.
Earl was our official policy wonk. Who will ever forget Earl's diagrams? He
had a diagram for every situation, for every issue. They graphically showed
his ideas for equity, justice, democracy, and peace.
Earl was the kind of leader who made it his personal business to do the
grunt work and pay attention to the details. For just about every state
Green Party convention after that first one, Earl was always among those who
arrived - every year - at 8 a.m. to be sure that the building got opened up
on time; who helped us track down the Campus Police when we invariably
discovered that the building had not been opened up on time; and who then,
once we finally got inside, attended to everything that needed to be set up
.. the coffee pots, the tables and chairs and banners and literature .. And
the books, of course, the books.
I try to keep up with the literature, but Earl was always ahead of me,
always a resource for me and for all of us when it came to knowing the
latest important Green books. Knowing and sharing ... the man was a walking
lending library. He read voraciously and somehow always ferreted out the
best and most timely ideas.
If you ever saw one of the books he was reading, with all the underlines and
annotations in the margins, you could see how he was a very active reader -
because he was a very active thinker. And an active, very special, very dear
... diagrammer.
If the world would learn to dance according to Earl's diagrams of hope it
would be a much better, much Greener place. He was, for all peace, justice,
and ecology activists in New Jersey, a cherished leader who will be sorely
missed.
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A Review of Litigation Challenging New
Jersey Restrictions on Alternative Party Activity
by Steve Welzer
An effort to obtain full rights and fair treatment for alternative parties
in our state was launched in 1993 when two New Jersey colleagues of Ralph
Nader, Carl Mayer and Renee Steinhagen, set up the NJ Task Force for the
Rights of Alternative Parties. Nader had started prioritizing this avenue of
activity in the wake of his 1992 mini-foray into presidential politics (he
ran as a "None of the Above" candidate in both the Democratic and Republican
Party primaries in New Hampshire that year). In 1993 Nader set up the
Appleseed Foundation (http://www.appleseeds.net). Among the main focuses of
that organization are the issues of electoral law reform, ballot access
reform, and campaign finance reform. Its affiliate in New Jersey is the
Appleseed Public Interest Law Center. Renee Steinhagen is the Executive
Director.
Carl and Renee were of great help during 1996 when the Greens in New Jersey
sought to get Nader on the ballot as our presidential candidate. The
following year Renee joined forces with Frank Askin of the Constitutional
Litigation Clinic of Rutgers/Newark Law School as the legal team
representing the Council of Alternative Political Parties (CAPP).
CAPP had been formed in January 1997 in order to synergize third party
initiatives advocating for a more open and responsive political system in
our state. Specifically, CAPP sought "to improve the New Jersey political
process by providing a forum in which citizens who are interested in
supporting alternative political parties and independent candidates can
exchange information and create joint strategies to ensure that candidates
who share their views are provided a fair opportunity to be elected."
In June 1997, CAPP won its first lawsuit when the Third Circuit federal
court declared unconstitutional a state statute that required independent
candidates desiring access to the ballot via petition to file their
completed petitions 54 days prior to the primary election. Encouraged by
this, CAPP set out to gain more victories for third parties, such as:
- allowing voters to register with an alternative party;
- easing the criteria for obtaining major party status;
- ending the discrimination against third parties in regard to financial and
fundraising regulations.
In January 1999, CAPP (at that point comprised of the Green, Reform, Natural
Law, Libertarian, and Constitution parties) brought suit in Superior Court
against the constitutionality of various portions of the State's election
law: specifically, N.J.S.A. 19:1-1, which defines "political party" for
State and Federal election purposes ("An organization is a 'political party'
under New Jersey law when it garners a minimum of 10% of the statewide vote
cast in the preceding General Assembly election"); and the State's voter
affiliation scheme, codified at N.J.S.A. 19:23-45 and N.J.S.A. 19:31-18.1.
A decision was made in the fall of 1999 that our coalition would try to
score an immediate victory by requesting summary judgment on the latter
issues, namely the inability of voters to affiliate with a third party and
the inability of alternative parties to obtain a list of supporters in the
same manner as the major parties.
In court, Renee and Frank detailed how the whole electoral system is stacked
against alternative parties. In addition to the difficulties presented by
the "winner-take-all" system, the major parties in New Jersey have imposed
particularly restrictive and prohibitive laws. No third party has qualified
as an officially recognized party, and hence no one in our state had been
able to register under any label but "Democrat," "Republican," or
"Independent," since the current laws went into effect in 1920!
The decision in the case was rendered in March 2000. We won a major victory
when the state's voter-registration law was struck down as a violation of
the equal protection clause of the federal Constitution. Judge Anthony J.
Parrillo concluded that, without access to lists of those who self-identify
as members of an alternative party, it is much more difficult to organize
and benefit from the voter-registration/affiliation scheme. Accordingly, the
state could not justify the unequal burden it placed on alternative parties.
The State, supported by the Democrats and Republicans, appealed this
verdict, but in September 2001 an Appellate Court panel upheld Judge
Parrillo's decision. County Election Boards have ever since been required to
accept Green Party registrations.
We won an important, unanimous NJ Supreme Court ruling in June 2000 in the
case of Green Party of New Jersey and James Mohn v. Hartz Mountain
Industries, Inc., d/b/a The Mall at Mill Creek. Frank Askin argued our case
on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (Bennet
Zurofsky argued amici curiae for New Jersey Peace Action, New Jersey
Industrial Union Council, AFL-CIO and the New Jersey Labor Party).
In an earlier case (New Jersey Coalition Against War in the Middle East v.
J.M.B. Realty Corp - 1994), the Supreme Court had ruled that owners of
shopping malls must permit leafletting and related political speech (subject
to reasonable time, place and manner restrictions) because the malls
constitute de facto "traditional public forums." In 1996 and 1997, GPNJ
activists Jim Mohn et. al. applied for permission to set up information
tables, hand out leaflets, and obtain petition signatures at the Mill Creek
Mall in Hudson County.
The mall's regulations: 1) limited an applicant's activities to one day per
year (and only between January 1 and October 31) unless otherwise approved
by the mall management upon written request; 2) required applicants to
provide a certificate of insurance in the amount of $1,000,000; and 3)
required applicants to sign a hold-harmless agreement indemnifying the mall
for any claims or losses, including costs and counsel fees incurred
defending the claims. Mohn obtained a quote for the insurance certificate
and found it to be prohibitively expensive.
The Supreme Court ruled that the private property rights of mall owners must
be balanced against the rights of citizens to speak and assemble. The Court
stated that (1) the mall's $1,000,000 insurance certificate requirement
lacked objective proof of reasonableness and was therefore invalid; (2) more
than one day per year is reasonably required to protect the expressive right
involved.
In considering the weight of the Green Party's political speech rights, the
Court noted the "very high value" of leafletting in political discourse. In
weighing the countervailing harm mall owners may suffer, the Court
considered the nature and extent of risk posed by leafleteers and petition
circulators. Since a mall is already faced with the risk of claims from its
invitation to thousands of people per year to shop, the Court found that the
primary question to be answered is "what additional risk to the mall owners
is created by the occasional presence of signature gatherers?"
Although CAPP has not been active in recent years, Renee Steinhagen (now
working in conjunction with Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP) has been
meeting with representatives of the Green, Conservative, and Libertarian
parties to move forward with additional litigation on our behalf. It is
being proposed that the next phase of litigation focus on challenging the
constitutionality of New Jersey laws that (1) limit the ability of
alternative parties to raise money from donors and to contribute money to
candidates; (2) subject minor parties to lobbying restrictions and fees; (3)
prohibit out-of-district petition circulators. The attorneys are offering
their services pro bono (no charge); the plaintiff parties are being asked
to cover expenses associated with the litigation.
GPNJ has been and continues to be a leading force in the effort to open up
the political system in New Jersey through our organizing, electoral
activity, legal challenges, and support for pro-third-party legislation.
Every victory, whether at the ballot box or in court or in the legislature,
brings us that much closer to the achievement of true multi-party democracy.
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County Reports
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BERGEN GREENS HAVE A BUSY
SPRING!
Six members gave out 230 flyers and got 72 signatures on petitions to
"KEEP SOCIAL SECURITY JUST AS IT IS" on Saturday, May 21. Wearing our new
Bergen Green aprons, we distributed flyers and collected signatures first in
front of Costco in Hackensack at 10:30 a.m. We worked there for about 30
minutes before we were asked to leave - we were on private property and had
not received permission from Costco's executive HQ in Washington state. Next
was ShopRite in Englewood, where the reception was far different. We worked
about 2 1/2 hours, distributed our flyers to a most receptive audience, and
got our signatures, in many cases without having to ask.
This is the first step in a program we are lining up to stage more petition
drives, on "SUPPORT OUR TROOPS. BRING THEM HOME" and on "KEEP SOCIAL
SECURITY JUST AS IT IS". Join with us. Send your e-mail address to
harrietrosen@msn.com. We'll keep you updated.
For the third straight year, the BCGP hosted a table at the Celebration
of the Earth Festival at Van Saun Park in Paramus. The Festival, held on
Sunday, May 15 from noon to 5pm, is designed to educate the public about
ways to celebrate and protect our planet, and bills itself as New Jersey's
largest Earth Day related event. (In fact, the Bergen Record stated the
attendance as 2000.)
Our volunteers were all dressed in our natty green "Green Party" aprons,
which greatly enhanced our visibility. Working in two shifts, we distributed
sunflower seeds and instructions to 200 people, as well as literature and
conversation. The seeds and leaflet were organized by Katy Meyer, and were
received even better than our last "hook" of children's tatoos. (And much
easier to distribute!)
The county party was favorably mentioned in the Record's coverage of the
event.
Other recent party activities include electing officers at our June
meeting, and vetting and endorsing four candidates for the Fall election.
Stay tuned for news of our campaigns in future GreenGrams!
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Cumberland County Report
submitted by Gregory Lee Lane
We held a fundraiser on Friday, June 3rd at the U-Sell-It Flea Market
despite the inclement weather, and, through some wheeling-and-dealing,
raised a total of $50.00. We are in the process of revising our bylaws,
which we hope to finalize by the time this issue is published. We released
our membership survey, which shows a membership that ranges from 41 years
and up, most persons still worked, some retired.
As a reaction to this, Rich Raimonde wrote a column "Getting To Know The
Green In You" for a local newspaper, which was published on Saturday, June
18. County Chair Gregory Lee Lane is writing a brochure that will be
presented for membership approval at our regular meeting in late June.
Because our Treasurer Helen Kalla was undergoing some surgery, Mr. Lane
asked for and received approval from the membership to be Acting Treasurer
until she can resume her duties.
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Essex County Report
by Ted Glick
The
Essex County Green Party has been busy. On June 11th, at Rutgers University
in Newark, we participated in a forum, "Free and Fair Elections: How Can We
Get Them?" The organizing for this event was initiated by the Green Party
and the People's Organization for Progress. Other organizations which
participated were the N.J. Industrial Union Council, ACLU of N.J. and the
Coalition for Peace Action. For over two hours there were well-received
presentations and spirited discussion among the 35 people in attendance
about the many problems with our so-called democracy and the need for many
changes if we are to preserve what democracy we have left and to expand it.
Then on
June 20th we organized another successful forum at the Bloomfield Civic
Center with May Dooley, host of the WBAI program, Create Your Healthy Home."
Ms. Dooley impressed the 30 participants with her knowledge about the
hazards of household mold and electromagnetic waves that have emerged as
major health issues over the last 20 or so years. She was critical of some
businesses which claim to deal with the mold problem but often charge
exorbitant sums to homeowners for shoddy work.
Tapes
were made of both forums and copies are available to those who would like
one. Contact Ted Glick at 973-338-5398.
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Gloucester County
Green Party Report
The Marian Little Branch of the Gloucester County Green Party has been busy
getting petitions signed for co-coordinator Chuck Woodrow, who is running
for Freeholder of Gloucester County. He will be the only independent
candidate for Freeholder of this county.
June 5, 2005 marked our most recent tabling event at the Gloucester County
Waterfest, held in Scotland Run Park in Clayton. Along with the usual
assortment of brochures and information, we gave away over 200 sunflower
seedlings to curious passersby. These little plants were contained in the
bottom half of recycled water bottles, which had a small message attached on
green paper that explained that the sunflower is the Green Party’s symbol,
along with some of our Key Values, and website addresses for both our county
and the state. Our group was well represented by at least seven members at
various times manning the table.
One of the group’s favorite spots is The Unexpected Wildlife Refuge in
Newfield, 580 acres of land where the animals are protected from hunters and
developers. It’s run by a peace-loving young woman named Sarah Summerville
who graciously welcomes visitors and leads patrols around the perimeter to
keep hunters at bay. The Refuge is now in the process of purchasing 127
acres of adjoining farm property, and could use some financial assistance
during the settlement process. Please visit their
website
or write them at Unexpected Wildlife Refuge, PO Box 765, Newfield NJ 08344.
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FUNDRAISER FOR GPNJ CANDIDATES
SAVE THE DATE! - AUGUST 21
There will be a pot-luck picnic/fundraiser for the 2005 slate of GPNJ
candidates on Sunday, August 21. It is scheduled for 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at 58
Brooktree Road in East Windsor (directions below). Our gubernatorial
candidate, Matt Thieke, will be in attendance. All candidates are encouraged
to come and make their pitch - and all members and supporters are encouraged
to come with their checkbooks and pens! For information, call: 609-443-6782.
* * * * * *
Directions to 58 Brooktree Road, East Windsor
FROM THE NORTH:
NJ Turnpike to Exit 8A. After paying the toll, bear right (see a sign
indicating the direction toward Route 130). You'll be on Forsgate Drive and
will quickly come to a traffic light. Go through the light and proceed about
one mile to Route 130. Turn left onto Route 130 South. Go about five miles
south until you come into East Windsor. On your left will be a large Shop
Rite and Cineplex and then the Americana Diner; on your right will be a
shopping center with a CVS and a Garden Center. You'll come to a traffic
light at the Princeton-Hightstown Road (Route 571). Go through that light,
past a Mobil station on your right, past another shopping center on your
right with a Staples, and then you'll come to a traffic light at Dutch Neck
Road (you'll see a McDonald's on your right). Go through that light also.
Get in the righthand lane, go past an Exxon station, and then SLOW DOWN
because you'll need to look carefully for the next street where you can make
a right turn. The street is MapleStream Road - it comes up quickly and is
easy to miss if you're going too fast. As you turn right onto MapleStream
Road you will see a "Chicken Holiday Plaza" sign if you look carefully to
your right. After making the right turn onto Maplestream, go about 1/4 mile
(to the end of Maplestream), at which point you can only make a left turn
onto Amy Road. Go about 1/4 mile on Amy to the end, at which point you can
only make a right onto Brooktree. Number 58 is six houses down on the left -
you'll see a basketball pole in front.
FROM THE SOUTH:
Take Route 130 North. When you get to East Windsor you'll see (and go past)
Hickory Corner Road (you'll see Haldeman Ford on the left side of Route 130
at the intersection). Get in the left-hand lane after passing Hickory Corner
Road. Go about another half mile to where you'll see a "Sleepy's" store on
your right. Just across from that, on your left, there is a street that only
turns off to the left (not a major intersection, doesn't have a traffic
light). This is Maplestream Road (you'll see a "Chicken Holiday Plaza" sign
near the corner). Turn left, across the highway, onto Maplestream. Go about
1/4 mile to the end of Maplestream, at which point you can only make a left
turn onto Amy Road. Go about 1/4 mile on Amy to the end, at which point you
can only make a right onto Brooktree. Number 58 is six houses down on the
left - you'll see a basketball pole in front.
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GPNJ carpool trip to visit cohousing
communities
by Steve Welzer
On May 21 sixteen GPNJ members joined a carpool trip to visit two
cohousing communities located in the Potomac River watershed bioregion west
of Washington, DC. Most participants on this trip had previously visited the
EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI), so an interest was to compare the development
and experiences of the different communities.
Ecovillage of Loudoun County, Virginia (ELC) was our first stop. This
project is just getting off the ground. Eight units are built and two are
under construction in the northern neighborhood cluster. A second
neighborhood, located on the southern part of the 180-acre tract, is planned
for development during 2006-2007. There will be 25 houses in each
neighborhood. A shared Common House will be located near the first cluster
and a complementary shared recreational area will be located near the
second.
The ELC project is reminiscent of EcoVillage at Ithaca in many respects.
Both are on a very large piece of land (nearly 200 acres). Both are
committed to restoring biodiversity through careful planning, management and
stewardship. Construction practices preserve existing forest, and protect
wildlife, soil, and water. Both incorporate a multi-neighborhood concept.
EVI already has a working organic farm on premises and ELC has plans for
one. The principals of the Ithaca project have mentored the initiators of
the Loudoun community to some extent.
Ecovillages are a sub-set of the broader grouping called cohousing
communities. Liberty Village, Ecovillage/Loudoun, and Ecovillage/Ithaca are
all part of the Cohousing
Association of the United States. ELC and EVI are also part of the
Global Ecovillage
Network.
Cohousing is a type of collaborative housing that fosters community
interaction through resident management, participatory process, common
facilities, and neighborhood design (residences clustered around a Common
House, cars parked on the periphery, etc.). The Common House may include a
large dining room, kitchen, lounges, meeting rooms, recreational/cultural
facilities, library, workshops, children's space, guest rooms, and other
shared facilities. Residents usually have several optional group meals in
the Common House each week. If you participate in, say, twelve group dinners
in a month you might be obligated to help with the cooking twice a month.
Cohousing communities are managed by their residents. Residents also do
most of the work required to maintain the property. This, in combination
with sharing of things and trading of services (like childcare) keeps living
expenses low.
While there is no formal definition or line of demarcation, ecovillages
tend to be cohousing communities that pay particular attention to fostering
ecological consciousness and green praxis. "Living lightly" is a key value.
An effort is made to keep expenses low, though EcoVillage/Loudoun
encountered a problem in that respect after the initiators had purchased the
land for the site. Zoning laws intended to constrain overdevelopment in
Loudoun County prohibited duplex-unit residences and the extent of
clustering which is found at Ecovillage/Ithaca. It turned out that each unit
at ELC had to be on an approximately half-acre lot. This, in combination
with the current inflation of land and home prices in the D.C. area, has
made prices of units in ELC's first neighborhood higher than desirable for a
cohousing community. They are examining their options in terms of keeping
prices down when the second neighborhood is built.
Liberty Village, located on 23 acres outside of Frederick, Maryland, is
comprised of duplex units. Eighteen homes have been completed out of a
planned 38. The homes are clustered on eight acres around a green,
pedestrian common area. The remaining fifteen acres are a mix of fields,
woods, gardens, orchards, and wetlands. They are fortunate to have a
105-acre public park adjacent to their property.
Both Ecovillage/Loudoun and Liberty Village are anticipating the
construction of their Common Houses, planned in each case for the 2007-2008
timeframe. Both benefit from being part of the Mid-Atlantic Cohousing
Network (MAC). By coincidence, MAC had scheduled for May 22 (the day after
the Saturday GPNJ carpool trip) a bus tour of all the cohousing communities
in the D.C. area. So I stayed over in Silver Spring that night and took the
opportunity on Sunday to visit five other communities (in addition to
re-visiting Loudoun and Liberty Hill). They were: Catoctin Creek Village in
Taylorstown, VA; Eastern Village in Silver Spring, MD; Takoma Village in
Washington, DC; Wheatland Village near Leesburg, VA: and Blueberry Hill in
Vienna, VA. Of interest was the variety in terms of scope, type, cost, stage
of development, etc. Some are urban cohousing complexes, some are rural, and
some are part of small towns.
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What's the point? Well, one type of social transformation will be to
change the extant political, social, and economic institutions of our
society toward a Greener direction. But another type will be to directly
"build the new society within the shell of the old." Robert Gilman described
the significance of this type of work in a 1991 article, The Ecovillage
Challenge (excerpts below from In Context Magazine, Issue #29, Summer 1991).
There is hardly anything more appealing - yet apparently more elusive -
than the prospect of living in harmony with nature and with each other. A
particularly powerful approach to achieving this dream of harmonious living
is the ecovillage, which, for the purposes of this article, we will define
as a human-scale, full-featured settlement in which human activities are
integrated into the natural world in a way that is supportive of healthy
development and can be successfully continued into the indefinite future.
* Human-scale refers to a size in which people are able to know and be
known by the others in the community, and where each member of the community
feels he or she is able to influence the community's direction.
* A "full-featured settlement" is one in which all the major functions of
normal living - residence, food provision, social life, and commerce - are
plainly present and in balanced proportions.
"...in which human activities are harmlessly integrated into the natural
world..."
* This idea brings the "eco" into the ecovillage. One of the most
important aspects of this principle is the ideal of equality between humans
and other forms of life, so that humans do not attempt to dominate over
nature but rather find their place within it. Another important principle is
the cyclic use of material resources, rather than the linear approach (dig
it up, use it once, throw it away forever) that has characterized industrial
society.
"... in a way that is supportive of healthy human development..."
* I see this as involving a balanced and integrated development of all
aspects of human life - physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. This
healthy development needs to be expressed not just in the lives of
individuals, but in the life of the community as a whole.
"... and that can be successfully continued into the indefinite future."
* The sustainability principle brings with it a profound commitment to
fairness and non-exploitation - toward other parts of today's world, human
and non-human, and toward all future life.
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Reference:
www.ecovil.com
www.libertyvillage.com
www.ecovillage.ithaca.ny.us
www.cohousing.org/regions/midatlantic
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1. Greens don't accept money from corporations and limit the amount
individuals can give. Individual citizen support is the foundation of the
Green Party.
2. If you agree with what the Green Party is trying to do, then right now
changing your party affiliation is more important than voting. It's a
paradigm switch. When you vote, your vote disappears right after the
election. Party affiliation is lasting and cumulative.
3. As more people register with the Green Party, the media and other
political parties will have to stop marginalizing the Green Party and take
us and the issues we raise more seriously. The state board of elections puts
out a report each year of how many are registered with each party for all to
see. It's like a continuous vote or snapshot of public opinion. Party
affiliation is the closest thing we have to proportional representation in
the United States.
4. As a practical matter, this can give Green Party activists lists of
people who can help us get GP candidates on the ballot by signing petitions.
5. Another practical matter: As the number of registered Greens grow, it
should become easier to recruit candidates.
OK! You talked me into it! What do I do?
SIMPLE: Download
Party Affiliation Declaration Form from the state government web site
(Adobe Acrobat required), print it, check "Green Party" and mail it to the
address found on the list of
county Superintendents of Elections which is found on the form. This new
document is also now available in
Spanish. Please note that, per the
instructions on the affiliation form, registering as Green will disallow you
from voting in the primaries of other parties.
-----------------------------------------
About the GreenGram
The
GreenGram is circulated bi-monthly in an effort to keep all GPNJ members
informed about recent matters and upcoming events. Members are encouraged to
provide brief submissions of news items or opinions, as well as event
announcements. Deadline for the September issue will be August 20.
Stu Kautsch is the editor, Sally Gellert of SageEditorial
Services is the designer of the PDF version (sageedit@aol.com,
201-391-7243). Please submit
material to the address below or to: skautsch@mindspring.com
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