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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>A letter from today's Minneapolis Star Tribune to
Liza Featherstone's column critical of the Greens' candidate for senator Ed
McGaa, who is running against incumbent Paul Wellstone and Republican Norm
Coleman. I thought Liza's article was right on, a one hour program with
McGaa on Minnesota Public Radio a month ago was enough to convince me he is the
worst possible candidate for the party and enough to get me registered to vote
for Wellstone. The response in the letter below is written by someone who really
seemed to not have read Liza's criticisms very carefully. Much of her letter is
just a defensive response and an attribution of positions to Liza that I think
it's fair to say she didn't take in her opinion piece. </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV class=mainhead style="MARGIN-TOP: 9px">Saturday: Letters from readers</DIV>
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<DIV class=fontsize1 style="MARGIN-TOP: 6px; COLOR: #666666">Published Aug
3, 2002</DIV></TD>
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<DIV class=hidden><SMALL>ELET03</SMALL></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
<P><SPAN class=subhead>Greens are here to stay </SPAN></P>
<P>Unfortunately, Liza Featherstone must have been more interested in creating a
rhetorical blast than a thoughtful analysis in her July 28 commentary ("A
political gesture instead of a movement"). </P>
<P>Her Opinion page diatribe is more of the same sarcastic father-knows-best
schlock that gets thrown around every time a Green Party candidate makes a
serious run in a so-called "high stakes" race.</P>
<P>She basically asserts that the Green Party of Minnesota is an illegitimate
group of airheaded folks who don't care about making political change as much as
making an impotent political gesture. </P>
<P>Featherstone's thinking implicitly defends two-party domination by equating a
meaningful movement with large numbers (whether in money or votes). By this
logic, small parties are to be ridiculed -- stopping them, Catch-22 style,
before they can gain substantial support.</P>
<P>Consider this: What is a movement, but a gesture without regard to immediate
consequences, slowly amplified by folks with principles? </P>
<P>If the Green Party of Minnesota were merely a gesture, would it not have
fallen away with the echoes of Ralph Nader's 2000 presidential bid?</P>
<P>Yet here we are, with more support, candidates and visibility than ever.</P>
<P>How many elections will it take before this argument is completely unmasked
as an attempt to protect the dominance of the Democratic and Republican parties,
which have given our world to corporate control?</P>
<P><B><I>-- Jesse Mortenson, Stillwater.</I></B></P>
<P><STRONG><EM></EM></STRONG> </P>
<P><FONT face=Arial size=2><A
href="http://www.startribune.com/stories/563/3137328.html">http://www.startribune.com/stories/563/3137328.html</A></FONT></P></DIV></BODY></HTML>