Deanna Dee-Dee Taylor

I was really happy to learn of the article pasted below. I am from the town the article is about (actually a little town 6 miles west of it – but in the same county and I worked in Frederick for 15 years). Historically a democratic county, I have seen it turn more republican throughout the years. I am also happy to see how the Green Party is growing in my home state.
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Link to article
By Fredrick Kunkle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, July 17, 2005; Page C05

The Maryland Green Party hopes to double its number of elected officials in the state by championing a candidate this fall for a seat on Frederick’s Board of Aldermen.

But first, the candidate has to get on the ballot.

Joanne Ivancic explains the petition process to Green Party volunteers preparing to gather signatures at Baker Park. She said the party has about 700 of the more than 900 names needed to put her on the ballot for Board of Aldermen. (By Grant L. Gursky For The Washington Post)
Despite a July 2003 ruling by the state’s high court that eased the way for the Greens and other small political parties to get on election ballots, first-time candidate Joanne Ivancic has had to fight for the chance to run in Frederick because the city’s charter requires a candidate to obtain the signatures of 3 percent of active voters — or about 915 names. The provision also requires that signatories state their intention to vote for the candidate — an element criticized by Green members as an unlawful infringement on the right to a secret ballot.

Ivancic, 50, a lawyer who works as a mediator, and her fellow party members have pinned their hopes on a proposed charter change the Board of Aldermen will consider Thursday. To be on the safe side, however, Greens have been attending public gatherings, such as the city’s weekend music program in Baker Park, to collect the necessary signatures on a petition. Ivancic said they have gathered about 700 of the names needed to earn a slot on the ballot. The deadline for petition candidates is Oct. 3.

“It’s not easy,” she said. “It has been a complete distraction from other things we’d like to do,” such as developing policy.

As of March 5, the Maryland State Board of Elections counted 307 registered Green Party members in Frederick County; there are 103 in the city of Frederick, according to the Frederick County Board of Elections. The party is the largest third party in Maryland, with 11 chapters and 7,523 members as of March, according to the State Board of Elections and a party spokesman. In 2004, the Greens sponsored 15 candidates, including seven for Congress and eight for Baltimore City Council.

The largest number of party members, 1,510, reside in the state’s biggest city, Baltimore, followed by 1,352 in Montgomery County. Their platform rests on four planks: grass roots, or decentralized party organization, nonviolence, protecting the environment and social justice.

“I think we’d like to see a Green elected in this state. I think we’re really close,” Maryland Green Party spokesman Daniel Waldman said. He said the only Green serving in public office so far is Michael Cornell, a member of the River Hill Village Board of Directors in Howard County.

“The Democrats and Republicans have, historically, done everything possible to keep the other parties off the ballot,” Waldman said. “In Joanne’s case, it’s very steep, and possibly illegal or unconstitutional method of keeping her off the ballot.”

In Frederick, the Green chapter came back to life after Hood College student Whitney Trettien, 19, organized a meeting March 30 at the C. Burr Artz Public Library downtown. She said she felt that the fast-growing city was ripe for alternatives to the two-party system.

“We’ve been talking about that for months now. It’s a cool little city. It’s attracted a lot of young people,” she said. About 30 people came to the first meeting. Trettien, who is studying English and philosophy, said she decided she could not run because she will soon head to Thailand for a teaching stint.

If the Greens succeed in putting her on the November ballot, Ivancic will join a crowded election field. With two weeks left before the primary election’s Aug. 1 filing deadline, there are five candidates for mayor: two Democrats and three Republicans, including Stanley Charles Mazaleski, 71, who resides in Emmitsburg, 23 miles away. There are 13 candidates for five seats on the Board of Aldermen. Only two incumbents — Marcia A. Hall and Donna K. Ramsburg, both Democrats — are seeking another term on the board.

Mazaleski’s candidacy was an unexpected consequence of a federal judge’s ruling that struck down a three-year residency requirement for mayoral candidates, thereby allowing former mayor Ronald N. Young to challenge incumbent Jennifer P. Dougherty. The city then amended the charter, effective last Wednesday, to a one-year residency requirement for candidates for mayor and alderman. Mazaleski filed after the judge’s ruling but before the charter change took effect.

Of the three current Republicans on the board, Joseph W. Baldi has launched a campaign for mayor. Aldermen David G. Lenhart and William G. Hall have announced their intentions not to seek reelection.

Friday’s filing by Samie L. Conyers for the Board of Aldermen as a Republican candidate means the city will need a primary election Sept. 13 for both parties. That makes 13 candidates, six Republicans and seven Democrats, for the five seats.

“I certainly think it’s been interesting already, and I certainly anticipate it getting more interesting and hot as it gets going,” Marcia Hall said. Hall, who voted for Young in past elections, is backing Dougherty now.

As an observer on the Green Party of the United States discussion lists, I get to read dozens of emails a day from Greens from all over the country. One post today really struck me. A delegate from Alabama relayed that his state is a “non-partisan registration state, with 4.5 million people scattered over several piddly-sized metro areas, plus severely impoverished rural regions that could hold several New England states. Adult illiteracy is between 20 and 25 percent. The ballot access rules there are among the worst in the nation. They have no real tradition of democracy here: The Democratic Party oligarchy only ended in the 1980s, and its legacy is still with us (in a two-party wrapper).”

In its two years of existence, according to this delegate, Alabama Greens have “learned that organizing this state is going to be kind of like organizing Indonesia, only with less of a language barrier. (Also, Indonesia has more experience with democracy.)

It made me appreciate the fact that Utah has fair voting laws compared to some.

We finally completed our planting today – for the time being (we plan to do a fall planting of peas and leafy greens). We still have a lot of cultivating to do all over in both gardens. Our back garden is full of plants from which we are harvesting seeds – spinach, lettuce, chard, and carrots. Today I harvested quite a few spinach seeds.

Here are photos:
Garden

I am going to be attending the National Green Party Convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma July 21 – 24. I am eager to put faces with names (from national discussion lists) and attend the workshops that are being offered. Tom and I are offering this workshop on the 21st:

The Facts of Nuclear Testing and Waste Transportation – It Affects Us All!

Many Utahns are all-too-painfully acquainted with the deadly legacy that decades of nuclear weapons testing left our nation:
Toxic and radioactive waste from nuclear weapons manufacturing
Deadly fallout from atmospheric and below-ground testing
A lingering mistrust of the government resulting from their assertions that testing would be safe.
Workshop participants will receive an overview via a multi-media presentation describing the “safety myths” of nuclear testing and radioactive waste storage and transportation which affects not only Utahns but everyone in our nation. Participants will learn what they and their State Green Parties can do to help in the effort to prevent renewed nuclear testing and place moratoriums on the transportation of nuclear waste.

We are fortunate to have the help of some local environmentalists who works on these issues full time. We will have a power point presentation, other visuals, and lots of handouts.

Other workshops we hope to be able to attend, aside from the daily plenary sessions:

Private Prisions workshop
Green Tempest Workshop
Campaign School
Reyes Anti-War Workshop
Right To Vote Act (speaker Asa Gordon)
Green Alliance Iraq workshop

This will be a wonderful opportunity to network and brainstorm with Greens from around the U.S.

I have created a website for a business I would like to start. It is called Sunflowers Now!

I never thought I’d be purchasing a car again (I haven’t had one for a couple of years), but Tom’s truck is dying and we need to travel about the country this summer. Flying didn’t appeal to us and I received a small inheritance from my recently deceased grandmother’s estate, so I decided to get a small used car with it. It is a 1999 Mitsubishi Mirage with 69,000 miles on it. I purchased it from a car rental company going out of business.

I still plan to take the bus, walk, and bike as much as I can. I really would have like to have something with which I could use biodiesel, but I couldn’t find one. Someday we won’t have a choice…. Until then, I will use a vehicle when I have to and try not to have one that has a lien on it.

Thanks, Grandma! I miss you….

My daughter Emily poses with my new car.

Well, the day finally arrived ~ Brian’s high school graduation. Here are a few photos from the event last night. We are all very proud of him.

I have heard that the school tv news program, “Channel One” is showing military ads every day in school.

Channel One has been around a long time. It automatically comes on and students are required to watch it. It is produced by the Pepsi Company.

If you have kids in middle or high school or know of any, call the school and ask if they show Channel One – Then loudly complain. This is not right.

More and more parents and schools are protesting the clause in the No Child Left Behind Act which states that schools must hand over all student records to military recruiters upon request. This hidden clause also states that parents can opt out by submitting a letter to their students’ school.

If schools refuse to comply with this provision, they lose all federal funding.

And now there is a movement to target middle school students by the military. Additionally, the Pepsi Company’s “Channel One” student news program that is shown in hundreds of schools across the nation, has military ads on it every day. Schools who subscribe to this program require their students to watch it.

The military industrial complex is desperate for recruits. It is becoming increasingly apparent that they will go to any length to recruit, including targeting young impressionable minds and especially those in poor populations.

I am involved with an organization that will be showing the Veterans for Peace film “Arlington West” on June 18th. We will have opt-out forms for parents and students to use to submit to their schools. This is just one way that our community can protest this provision in what is supposed to be an education act.