So far, the Green Party National Convention has failed to disappoint me. Going to these types of events always makes me anxious and I wonder what I’m getting myself into and if it will be worth it. I figure I don’t have time for these types of events and worry about the things left undone on my desk and the many things I might be missing while out of town. And of course, once I get here, that worry slips away as I see all the old and new friends, the results of earnest and hard working activism throughout the United States and have a wonderful the opportunity to learn from others that I can’t really find elsewhere . . . its all worth it. Very worth it and the worry was unnecessary. The things left undone can wait, and the things I miss I can catch up on.
We arrived in Chicago yesterday and got into our room at the Palmer House, Hilton around 2:00. Grabbed a quick bite to eat and had to go do our first workshop. This workshop was “What is Local Democracy? Building from the Bottom Up for Political Power”. Sounds radical and scary to many I am sure. But really, it was very interesting. Having people from several states with various forms of local government and talking about local politics is always a challenge, but when you talk about what democracy is . . . and the brainstorming starts, we all find our commonality. Some of the words used to describe democracy by the group are as follows: participation, equity, collective decision making, chaos, transparency, will of citizens/not corporations, local rule, lot of work! messy!, inclusion, (personal) ownership of rights, not always getting your way and compromise/collaboration. The workshop was facilitated by Juscha Robinson, a fellow with Liberty Tree and Peter Karas, formerly of the Racine City Council and myself shared stories of what being an elected official and community activist look liked for us. Then, we heard from folks about the many great things going on in their local communities. I wasn’t taking notes, but the things that stood out in my mind were: Fighting for Instant Runoff Voting, Impeachment resolutions, fighting privatization of utilities, working on water issues, urban planning concerns, getting people to run for office, transparency and accountability in local government, not giving away public property for private interests, transportation issues, mock elections in Philadelphia and oh so much more.
In the evening, we attended the reception with the International Greens. 
There was a brief acknowledgment and celebration of Ingrid Betancourt being freed, Pat LaMarche took to the podium – unauthorized – to announce that two presidential candidates were in the room, Cynthia McKinney and Jesse Johnson. We also heard from Marco Mroz. A great first day . . .
