[Iowa-dx] A vision for IAGP's future...

[Green PartyRon]

Yes, but Rick, can we both not say that actually your
position and Wendy's position are actually relative to
each other in the same overall strategy, but in different
steps?  I ask this in ignorance, but isn't the proposed
2000 head hog farm of Randy Lackender, south of
Iowa City, actually a more local issue than, say, the
overall problem on a statewide basis?  Granted, he is
supported by Coalition To Support Iowa's Farmers
(CSIF), which would tend to make it a state-wide
issue, but how many "unaffected" NIMBY people in
other counties would say, "As long as it's over there
in the wilds of Johnson County, and not here, let them
do what they want?"

It seems to me that by what Wendy says in her web
site, that the local issue must be raised for that very
reason, as well as the survey by the Des Moines
Register in 2001 that "found that 71 percent of
Iowans want local control" over the issue, because, in
that case, it is an issue which only initially affects the
population in only about a twenty mile radius -- note
that I say "initially", because that proposed "feed lot"
confinement has not yet been built.  The intention,
as I see it, by Wendy is to "nip the problem in the bud"
where it is not so noticeable before it gets established
to the general public, and to do that, local support is
necessary.

But, additionally, our Green Party platform highlights
the idea of grass-roots participation in Democracy.  To
me, that represents the awareness that Democracy
is not a confederacy, but rather is a coalition of local
decision-making.  Where issues apply on a larger scale,
that is a different jurisdiction, and the cumulative
viewpoint on issues that effect larger ranges of the
population warrant greater representation, however,
that representation still comes from the local grass-roots
public, and not the "Top-Down" tyranny such as we see
in Iowa City's City Council and the Republicommunist
control over our national congress.

I hope I am not getting nebulous.

Libris Fidelis

>>Both positions can be supported by referencing our
>>platform and our values statement.  And I am
>>certain that this is not the only issue that could play
>>out this way.  In the end Wendy and I listened to
>>each other's arguments and, given that we both
>>wanted to protect the environment from corporate
>>exploitation (a common Green value if there ever
>>was one) the "difference" resolved itself quite well.
>>However, if we had been two candidates for
>>separate offices, each making our own appearances
>>and setting our own positions, it might have looked
>>at first glance as if we were on opposite sides of
>>the issue.

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