Dick Howe’s already got a write up on the Kevin Thompson (Constitutional Party candidate for MA-05) video from the Folk Festival about his curtailed free speech rights, which you can find here.
First, I just have to say that I despise the Constitution Party. The day they win a seat in Congress will be a sad day for America. While they claim to be for liberty and the Constitution, they want to tell women what to do with their bodies, proclaim the US a Christian nation, and of course gays have no rights according to them.
However, there are two points being made by Thompson with this video - one which deserves debate, and the other which is plainly a simple matter of fairness.
The first is the very concept of these so-called “free speech zones” in the public square. Peace groups and other organizations across this nation have encountered this bizarre concept over the years. If land is owned in public trust (such as the JFK Plaza), can’t it be said to always be a free speech zone? Since others have argued pretty passionately that the Constitution prohibits sign ordinances (that may or may not be in place in Lowell) against political signs on private property, what about public use of public land? So, that’s a debate to have (and I’m not sure what the answer is, though I disagree with Dick - I doubt the Folk Fest people really considered all the constitutional ramifications of having such a policy, they are just following the policy everyone else employs, rightly or wrongly.)
The second issue, and the real problem, is who followed the rules and who didn’t. That is an issue of basic fairness, and I do know the answer to this one.
The Eldridge campaign came out for the Festival on Saturday and I joined them. They were told by Festival people, no signs, no handouts. You can come, and you can talk to people, but nothing else, says they. Apparently, other campaigns were being told different things about “Free Speech Zones,” but more on that later. For now, suffice it to say I met Jamie and his entourage from the time they parked their cars, to the time they left in their cars, and Jamie and his people followed the rules they were told to. No signs, no handouts. We wore teeshirts with Jamie for Congress on them, and we wandered around talking to people.
This, despite the fact we too witnessed the Ogonowski crew with multiple signs, right near the “entrance” to the Folk Fest, where people stream in from the parking garage and much of the food is located. I had also seen them on Friday night as well. It steamed me at the time, because of what I knew the Festival people had told Jamie’s campaign. Did Ogonowski’s people even bother to find out the rules? Or were they just ignoring them? Either way, they should have been stopped.
I also have heard other candidates passed out handouts (frisbees?). Perhaps they were in one of the famous “Free Speech Zones” that we were not told about. (Trust me, Jamie’s people really would have loved to have the chance to pass out information.) Regardless, the information, and the enforcement, of the rules for candidates was inconsistent. The blame falls squarely on the shoulders of Festival organizers and the Lowell National Park employees, much as I love those guys. Never mind the fact that it’s questionable to stop someone from campaigning in the public square, especially if they are gathering official state of Massachusetts petition signatures (either for ballot initiative or candidacy status). I seem to remember people doing it last year for the Green party for Grace Ross, by the way, which I gladly signed.
I got an email from the organizer of the March to Re-Energize NH, a five-day effort to jump start the discussion about renewable energy. It will go on from August 1st (tomorrow) until the 5th. The kickoff is tonight in Nashua.
I’ve often said that I don’t understand why people aren’t marching in the street in response to the Iraq War or global warming, or the health care crisis. Well, these people are doing it for renewable energy - from Nashua to Concord in five days. Why NH (and Iowa)? Because they are still the traditional first primary and caucus states in the union, despite the now front-loaded primary schedule for 2008. They want to make this discussion a part of the 2008 election, because that’s the front lines of policy decision-making for the future of our nation.
They’ve asked if they could send us details about their march on a regular basis, which I will be posting. I actually suggest you go sign up and join them, forget reading about it.
Yesterday’s post, which I couldn’t get online because I had to leave:
March to ReEnergizeNH - 6 Days Left: Farming for the Future
6 days, thousands of Granite Staters from all walks of life will gather on the State House lawn, calling for national action on global warming.
You can sign up at:
http://www.climatesummer.orgYou should see our office: coffee donations stacked high, green flags and green shirts, maps and laptops, the lavender walls barely showing beneath lists of our endorsers and newspaper clippings. It’s not that we’re messy (well, that could be true); people just keep showing at our door, asking to help - friends, neighbors, and the guy from the bagel shop downstairs.
And it’s not just the office that’s swelling with activity - it’s the whole Granite State. Now we have a bus coming from Portsmouth and carpools from Hanover. Newspapers are publishing letters from natives of Hooksett, Amherst, and Nashua daily. A woman we met at the Canterbury Fair yesterday remarked, “You guys are everywhere.”
It certainly feels like it - one second I’m on the phone with the Governor’s secretary, and the next I’m wondering if I bought enough pancake batter for Saturday night’s celebration of New Hampshire maple syrup. Amidst the hype and excitement growing all across the state, it’s easy to forget why exactly Granite Staters are set on walking
five full days in the first place.One farmer reminded us this morning. Eero Ruutila looked out over his rows of summer squash and said, “For the past three years, it’s flooded. It hurts everything. The climate never used to be like this.” He’s in his 21st year of managing the Nesenkeag Cooperative farm, where the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire will stop on Wednesday night.
Farmer by summer, artist by winter, and an every season advocate for the land he works, Eero knows what it takes to build a community around a green enterprise. The farm cultivates nearly 100 organic crops: the specialty varieties go to restaurants in the area, and the others he sells for no profit to food banks to feed low-income
families. A walking, breathing almanac, Eero’s spoken at nearly every National Organic Farming Association (NOFA) conference across the state, and he educates on the importance of sustainable farming.We weeded the garlic, built a stage, dried the rye, and strung our banners, visible from the road. Eero stepped back, approved, and said, “Now we just need people to come.”
And I hope you do. There could not be a better place, or a better time, than right here and right now to send a call to action for real, national global warming solutions. Join the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire - walk for an hour, a day, or all five. By the time we get to the State House Lawn on Sunday, August 5 at noon, we’ll be
thousands strong!Sign up at:
http://www.climatesu…Peace,
Sierra & the whole ReEnergize NH Team
http://www.climatesu…
reenergizenh@gmail.com
(610) 220-5378
[The March to ReEnergizeNH is sending us guest posts about their time on the road marching for renewable energy in NH. You can join them on all or any of those days, from August 1 through the 5th. This is Tuesday’s post. I’m backdating it to sit below my last post about this March. –Lynne]
All of us, organizers and volunteers, are in the campaign office. Laptops, phone lists, signups on the walls, folded chairs, empty juice bottles strewn everywhere. There’s a nervous excitement in the air.
This evening – Tuesday, July 31 at 6:30pm – the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire is celebrating its kickoff in Greeley Park, at 105 Concord St. in Nashua. Granny D, no stranger to long journeys for a cause, will talk to us about the power of walking, and give her blessings as we prepare to go.
Join us for the March to Re-Energize NH! July 31, 6:30pm: kickoff celebration in Greeley Park, Nashua, 6:30pm; Aug. 1-5 (walking through various locations, see our schedule), or the noon rally in Concord NH on Sunday, Aug. 5.
We’ve devoted the last two months of our lives to organizing the March to Re-Energize New Hampshire. Wednesday morning, dozens of marchers will leave Nashua’s City Hall, bound for Concord to issue one of the loudest calls yet for real global warming solutions.
We know that soon – very, very soon – it’s going to be out of our hands, and into yours.
All that we’ve been able to do, all summer, is to create a container. We’ve set aside an empty space, which you and others can fill with your energy, voices, and power to create positive change. Quite literally, on Sunday August 5th, downtown Concord will be empty, ready to be filled with our feet, our voices, and our call for a prosperous, clean energy economy.
Can we move America towards cutting carbon 80% by 2050, and creating millions of clean energy jobs? If there’s anyone in this country that has this power, it’s Granite Staters, right here, right now. We know how to get things done, and we don’t wait around for someone else to make it happen. It’s time to tell our leaders to follow our lead.
What is it about walking that will give this movement its power? I have a feeling that our walking will deepen our commitment, to each other and to this wonderful, challenging and worthy endeavor. Plus, it’s not too often you see hundreds of people simply walking, from one place to another. We might just catch a bit of attention along the way, that we might not have otherwise. Here in New Hampshire, we are, in fact, holding the national megaphone; that means, we have a special privilege and responsibility to speak at this crucial and historic moment.
It’s out of our hands now, and up to you to make this happen. If ever there were a moment to move America towards a clean energy economy, it’s here and now.
Sign up to join us for the March to Re-Energize NH: Aug. 1-5, or the rally on Sunday, Aug. 5:
Regards,
Zo Tobi
MassMarrier has two excellent posts on his blog on the Lowell Folk Festival: Best Free Show in the State and Best Free Show: the Music. He is quite familiar with the Festival, an astute observer and a good writer; a great combination.
Both posts are insightful essays on the Festival, its food, music and the and the City. But it was his comments on the attendees which grabbed my attention.
For whatever reasons, many locals don’t seem to attend. That’s easy to tell because of the obvious racial composition at the venues.
Lowell is a very white town, if not by New Hampshire standards, certainly by Boston ones. The last census reports about 69% non-Latino white, nearly 17% Asian, 14% Latino and only 4% African-American.
At most venues, there are obviously far fewer than one of