Eye of the Storm: A Visit with NaderBy Paul Pickett Saturday evening, September 23rd, and as we walk towards the front of Key Arena the sun sets in orange blaze behind a hazy Puget Sound. Late arrivers thread their way into the quiet arena past chatting friends and volunteers handing out posters. Tables for progressive causes of all kinds ring the half-lit outside corridor. The commercial areas are closed and barred. Entering the main arena is sliding into a huge dark cave, like Bilbo sneaking into the dragon's den (which I guess makes my three sons who are with me dwarvish warriors). But in this case the dragon is not at home. The signs are there: the logos of multinational corporations. But the empty luxury boxes line the upper stadium wall, their windows covered in steel grating. On the floor: real treasure! Thousands of activists who have come to hear their Great Green Hope. Tonight is Ralph Nader's long-awaited Seattle rally. The warm-up speakers and singers each deliver a message of hope and resistance. Descendants of Chief Sealth's people drum and sing an invocation. The crowd gives a standing ovation. Sally Soriano welcomes everyone and leads us in a chant of "Let Ralph Debate," while we wave hundreds of white placards with the same message. It became the chant for the evening. Local labor leaders tied our regional issues to the Green Party effort. Dan Dzilenski of the Teamsters announced they had endorsed Nader. Cheers and applause! Dzilenski says Nader is about "democracy from the bottom," and that labor stands "shoulder to shoulder" with environmentalists, just as they did at the Seattle WTO protests. He tells of the Teamsters and Longshoreman union working together to turn away toxic waste shipments. Peter Steinbrueck of the Seattle City Council tells of his experience as a Green and a Democrat. He notes that Clinton was elected by only 20 percent of the electorate in 1996. Echoing a video shown earlier about the WTO protests, he tells us to look at ourselves: "This is what democracy looks like!" Maggie Fimia of the King County Council gives a call to action for 18 to 25 year olds. She recalls the anti-stadium vote: fighting the corporate welfare of public stadiums for privately owned teams is the same fight as WTO, the same fight as voting for Nader. Music from Rebel Voices, recalling the Henry Wallace campaign in 1948: the donkeys and the elephants go up and down, 'round and 'round the merry-go-round. Kara Ceriello and Joe Szwaja, Green candidates for state legislature and Congress, introduce themselves and make their pitch. Jim Page, with Artis the Spoonman, sings the Woody Guthrie anthem, but this time it's: "this land is not our land," it's bought and owned, it's time to take it back. Robert Free issues a ringing call to free Leonard Peltier and demand clemency from Clinton. Rev. Robert Jeffrey of New Hope Baptist Church leads the crowd in soulful revival, but the gospel tonight is Ralph Nader and the causes he stands for. The Reverend works the crowd into a fever pitch with his classic black pastoral oratory. Jim Hightower enters with his cowboy hat and earthy Texas humor. "What's wrong with being an agitator? In a washer, the agitator gets the dirt out!" "If our national leaders won't stand for us, why should we stand for them?" "Wall Street is just whizzin' - it's whizzing on us!" "If we are for the status quo, we're for the same old mess." "They say you will throw your vote away - you can't throw it away, it's YOUR vote!" Hightower leads us through laughs, cheers, and righteous anger, Texas style. Maybe next time he should run for President! A special guest: Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam. He asks us: "What's more dangerous - a crack addict or a wealth addict?" He sings a song for Bill and Paul with his ukelele. Then a soulful tune: "I am a patriot…and the river shall flow for the righteous..." It's late, but finally the time has come. The lights come up and Ralph Nader walks on stage to the roar of an eager audience. Despite gray hair he looks surprisingly young. I last saw him in 1976 - he was ageless, full of knowledge and righteous anger. He seems so much the same, and yet his vision seems clearer and purer, and he delivers it with wit and a wry smile. He tells us of Granny D and her walk across the U.S. for campaign finance reform. "The only aging is if you lose your ideals." He tells of Warren Magnuson and the Congress of the 60s. Then they listened to him, but now "you need a Brinks truck full of money to get near Capitol Hill." Nader is warmed up and rolling, but he is just beginning. "It's extremism to pollute, not extremism to stop it. It's extremism to buy the government with cash. It's extremism to exploit the poor and to not provide health care for all citizens. It's extremism to exploit children with commercialism, to separate children from their parents, train them to nag their parents for products: it's electronic child molestation." The facts and visions continue to pour out: Bill Gates' wealth is equal to that of the 120 million poorest Americans. Our economy should allow one breadwinner to support a family on a livable wage. The pursuit of justice is the precursor to the pursuit of happiness. How badly do you want to end injustice? Remember history: the abolitionists, the unions, the suffragists were only successful because people took action. We must move beyond concern to action. Nader launches into the main points of his platform:
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