Fwd: more on Nancy Oden

Reese reeza at hawaii.rr.com
Thu Nov 8 00:54:21 PST 2001


Sorry Sandy, I got it right the first time - it is not an insult
to all other women because I specifically identified her, I did
not make a general statement about all women - pc-ism be damned.

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The following message was posted to [a list] 
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Hi all,

I hate talking about individuals on a list like this, but the 
misleading statements being put out by one Nancy Oden need rapid 
rumor control. Defending her half-truths would make us look silly.

I got to meet Nancy three years ago when she was in Seattle for the 
national committee meeting of the activist organization known as "the 
Greens/Green Party USA," which should not be confused with the 
national electoral organization, "the Green Party of the United 
States," which nominated Ralph Nader for President and helped get him 
on the ballot in 44 states.

Nancy was incredibly rude to her fellow activists. She talked 
endlessly about how mean the Maine Green Party had been to her, and 
about how evil the Greens from "that other Green organization" were. 
I dismissed her as a run-of-the-mill kook.

Then, this past spring, she somehow got elected to the three-member 
Coordinating Committee of G/GPUSA. Her tenure involved a string of 
2-1 decisions taking authority away from the larger Green National 
Committee, and shutting down various processes in the bylaws that 
were used to try to overrule her. Eleven of the 13 state parties then 
affiliated with G/GPUSA had called for a membership referendum on the 
"Boston Proposal for Unity." (Only six are needed to call such a 
referendum.) Nancy used her power on the CC to prevent any money 
being spent to hold the referendum, and continually threatened to 
fire the two staffers who were trying their best to obey the bylaws. 
To say that Nancy was abusive toward the staff would be an 
understatement.

When the pro-unity supermajority was unable to ever get a vote called 
on the Boston Proposal, most of the state parties started 
disaffiliating. G/GPUSA is now down to four state parties, two of 
which are still in the process of disaffiliation.

Meanwhile, GP-US, which is expected to finally be recognized as "the 
national committee of the Green Party" by the Federal Elections 
Commission some time in the next two weeks, has 33 affiliated state 
parties.

Nancy Oden got elected to the G/GPUSA CC on a platform of "real 
democracy, where We the People ..." Instead, she ran the organization 
with an iron fist and sent nearly everyone fleeing to more productive 
ground.

Nancy's latest heavy-handed rhetoric does not match up with what I've 
been reading in the Bangor news. She was not targeted at the airport 
because she was a leader of the G/GPUSA. She was targeted because she 
was rude to the security officers. Indeed, the FBI say they had no 
idea who she was. Other Green Party leaders have had no trouble 
whatsoever flying.

Nancy was not banned from flying. She was simply not allowed to fly 
that day. Nancy said she did not put up resistance to having her 
purse searched (a standard procedure long before 9/11) or personal 
search. She just went crazy at the metal-detecting wand. I know Nancy 
well enough to know why she would freak out at the use of such a 
radioactive instrument around her body. She is a long-time anti-nuke 
activist.

We risk delegitimizing ourselves by defending Nancy Oden's hysterical 
account of airport security. We'd also be causing more 
well-intentioned Green-Party-activist wannabes to go to G/GPUSA's web 
site and pay dues to G/GPUSA, not knowing that it is not the national 
Green Party that put together the convention in Denver and nominated 
Ralph Nader for president.

If GP-US puts out a press release today, I hope it presents a more 
balanced account of what really happened between Nancy and airport 
security, and points out that Nancy's organization is *not* the 
national Green Party.

Sorry to rag on fellow activists.

<sig redacted>

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