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.
<fwd>
******************************************************
The following message was posted to [a list]
******************************************************
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>
</fwd>
More information about the cypherpunks-legacy
mailing list