The Year of Ignorance about the West.

I am going only to give you a teaser about the editorial comments at High Country News. It underscores just how far we have to go, especially in the way that some media tries to write the story, you know... make it interesting... and let the truth fall where it will.

This was supposed to be "the year of the West" in national politics. States that had been reliably Republican were suddenly competitive. Two Westerners -- Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat -- were credible candidates for the presidency. The Democrats are holding their national convention in Denver for the first time in a century.

So surely the candidates and the national media would take the trouble to learn something about the West?

Well, not exactly.

It would be funny if not for.....

The task of building a Jeffersonian "informed electorate" seems, at times to be Herculean. Maybe that is why we rely on others to do it. I read an email on a GP National Committee list from our national press secretary, Scott McClarty, reminding people that there was a lot they could do to help spread the word about the Green Party rather than relying on a national press release. I had to agree with him.

Erika McDonald sent our Media Committee links to two letters to the editor by San Francisco Greens today.

• Sue Vaughn on "Deconstructing Polls" in the Fog City Journal
• Marc Salomon on Shut Down the Zoo in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Let's all make an effort to put the Green Party into our local papers every week.